# Moderator colours and colour blindness



## Nagol (Sep 21, 2019)

G'day Folks, 

There 's a post edited by a moderator.  I had to be told the text was a different colour -- to me both the original and mod's text appears black on the bright white background.









						D&D General - Have Githzerai always been jerks?
					

Yeap, you "habe" me. Oh wait, my point was to correct the misinformation you were spreading. I won't call it lies - you were pretty clear that you were self-delusional in what was actually official. It was just wrong. As was the point you made based on what the "official" settings did for...




					www.enworld.org
				




Is it possible and if it is, would you be so kind as to bold or otherwise make the mod messages more visible to the colour limited people?

P.S.  I'd have taken this to PM, by it is unsigned and only says a moderator did it.


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## Morrus (Sep 21, 2019)

Hmm. Let me look into some formatting options. There are other ways we can make mod text more obvious.  We just don’t want to make it _too_ distracting!


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## lowkey13 (Sep 21, 2019)

*Deleted by user*


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## Nagol (Sep 21, 2019)

lowkey13 said:


> RESURRECT THE BLINK TAG!!!




Tar?  Check.  
Feathers?  Check?

Justin Bieber mix on infinite loop? Check.

Oh, lowkey13 where are you? I have a surprise for you!


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## Maxperson (Sep 23, 2019)

::wrong thread::


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 23, 2019)

Morrus said:


> Hmm. Let me look into some formatting options. There are other ways we can make mod text more obvious.  We just don’t want to make it _too_ distracting!



Maybe an outline font?  Opaque, not translucent.


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## Umbran (Sep 23, 2019)

Nagol said:


> Is it possible and if it is, would you be so kind as to bold or otherwise make the mod messages more visible to the colour limited people?




There are a couple of things we can do here to help mitigate the problem.

1) Preface end-notes with "*Mod Edit:*" or "*Mod Note:*"

1a) When it is an in-line edit, try to note it as such when possible, or put a note at the end of the post saying what was done.

2) Make use of the Warning system, which puts the note as a banner on top of the post, rather than an edit on the bottom.

These are not much of a burden, as they are out usual forms anyway - this one case had a slip.


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## Lanefan (Sep 24, 2019)

Umbran said:


> 2) Make use of the Warning system, which puts the note as a banner on top of the post, rather than an edit on the bottom.



Those warning notes are really easy to miss, particularly when they appear above a quote.

Any way to make 'em red-backgrounded or some other colour that really stands out?  (that said, I'm finding coloured text in general much harder to read on the white background than it was on the black)


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## Umbran (Sep 24, 2019)

Lanefan said:


> Those warning notes are really easy to miss, particularly when they appear above a quote.




They appear at the top of the post in question.  If "right at the top" is easy to miss, I'm not sure there's much we can do for you



> Any way to make 'em red-backgrounded or some other colour that really stands out?




They are background in what looks to be orange.  It just isn't *FLAMING IN YOUR FACE SOLID ORANGE WITH BLINKING TEXT HUGE** FONT*.

I mean, really, how obtrusive do you feel it needs to be?


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## Nagol (Sep 24, 2019)

Umbran said:


> They appear at the top of the post in question.  If "right at the top" is easy to miss, I'm not sure there's much we can do for you
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Well, at least I can tell that one is different than the text around it!


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## lowkey13 (Sep 24, 2019)

*Deleted by user*


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## Maxperson (Sep 24, 2019)

lowkey13 said:


> Well, how about the text leaps out of the screen and smacks me?
> 
> You know, comic sans.



That sounds more like Three Stooges Sans to me.


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## Morrus (Sep 24, 2019)

Lanefan said:


> Any way to make 'em red-backgrounded or some other colour that really stands out?




Reliance on the colour red is the exact thing we've been asked not to do.


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## lowkey13 (Sep 24, 2019)

*Deleted by user*


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## Nagol (Sep 24, 2019)

Morrus said:


> Reliance on the colour red is the exact thing we've been asked not to do.




Many forms of colour blindness are difficult to explain to people.  It's not "don't rely on a specific colour" much of the time.  It's more "certain shades of colour combined with specific contrasts are indistinguishable from each other".

I tend to undersee red for example (it's one of 2 types of red/green colour blindness).  So dark reds on a bright background tend to be blackish and light reds on a dark background tend to be grayish.  My brain has some software patches (learned differentiation - I "see" redheads on a B/W television, for example) for the hardware limits and so some grays appear either reddish or greenish depending on hue and saturation.

Larger patches of colour tend to help allow the colour to bleed through which is why I initially suggested bolding -- it increases the font width and would tend to make the colour more apparent.  It also adds a different type of differentiator that that's always helpful regardless of particular disability.


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## Deset Gled (Sep 24, 2019)

As another person with color issues, I think the bolded "Mod Note" that Umbram did in this post worked great for improving visibility:  Sensitivity Writers.  AKA: avoiding cultural appropriate in writing 

I would also like to throw out that the color of the warning tag at the top of this post ( Sensitivity Writers.  AKA: avoiding cultural appropriate in writing) is a little more difficult, because it's extremely close to the colors of "XXXXXX said" in the reply box, but the icon and placement are good enough that I don't see the color as being a major issue.


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## Hussar (Sep 27, 2019)

Thirded for someone else with color blindness issues. 

Frankly, while I know it's intrusive, that honking big orange text works for me.  I haven't seen a mod note since the new forums went up.  :/  

Bolded would go a long way to making it stand out.


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## Umbran (Sep 27, 2019)

*Mod Note:*

For folks who care, this is the format I'm currently working with for "mod voice" posts - bolded top line, but normal text.  Using bold text for the entire post has the dual problem of not leaving the moderator options for adding emphasis, and runs the risk of people feeling that moderators are "shouting" at them, and that usually  leads to a communication dynamic I'd hope to avoid.   I hope you find it works well for you.


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## Nagol (Sep 27, 2019)

Umbran said:


> *Mod Note:*
> 
> For folks who care, this is the format I'm currently working with for "mod voice" posts - bolded top line, but normal text.  Using bold text for the entire post has the dual problem of not leaving the moderator options for adding emphasis, and runs the risk of people feeling that moderators are "shouting" at them, and that usually  leads to a communication dynamic I'd hope to avoid.   I hope you find it works well for you.




That red must be lighter/brighter than the original or there's just more of it and the bulk makes seeing the colour possible.  It is much easier to notice.


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## Hussar (Sep 28, 2019)

What Nagol said.


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## Lanefan (Sep 28, 2019)

Ditto.  The bold header helps too.


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