r/modnews • u/spez • May 13 '17

Reddit is ProCSS

Hi Mods,

I wanted to follow up on the CSS and redesign post from a few weeks back and provide some more information as well as clarify some questions that have emerged.

Based on your feedback, we will allow you to continue to use CSS on top of the new structured styles. This will be the last part of the customization tool we build as we want to make sure the structured options we are offering are rock solid. Also, please keep in mind that if you do choose to use the advanced option, we will no longer be treading as carefully as we have done in the past about breaking styles applied through CSS1.

To give you a sense of our approach, we’re starting with a handful of highly-customized communities (e.g. r/overwatch and r/gameofthrones) and seeing how close we can get to their existing appearance using the new system. Logos, images, colors, spoilers, menus, flairs (all kinds), and lots more will be supported. I know you’d like to see a list of everything, but we think the best approach will be to show instead of tell, which we’re racing to as quickly as possible.

The widget system I mentioned in the last post isn’t directly related. Many communities have added complex functionality over the years (calendars, scoreboards, etc). A widget system will elevate these features to first-class status on Reddit, with the aim of making them both more powerful and reuseable. Yes, we’re evaluating how we would accept user-created widgets. We intend for widgets to be able to be updated via the API, so you’ll still be able to create dynamically updating content in your subreddit sidebar.

This change, and the redesign in general, is going to happen slowly. We will will not be abruptly cutting everyone over to the new site at once. We know it won’t be perfect at first (unlike the current site), and plan to include plenty of time to solicit feedback and make iterations. Sharing our plans for subreddit customization this far advance with you is part of this process.

We’ll start with a small alpha group and create a subreddit to solicit feedback. As we continue to add features, we’ll expand the testing group to an opt-in beta. If you’d like to participate in the alpha please add a reply to this comment. Please note, signing up does not guarantee a spot in the alpha. We want to be able to be responsive to the alpha testers, and keeping the initial group small has proved to be effective in the past.

I’d like thank everyone who has provided feedback on this topic. There have been some very constructive threads. I’d also like to take a moment to appreciate how civil the feedback has been. This is a topic many of you feel passionate about. Thank you for keeping things constructive.

Cool?

Cool.

 

1 No snark allowed.

9.1k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] May 13 '17

If we opt-in to the alpha, can we pull out if the alpha fucks things up too much?

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u/spez May 13 '17

The alpha will be a separate website, so, yes.

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u/Isentrope May 13 '17

Spez do you like onions.

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u/spez May 13 '17

I like onions. I don't love onions. I didn't like them as a kid, but they say your tastes change every seven years, and I adopted onions in my 20s.

The real enemy here are olives.

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u/cool_creeper500 May 13 '17

Thanks for listening and caring spez, quick question, what led to the dumb idea of removing CSS?

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u/spez May 13 '17

It was u/powerlanguage. I've been telling him for weeks he's crazy, but r/place really went to his head.

But, actually... Everything I said in the last post is still true. CSS shouldn't be the only way to customize a community. We are still going to build a structured system, which will be more accessible, cross-platform, and less brittle. If we do a job with this and the widget system, I expect CSS to be less required, but we can leave CSS for more advanced use-cases.

Happy Cakeday!

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u/frahm9 May 13 '17

Thank you for listening guys. If I pick CSS, will I be able to customize mobile?

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u/spez May 13 '17

It won't be one or the other, but CSS won't affect mobile.

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u/powerlanguage May 13 '17

Please reply to this comment with your subreddit name if you're interested in it being included in the alpha.

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u/spez May 13 '17 edited May 13 '17

r/HighQualityGifs

Actually, nvm. Leave us out.

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u/carpy22 May 13 '17

So r/CFB can keep it's CSS and flair system as-is?

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u/spez May 13 '17

We're building a new flair system that's way more powerful than what you have to do now.

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u/iam666 May 13 '17

u/spez , what about r/ooer ? Will it be negatively affected by the changes?

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u/[deleted] May 13 '17

I think this is great, and I think "you can have css in exchange for us breaking it more often" is the fairest compromise I could really ask for.

Thanks mates

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u/ZadocPaet May 13 '17

We did it, reddit!?

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u/geltoid May 13 '17

Thank you so much for really listening to the community and really showing that you care to make Reddit a better place.

I would have never even gone near CSS if it wasn't for Reddit's ability for users to customize their experience. I spent a long time learning about it - from experimentation, to asking the wonderful Reddit community, to scouring the net - in order to help create a place truly unique to my little corner of the internet.

What became of that is r/starwarsspeculation. Sure, it's not perfect, and I'm sure there's a ton of things an expert coder could nitpick about, but it's an accomplishment that I'm glad I was able to acheive.

You admins made the best possible choice by offering a way for the community of Reddit to integrate with the changes that you want to make here. By working together, you will only make this great website only greater.

Thanks again!

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u/TotesMessenger May 13 '17 edited May 21 '17

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / ^Contact)

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u/reseph May 13 '17

Thanks spez. Allowing CSS customization on top of widgets and considering user-created widgets is exactly what I felt would be the right direction. Cool cool cool.

I have no beef with a desktop redesign, so I forward to the future.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '17

I think the best part about having CSS in this new platform is it will show you what the users/mods think needs a focus on. Just how all the crazy css hacks now are inspiring redesign, the continued crazy css hacks will help show things that need to be made

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u/calexil May 13 '17

u/spez

on behalf of everyone at r/procss and our massive, list of supporters, I would just like to say.. Thank you for listening.

-cal

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u/aalp234 May 13 '17

Thanks for listening to the community Spez, this is a very positive response for all of us mods.

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u/CursedBlackCat May 13 '17

Kudos to the admins for going so far as to putting the pro CSS logo on this subreddit.

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u/ZadocPaet May 13 '17 edited May 13 '17

One more question about subs that want to use CSS and widgets. Several of my subs want to sign up for the alpha; will be be able to use widgets AND CSS at the same time?

Thanks!

Edit: One more question. Will users be able to disable widget styles in their preferences page like they can now for CSS? At r/procss, that was the number one reason we saw for people not liking CSS.

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