---
layout: page_default
title: 'Site Cookie Information'
---

<p>This site saves a "cookie"* called 'darkMode' on your computer to remember whether you want to use Dark Mode ({% include icon-dark-mode.svg %}) or Light Mode ({% include icon-light-mode.svg %}). If you turn on Dark Mode, it's set to "true"; if not, it's "false".</p>

<p>This way, people who want to use Dark Mode don't have to turn it back on every time they turn the page. If you don't want the cookie and are okay with that happening, you can block Javascript for the site using something like the <a href="https://noscript.net/">NoScript browser extension</a>.</p>

<p><i>(* Technically, the site doesn't use "cookies" - it uses "<a target="_blank" href="https://javascript.info/localstorage">localStorage</a>" values, which are a separate technology that a lot of programmers consider more secure. Legally, though, they're treated the same way, and since most people just call everything a website automatically saves to your computer a "cookie," that's what I'm doing here.)</i></p>

<blockquote>
	<p><i><b>Q:</b> Why can't I click a button to tell this site to remember not to save any cookies? Other sites can do that.</i></p>
	<p><b>A:</b> Actually, they can't! To be able to "remember" something about you, a website has to save that information on your computer. Every time you click one of those buttons telling a site "Don't save cookies about me," what you're basically doing is saving the word "no" in a cookie named "areCookiesOkay".</p>

	<p><i><b>Q:</b> Can you, the person running this website, see the cookie that the site saves? Is this website tracking me?</i></p>
	<p><b>A:</b> No. Only your own web browser can see it. I cannot look at a report somewhere to find out how many people look at this site and turn on Dark Mode. (Or, for that matter, how many people look at it at all - the site does not use any form of tracking.)</p>

	<p><i><b>Q:</b> Can I see what the cookie is doing?</i></p>
	<p><b>A:</b> Sure - all of the code for the site is publicly-visible in <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/Snarp/magnus_archives_transcripts/">the GitHub repo</a>. The dark-mode Javascript is in the "js" folder.

	<p><i><b>Q:</b> I would rather turn Dark Mode on by hand every single time I turn the page than use cookies.</i></p>
	<p>I'm sorry, but most people think that's incredibly annoying.</p>

	<p><i><b>Q:</b> Instead of using localStorage, have you considered parsing URL queries and editing all the local links on the page every time the user switches modes?</i></p>
	<p>[EXTENDED SOUNDS OF BRUTAL PIPE MURDER]</p>
</blockquote>