Changing hyperlinks?

This was in response to a person not realizing Bowl had posted links due to being colorblind. The red text didn't look any different to them. It got me wondering...

I'm not someone who knows code, but is there a way to do something like automatically change how links look in addition to the color change? Something unique, like a double-underline or a specialized font (block outline or something)? I guess the idea would be if you post a link, the chosen visual "quality" is applied with no extra steps needed? But the quality... a specialized font, or double underline, whatever... can't be used otherwise. That way it's dedicated to links.

Maybe it's not realistic, or the complexity of the coding is more than I realize. I honestly don't know. I just figured it was worth asking about. Worst case, the answer is no and we all just try to remember to accomodate as we can.

Thanks for posting this!

Of course! Anything we can do to keep the site improving for all our users. More fun for all, says I!

This really seems like it should be a player/reader choice, and not a poster choice. Many might prefer the subtle links that do not intrude into the games, but people who find them hard to read should be able to change a setting and get them more visible.

Given how personal this issue is, this seems like the ideal place for a user-script that each can tweak themself.

Ok... yeah, ok I can see that. Better idea than I had, probably. I guess ultimately, as long as it's either/or we're good.

If we go that route though, I would suggest the default setting for the more intrusive version is "on." People who want to change it can, but it's in effect for new members who might not otherwise know it's an option.

Sort of like private/public character sheets.

It's not too hard to write a script to swap the colors, actually! Here, a Tampermonkey script to make all hyperlinks on GP blue:Just copy-paste it into Tampermonkey, and change the color (#0014bb) to whatever you want. You can also add "text-decoration:underline;" after it to make links underlined (or add other effects). Underline looks silly though, since cube icons get underlined as a result. XD It can probably be made much better, but I'm not too good at css stuff.

(Adam's thread about GP scripts, for Tampermonkey link)

I do think a dedicated colorblind mode would be nice though.

That's awesome. You're a hero, Flying 😁 (or a flying hero?)

This would be cool as we already have two modes (white and black screen) so it’s easy to add and explain. The hard bit is that, as far as I can tell, not all colourblindness created equal, to you’d need a test page and some settings the user can tune. Easy, if you know what you’re doing… but probably no one does 🤣

I think the main idea would be to move away from color-based cues. So rather than just having the links be in a different color that may work differently well for different people, maybe try to go for a double underline, like MaJunior suggested. That plus high contrast for things that are already in color.

But yea, I'm also just going off what I think without any actual expertise. If someone wanted to create a colorblind mode, there would need to be some actual input from people who know their stuff.

Oh yeah right! I rarely used these so I completely forgot about the font options 🤦 my bad

Thanks, but to be fair I found the entire first part online, so credit to whoever made it first. XD

Theoretically, it probably will be better to write a script with user-friendly customizable design for all elements, not just hyperlinks. Maybe I'll try it later, though my knowledge of CSS is lacking, but it's (probably) not too hard.
You can search online for "colorblind accessible palette" and get a number of pretty handy lists for design. But yeah, it'd likely have to have a few varieties to accommodate all.

IMO the link default should be to ID them for color blind individuals, double underline or whatever, and those who do not like this can add the script to hide or alert this behavior. The color blind are less likely to even realize they are missing content.