I have experimented with how replies look on talk pages for quite a while and I propose we change the style a bit in order to make discussions clearer to follow. Currently, the dotted lines are very hard to comprehend when you are not used to them. Furthermore, the horizontal line separating the original comment only makes it harder to follow the flow of conversation. Hence I made some changes to fix these issues:
Alternating colors based on the indentation level, this makes it easier to distinguish between different level of conversations.
Removing the horizontal line that separates original comment and the replies below it, this helps improving the reading flow. Color is toned down instead.
Keeping the horizontal line between replies on the same level. Although there is currently a problem with older replies (pre-discussion tools or replies with manual indentation) where there is usually a couple of line breaks between each indents, and this causes the replies to not be chained properly and thus the horizontal line is not rendered.
(Technical) fixing the CSS selection to be more specific to prevent unintentional stylizing of similar tags (dl > dt, for example).
Here is a quick preview on how the changes might look:
👁 Image Strong support as long as it is properly implemented on both dark mode and mobile view. The current layout has always been an issue for me. Sometimes I have to hold my finger over the vertical bar and scroll up to figure out what is a reply to what, and alternating colors will help a ton! 👁 Image amethyst_hhh👁 Image 01:06, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
It appears to be broken now, because I have pasted it into my page exactly as is, and while it did remove the horizontal lines, everything is the same color. It was working fine when I tested it last night. 👁 Image amethyst_hhh👁 Image 13:15, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
Another small issue is that it breaks comment highlights when opening the reply from a notification, but thats just a minor thing, and I'm a bit too nitpicky. 👁 Image amethyst_hhh👁 Image 15:14, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
👁 Image Strong support the alternating colors are a great idea! Minor feedback to your current CSS though: The first reply should already have the white background to better differentiate it from the original topic. -- 👁 Image MarkusRost (talk) 01:13, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
My rationalization of not choosing the first level to have white background is because it's too prominent to have when there is only a single level of reply (which is not that uncommon and could clutter the overall look of the page). – ItsPlantseed ⟨₰|₢⟩ 01:38, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
While I can understand your reasoning, I actually don't think that would be much of an issue. And having the first level of replies be white certainly helps with consistency. Specially considering the border before the indent, it looks weird to have no color change on one of the borders while all others do change the color. I have simplified your CSS a bit, including that color swap, if you want to try it out: Special:PermaLink/3088528#L-39--L-100 -- 👁 Image MarkusRost (talk) 01:48, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
I dunno I kind of prefer the previous one, but I'd also be fine with yours. It's a matter of preference anyways. The colors definitely might need a bit more tweaking though. – ItsPlantseed ⟨₰|₢⟩ 01:58, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
Actually, the white background on first has kind of grown on me. Although it's not easy to implement with the current state since I made the selectors to be more specific than before. I'd probably add a separate case for the most outside layer of dl, but it'd be very much appreciated if you can come up with a better simplification (without sacrificing the new specificity of the selectors). – ItsPlantseed ⟨₰|₢⟩ 02:31, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
I don't think the extra specificity is needed as explained below. Also you can't properly target only the outer dl anyway, like your current approach breaks for closed discussions. -- 👁 Image MarkusRost (talk) 02:44, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
Also important to note that I changed the selector to dl > dd > dl mostly to prevent other non direct dl tags from getting styled. For example, this page has an issue on the advancement table template where a part of it unintentionally gets stylized. – ItsPlantseed ⟨₰|₢⟩ 02:07, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
The issue on that page is actually caused by using a table inside a reply. That's always going to confuse the parser, throwing a bunch of lint errors at best and breaking the whole page layout in the worst case. Unless you build the dl using html tags, you will never get non-direct lists like that. So this isn't really something to worry about. -- 👁 Image MarkusRost (talk) 02:41, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
I have adjusted the background now to be slightly bluer. I didn't choose full on blue because the color needs to adapt outside of mainspace and I can't figure out how to increase the blue further without ruining the color there. – ItsPlantseed ⟨₰|₢⟩ 08:48, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
👁 Image Strong support, this CSS would be very useful in distinguishing replies, and would maintain a cleaner look for the user, avoiding future mistakes.-RertTalkEdits01:36, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
I have updated the stylesheet and the link above to the latest iteration (hopefully final), let me know if there is any further feedback, especially regarding the numbers. – ItsPlantseed ⟨₰|₢⟩ 15:53, 2 August 2025 (UTC)
Reducing the padding sounds like a good idea now there are colors. I have also updated the colors a bit and let me know what you think. – ItsPlantseed ⟨₰|₢⟩ 06:45, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
Latest comment: 16 March9 comments4 people in discussion
The stylesheet has been changed to include scrolling numbers to indicate the level. There is one problem to this: number wouldn't scroll properly or gets repeated on non-chained/pre-discussion tools/manual indents with a couple of line breaks, but this is a very minor problem and doesn't make it any less useful. Please check it out and give feedback on what you think of it. The numbers are designed as faint as possible to not be a distraction but still readable when you are focusing on them.
Note that the margin is currently a bit odd on mobile/Minerva, but this can be changed accordingly when implemented. Fixed. – ItsPlantseed ⟨₰|₢⟩ 14:54, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
👁 Image Support the numbers, as they help a ton, but I feel like they should maybe be moved to the left just a tiny bit (I just realized this might be the mobile thing you mentioned) 👁 Image amethyst_hhh👁 Image 15:10, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
👁 Image Soft oppose the numbers, I find them a little distracting and I don't think they can be made any fainter. Maybe they could be kept as a gadget (on by default). ==Rout|Talk18:23, 1 August 2025 (UTC)
👁 Image Oppose the numbers, they are too small to easily read on desktop. With them being moved to the right side, away from the indent, it is also no longer clear what the number is referring to. It initially seems like a reply counter until the first same-level reply where it gets confusing. -- 👁 Image MarkusRost (talk) 19:09, 2 August 2025 (UTC)
Latest comment: 16 March2 comments2 people in discussion
Since this forum has stalled for months now, I want to emphasize that the final iteration is precisely:
:root{--on:initial;--off:/*!*/;--_reply-odd:var(--on);--_reply-even:var(--off);--comment-border-color:rgba(171,171,171,.8);--comment-background-color-alternate:rgba(250,246,247,.7);}body.wgl-theme-dark{--comment-border-color:rgba(131,131,131,.5);--comment-background-color-alternate:rgba(74,88,94,.3);}/* Modifying margin, padding, adding background and border to each comment */body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk)dl:not(:has(dt:first-child)){--reply-odd:var(--_reply-odd);--reply-even:var(--_reply-even);--comment-background-color:var(--content-background-color);background:var(--reply-odd,var(--comment-background-color-alternate))var(--reply-even,var(--comment-background-color));padding-bottom:0.5em;border-left:1pxdottedvar(--comment-border-color);}body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk)dd{margin-left:1em;margin-inline-start:1em;}body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk):is(dl:has(+dl),dldl){margin-bottom:-0.5em;}body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk)dl>*{--_reply-odd:var(--reply-even);--_reply-even:var(--reply-odd);padding-right:1em;}body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk)dd:first-child:not(:has(>dl:first-child)){margin-top:0.5em;padding-top:0.5em;border-top:1pxdottedvar(--comment-border-color);}body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk)dd:last-child{margin-bottom:0;}body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk)dd:not(:last-child):has([data-mw-comment-end]){margin-bottom:0.5em;padding-bottom:0.5em;border-bottom:1pxdottedvar(--comment-border-color);}body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk)dl:not(:has(+dl>dd)){margin-right:-1em;}/* Add border, adjust width and margin for the outermost dl that is not inside a dl or dd */body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk):is(.mw-parser-output,.mw-parser-output*:not(dl,dd))>dl:not(:has(dt:first-child)){border-right:1pxdottedvar(--comment-border-color);}body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk):is(.mw-parser-output,.mw-parser-output*:not(dl,dd))>dl:not(:has(dt:first-child),:has(+dl>dd)){width:calc(100%-2px);border-bottom:1pxdottedvar(--comment-border-color);}/* Make background green inside closed topic */body:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk).discussion-archiveddl{--comment-background-color:hsl(120,75%,92%);}body.wgl-theme-dark:is(.ext-discussiontools-replytool-enabled:not(.ns-4),.rootpage-Minecraft_Wiki_Admin_noticeboard,.ns-10008,.ns-talk).discussion-archiveddl{--comment-background-color:hsl(120,25%,8%);}
