[Userscript] Bitcointalk Modern Theme - Yet another Bitcointalk Skin

[fillippone]

When, last April 1st, theymos made his proverbial April Fool's, I was intrigued by the new colour.

Of course, the light green was horrible, but it made me realise that the form has its own forum identity from being on the same SMF interface, basically from the Satoshi era.
This is a plus, as it gives this forum a distinctive appearance that makes the forum immediately recognisable. It gives you a sort of pride to write in the exact same forum where Satoshi, Hal, and all the other legends were writing.

There is also a negative twist in this.  
Often, it happens to me to write in public or semi-public spaces. I like to write in my spare time, and I cannot always write in a secluded position, being sure no one would peek over my shoulder.
So I thought the light green was a good choice if we wanted to write on the forum in disguise.
As I am playing with AI, I decided to code a new skin for the forum.

What I wanted to have:

• A modern look for the forum
• The usual light/dark/autosetting schemes
• The possibility to customise the appearance of the forum, at least the main and accent colour

So I started playing with Claude, and in a couple of hours, I made significant progress.
After an extensive debug session with a few friendly users, I can release the first public code.
Consider this still in beta status.

You can install the script from here: bitcointalk modern theme
You can find the code here
As the code is frequently updated, I won't paste it here, but I am providing the link to the code that feeds the scripts.

You need to install a script manager depending on your preferred Browsing interface:

Chrome: Tampermonkey
Firefox: Greasemonkey, Tampermonkey, or Violentmonkey
Safari: Tampermonkey or Userscripts
Microsoft Edge: Tampermonkey
Opera: Tampermonkey or Violentmonkey
Maxthon: Violentmonkey
AdGuard: (no additional software required)

Choose wisely.
Many such products need complete access to your browser.
The main Open Source software alternative are ViolentMonkey andUserscripts

More information, and additional suggestions for mobile users can be found here

	Light theme (Pearl Scheme - default)	Dark Theme	Light theme (Cream Scheme)
	Message composing panel	Themes customisation panel. with settings	Read post features: read posts are shaded

I just added a new mobile version for older phones, which might struggle with the styles. If pages are slow loading and scrolling using the theme on your mobile, just activate the mobile mode via a toggle in the settings panel. This strips some aesthetics details and extra load on the theme, allowing a smoother experience on less powerful devices with the core of the theme.

New feature added: Read post features. the script remembers your last read post and shades the previously loaded posts with a light shade.
The read-post feature stores local read history per Bitcointalk topic. When a thread page loads, the script finds each visible post number and checks whether that number falls inside previously saved read ranges for that topic. Matching posts get a subtle “read” shade. After processing the page, the script saves the range of posts actually loaded on that visit.
A settings toggle can disable shading and tracking.

This is more of a self-paced project, rather than something built for distribution, so feel free to use it under. MIT licence, to copy, improve and share!

Feedback is more than welcome!

Babo CODE certification: code is safe.

Install from here: Bitcointalk modern theme
You can find the code here

[Hypnotizer]

I don’t usually like using extensions but maybe I’d probably try this out.

So if I get this right, I can just choose which do ever theme I want to use at any given time when I feel like? That’s really a very impressive idea and design. It solves real life problems, you know sometimes especially at night the original theme of this forum especially when you’re on mobile, it stress your eyes..I don’t know if it’s only me. So with this I can just change it to a dark theme for than given time and change it back to the main theme in the morning. Really a great tool imo.

Edit: I couldn’t find the Userscript in the website.. can you just post the script here on forum? So users can just copy/paste it.

[fillippone]

I don’t usually like using extensions but maybe I’d probably try this out.

So if I get this right, I can just choose which do ever theme I want to use at any given time when I feel like? That’s really a very impressive idea and design. It solves real life problems, you know sometimes especially at night the original theme of this forum especially when you’re on mobile, it stress your eyes..I don’t know if it’s only me. So with this I can just change it to a dark theme for than given time and change it back to the main theme in the morning. Really a great tool imo.

You can do that either manually or you can set it to auto, and it will follow your system settings: Light and Dark themes will follow the global theme of your device.  
Note that you can customise the appearance of the two themes independently.

Edit: I couldn’t find the Userscript in the website.. can you just post the script here on forum? So users can just copy/paste it.

You can find the code here
Basically, you select the "CODE" tab in the script webpage.

I think it is not useful to copy the script here, as the code gets updated, it's cumbersome to keep that updated here also.

[*Ace*]

It really is a beautiful, customisable theme! Well done, Fillippone, on a job well done.
I’ve only just installed it, and I’d say the dark version is really well done; of course, tastes are subjective and personal, but overall it’s really lovely! The idea of modernising the text editor’s layout is brilliant.

Do you have any other features in mind?

[fillippone]

It really is a beautiful, customisable theme! Well done, Fillippone, on a job well done.
I’ve only just installed it, and I’d say the dark version is really well done; of course, tastes are subjective and personal, but overall it’s really lovely! The idea of modernising the text editor’s layout is brilliant.

Do you have any other features in mind?

I am pretty satisfied with the result, thanks!
I already have a series of fixes to implement, but as for new features, I am open to suggestions.
Also, there is a lot to do on the mobile version, which apparently runs quite slowly compared to the native one.

[*Ace*]

It really is a beautiful, customisable theme! Well done, Fillippone, on a job well done.
I’ve only just installed it, and I’d say the dark version is really well done; of course, tastes are subjective and personal, but overall it’s really lovely! The idea of modernising the text editor’s layout is brilliant.

Do you have any other features in mind?

I am pretty satisfied with the result, thanks!
I already have a series of fixes to implement, but as for new features, I am open to suggestions.
Also, there is a lot to do on the mobile version, which apparently runs quite slowly compared to the native one.

Yes, unfortunately the mobile browser versions are a bit different and require some customisation to work properly, but it’s nothing insurmountable and I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with something useful for this version too.
As for new features, I’ll give it some thought and let you know what you could add

[joker_josue]

Congratulations @filippone on the project.

For those who want to change their forum viewing experience, this is another valid option.

Now it's a matter of maintaining it, so that it remains viable and safe to use for anyone who wants it. 

[babo]

I'm using it and it's very very nice
In my opinion one of the most successful, and I had tried to do it too

I think there's only one thing missing, if you want to add it, you should add an on/off button, because in some cases I want to use the original theme, so a button to turn it off (and on) would be very useful in the gear.

[fillippone]

I think there's only one thing missing, if you want to add it, you should add an on/off button, because in some cases I want to use the original theme, so a button to turn it off (and on) would be very useful in the gear.

That will be done.
Thanks for the first feature request.
I think anyway a very effective way of doing so is disabling the script in tampermonkey. In this way the script is still installed, but not running.

[Rikafip]

I have to say that I like this theme. It really looks pleasant and easy on the eyes, unlike that god awful April Fools one (well, at least it inspired you to make something like this).  And having a dark theme is a welcome bonus.

I am busy at the moment so I am not going to try it immediately, but I will probably give it a go over the weekend.

[babo]

I think there's only one thing missing, if you want to add it, you should add an on/off button, because in some cases I want to use the original theme, so a button to turn it off (and on) would be very useful in the gear.

That will be done.
Thanks for the first feature request.
I think anyway a very effective way of doing so is disabling the script in tampermonkey. In this way the script is still installed, but not running.

I know, but it's inconvenient, maybe I want to disable it for a short time and not permanently
Having it from the gear in my opinion is much more convenient than entering the menu and disabling it, so you can just turn it on and off even onfly
in any case it's very beautiful

[fillippone]

I think there's only one thing missing, if you want to add it, you should add an on/off button, because in some cases I want to use the original theme, so a button to turn it off (and on) would be very useful in the gear.

That will be done.
Thanks for the first feature request.
I think anyway a very effective way of doing so is disabling the script in tampermonkey. In this way the script is still installed, but not running.

I know, but it's inconvenient, maybe I want to disable it for a short time and not permanently
Having it from the gear in my opinion is much more convenient than entering the menu and disabling it, so you can just turn it on and off even onfly
in any case it's very beautiful

Thanks for the kind words babo.
I will try to implement this new feature before the weekend.
Another thing I would like to modify is the combination of accent colour in the light scheme. Looks like a little bit aggressive to me.
But it's design.

Waiting for your code revision in the meantime.

[retreat]

I just installed the script and I can say it's very good.

The light theme sometimes bothered me, especially at night. With this theme option, I can quickly switch to a dark/light theme. Modern themes are a matter of personal preference, but I personally like it. Thank you, really appreciate your work.

[dkbit98]

Good work with these themes especially with dark version, but I think you should improve other elements in next updates, and make it compatible for mobile devices.
I think that majority users in 2026 are using bitcointalk forum with smartphones, and this can be pain in the ass with old smf forum.
There are other userscript who did something similar, so you can get some inspiration and ideas from them.

[fillippone]

Good work with these themes especially with dark version, but I think you should improve other elements in next updates, and make it compatible for mobile devices.
I think that majority users in 2026 are using bitcointalk forum with smartphones, and this can be pain in the ass with old smf forum.
There are other userscript who did something similar, so you can get some inspiration and ideas from them.

Mobile version is for sure in the works.
It might be difficult to achieve, given the number of screens, resolutions, browsers, power of various devices.
But for sure, I will give it a go.
Yes, I am starting to worry about how much work this project will be!

[Mia Chloe]

~snip

It's a fine theme and honestly I think the only limitation for those on mobile is the more popular browsers are not allowing the use of extensions yet so most of these features are enjoyed the most on desktop. Nevertheless this is literally another day of me testing out an extension knowing I most likely won't use it.

It's pretty interesting how flexible SMF forums actually are and it gives some level of decentralization given how much you can actually tweak. Nevertheless thumbs up fillipone.

[fillippone]

Actually on my device, the user experience is not totally awful:



Yes, surely a few cosmetic changes are needed but the website is totally usable.
Here I present you with the dark version in green with blue accent.
I used userscript on an iPhone.

[babo]

I have some safety notes for you

in the line

Code:

`<span class="bt-sw-custom-display" style="background:${currentHex}"></span>`

the currentHex code is not sanitized, so someone could use it to do XSS, just saving in local storage (another plugin) a malformed data will cause javascript injection
Normally it's serious, but in these contexts not so much but it's worth fixing

use a function like

Code:

function sanitizeHex(hex) {
  return /^#[0-9A-Fa-f]{3,8}$/.test(hex) ? hex : '#000000';
}

to check that the input is as you expect it



fix this and can add emblem of safe code

Code:

[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=THISPOST][img height=200]https://talkimg.com/images/2026/01/15/UFbfwd.png[/img][/url]

[mole0815]

The colors are quite familiar, and as you mentioned, it might make sense to choose different colors to be more "anonymous" in public.
But maybe we're overthinking it.

Regardless - THX fillippone!
It’s a nice extension, and even though the light green looked really awful (!!) at first, by the end of the day I had gotten used to it just fine. So this dollar layout should be the extension’s default

[verdinio]

When, last April 1st, theymos made his proverbial April Fool's, I was intrigued by the new colour.

Of course, the light green was horrible, but it made me realise that the form has its own forum identity from being on the same SMF interface, basically from the Satoshi era.
This is a plus, as it gives this forum a distinctive appearance that makes the forum immediately recognisable. It gives you a sort of pride to write in the exact same forum where Satoshi, Hal, and all the other legends were writing.

There is also a negative twist in this.  
Often, it happens to me to write in public or semi-public spaces. I like to write in my spare time, and I cannot always write in a secluded position, being sure no one would peek over my shoulder.
So I thought the light green was a good choice if we wanted to write on the forum in disguise.
As I am playing with AI, I decided to code a new skin for the forum.

Well done, you were inspired to create this script. You're now well on your way to becoming a Filipino programmer, and this will surely be the first of many more as we get to know you.
I will definitely use it because black helps my eyes rest, thanks.