The Narwhal Kbins at Dawn: A Reddit UserStyle for Kbin

Jul 10, 2023

TL;DR: I made a styled version of Reddit for Kbin instances for people participating in the reddit migration. Inspired mostly by Old Reddit, but it actually has a dark mode!

Sounds good to you? 💾 Install it! Otherwise, see what it looks like, or keep reading.

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Since the Reddit protests began, many people have been looking at their options for joining new communities. I quickly decided to quickly throw support to Kbin, since most newcomers seemed to prefer it. It is often easier to improve something people like, rather than to recreate an entirely new product from scratch.

So I’ve been using Kbin, along with scripts like kbin enhancement script and various styles (with varying issues). I finally got annoyed with the one I was using – the developer uses dark modes, and I generally don’t – and decided to make my own.

The theme is called “The Narwhal Kbins at Dawn” – you can thank u/Jordan117 for the name and meme reference.

• Screenshots
  • Home page
  • Compact home page
  • Posts
  • Compact posts
• Features
• Installation
• Contributing

Screenshots

No one is going to try out a userstyle without knowing what it looks like. Here are some screenshots. Sorry, most of my browsing still happens on laptops, so that is where I have been testing.

Home page

The front page of a Kbin instance

Compact home page

The front page of a Kbin instance when using the compact view option

Posts

Posts on Kbin instances look like Reddit too

Compact posts

Posts on Kbin instances really look like Reddit when compact is enabled

Features

• Light and Dark modes
• Inspired by both Old and New Reddit
• Works on most popular Kbin instances
• Supports the compact view
• Support for kbin enhancement script
• Works on mobile
• Compatible with blackjack and hookers¹

Installation

The theme is easy to install.

1. Install a userstyle manager. Most people use Stylus - it is open source and vetted by Mozilla, and it also runs on Firefox for Android (and is part of my collection for easy installation).
2. Navigate to the theme and click or tap “Install”.
3. Install optional extras like kbin enhancement script and a style that makes your instance logo look like Reddit’s logo font.
4. You’re done! Take a break and browse some Kbin!

Contributing

You can send me pull requests or report issues at the source code repository for this style.

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If you liked this post, please consider supporting what I do. Feel free to give me feedback on this post on Kbin. You can also message me on Mastodon.

1. Not included. ↩