New: Collections, Dark Mode and a Better Reading View

Three changes arrived on the site this week. None of them is dramatic on its own, but together they are about the same thing: making it easier to keep what you learn here and to read it comfortably. Here is what is new, why we built it, and what to tell us if something feels off.

Collections: a place to keep what is worth keeping

Until now, saving a post meant bookmarking it in your browser and forgetting it ever existed. Collections fixes that. Next to every feed post, forum reply and blog article you will find a small bookmark icon. Click it, choose a collection or create a new one, and the item is kept with a note of where it came from.

Collections are private by default. You can make one public if you want to share, say, your reading list for the Slow Readers Club or the ten best answers you found in the forum this year. Public collections live on your profile and other members can follow them.

• Save any post, reply or article with one click.
• Add a one-line note to each saved item so future you remembers why it mattered.
• Reorder, rename and merge collections from your profile.
• Share a collection with a link, or keep it to yourself.

The feature grew out of a forum thread asking for better note tools. Several members said what they really wanted was not a notes app, but a way to find the good thing they read three weeks ago. That is what this is.

Dark mode, done carefully

Dark mode was the most requested appearance change we have had. We took our time because a dark theme that is simply the light one inverted is tiring to read, and reading is most of what happens here. The new theme uses softer contrast for long text, keeps link colours legible, and treats images and code blocks separately so they do not glow.

You can choose light, dark, or follow your device, from the appearance menu in your settings. The choice is remembered on each device, so your phone can be dark at night while your desktop stays light.

A better reading view for long posts

Blog articles and longer forum topics now open in a calmer layout: a narrower column, a slightly larger typeface, more generous line spacing, and the sidebar tucked away until you want it. A reading-time estimate sits under the title, and a progress line along the top shows how far you are. If you prefer the old layout, you can turn the reading view off in settings.

We measured ourselves on one question: can a member read a nine-hundred-word article on a phone, on a train, without pinching the screen once? Now they can.

Smaller fixes that came along for the ride

• Forum replies now keep your draft if you navigate away by accident.
• Group cover images load faster and crop more sensibly on narrow screens.
• Notification text for likes and replies now shows a snippet of the content, so you can tell what was liked before you click.
• The search box understands quoted phrases.

What is next

Two things are in progress. The first is a weekly digest you can tune, so that you hear about the threads you care about and not the ones you do not. The second is an export of your own posts, replies and collections in plain files you can keep. Both came from the "What should we build next?" thread in the forum, which remains the best place to tell us what you need.

If something in this release looks wrong on your device, or if a collection has gone somewhere it should not, reply in the Site Updates thread or write to us directly. We read every report, and we fix the reading ones first.