Introduction

Maik.io has a few small Easter eggs hidden away — but don’t worry: this page focuses on the things you’ll actually use day to day. Here you’ll find a guide to light and dark mode, language versions, search, and the features at the end of a post.

Light and dark mode

By default, maik.io follows your device’s system setting or browser preference. If the system prefers dark mode, the site appears dark; otherwise, it uses the light layout. There is no longer a visible theme toggle in the header.

Manual override

Experienced users can press Alt+T at any time to switch between the light and dark layouts.

  • The manual selection is stored locally in the browser.
  • A stored selection overrides the system preference on future visits.
  • The setting applies only to the current device and browser.
  • Clearing the site data or local storage makes the site follow the system preference again.

German and English versions

maik.io provides content in German and English where a translation is available. There is no longer a global language switcher in the header.

  • Search engines can link directly to the appropriate German or English URL.
  • Some content is available only in German.
  • If an individual post has a translation, it remains linked in the metadata below the title.
  • German pages use the regular URL, while English versions generally live below /en/.

Subscribing via RSS

A round RSS button with a subtle border appears next to the “notes” heading.

  • On hover, the RSS icon turns orange and the “Subscribe via RSS” hint appears.
  • Selecting the button opens the RSS feed for the post overview.
  • You can subscribe to the feed in any RSS reader to receive new posts automatically.

The search feature helps you quickly find content again.

What to expect

  • Results appear while you type (live search).
  • Matches are shown as a list, each with a title and link.
  • The search scans content such as titles, short descriptions/summaries, and the page body.

Keyboard controls

If you prefer working without a mouse:

  • Typing: starts and updates the search immediately
  • Arrow up / down: move through the results list
  • Arrow right: opens the currently selected result
  • Escape: clears the search and resets the results

Privacy and technology in one sentence

The search runs entirely in your browser. No search queries are sent to a server, and nothing is stored centrally.

A small peculiarity

There is a special input that triggers an internal hint box and then reloads the page.
This is intentional (an Easter egg) and exists purely for testing and playful experimentation.

The /notes overview

Text and photo posts are presented differently in the post overview:

  • Text posts continue to show a short summary together with the date, reading time, and word count.
  • Posts with the photo tag focus on the cover image and title. No text summary is displayed.
  • The footer of a photo entry contains only the date; reading time and word count are omitted.
  • This special list presentation does not change summaries or metadata on the individual post page.

Photo calendar at /tags/photo/

The photo overview is presented as a calendar for the current year.

  • Months are displayed from the current month back to January.
  • Each month uses seven columns from Monday to Sunday.
  • Every calendar day appears as a small square.
  • Days with a photo post show its cover image and link directly to the post.
  • Days without a photo remain visible as subtle empty cells.
  • If multiple photo posts share a date, the cell shows the newest photo and a +N badge for the additional posts.
  • Year links below the calendar open photo calendars from previous years. Only one year is visible at a time.
  • Opening a previous year adds a year anchor to the URL, so the browser’s back and forward navigation continues to work.
  • Images in the visible year use native lazy loading. Images in hidden years initially have no src URL and are activated only when that year is opened.
  • The layout adapts to smaller screens as well as light and dark mode.

Post navigation and the comment field share a row below the article.

Previous and next post

  • The left arrow opens the previous post.
  • The right arrow opens the next post.
  • If there is no post in one direction, the corresponding arrow is not shown.

Commenting by email

  1. Enter your message in the “Comment …” field.
  2. Select the round button with the paper plane.
  3. Your configured email application opens a new message addressed to [email protected].

The subject is automatically set to “Kommentar: Post title”, and your comment is placed in the message body. The website does not send or store the comment itself. An email application must be configured to handle mailto: links on your device.

On small screens, the comment field appears below the navigation arrows and uses the available width.

At the end of many posts, up to four thematically relevant suggestions are displayed. Selection is based on post metadata, especially shared tags. If no suitable matches are found, no empty section is shown.

There are two display variants:

  1. Photo posts

    • If the currently open post has the photo tag, the heading is “You might also like these photos”.
    • Suggestions appear in a 2×2 grid.
    • Photo posts with a detected cover are shown as image tiles without title or date.

  2. Text posts

    • Without the photo tag, the integrated table heading is “You might also be interested in”.
    • Suggestions appear below it in a single-column table with the title on the left and the date on the right.
    • Each row is fully clickable and highlighted on hover.

How is the cover image found?

For image teasers, the system automatically searches multiple possible fields and sources for a suitable cover image. A visual teaser is only shown when an image is actually found.

Tags at the end of a post

Tags appear below the related posts or photos.

  • All tags stay on exactly one line and never wrap.
  • If the row is wider than the available space, it can be scrolled horizontally using a swipe gesture, trackpad, or Shift and the mouse wheel.
  • Edge fades indicate whether additional tags are available to the left or right.
  • The visible scrollbar is hidden.
  • Frequently used tags appear further to the left and rare tags further to the right.
  • Frequency is calculated separately for the currently displayed language.
  • Tags with the same frequency are sorted alphabetically.

The text was automatically translated from German into English. The German quotations were also translated in sense.