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Links opening in a new tab

Personally I find it irritating that clicking on a link in a post takes me away from the forum. It would be so much neater to open links in a new tab

EHLE / Lelystad, Netherlands, Netherlands

Peter, can you give me the URL of the thread on which you see this happening?

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom

Unless I misunderstand Peter, he is describing the default behaviour on this site.

One can make the argument exactly both ways. Some people want a new tab open, some don't.

One can solve it by right-clicking and selecting "open in new window/tab" etc.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I asked for the URL just to make sure there wasn't some unusual case that was being handled incorrectly.

The broadly accepted wisdom amongst usability experts is that a site's designer shouldn't dictate whether a link should open in the same window, a new tab or a new window; it should be up to the user. On this site we open links in the same window, which allows a user to modify that behaviour usually with a keystroke whilst clicking or by right clicking as Peter says, the exact details of which are determined by which browser you're using.

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom

As 99% of my visits are on an iThing I don't have the luxury of right click :(

On most other fora I visit any link opens in a new tab but it is no great deal - just, for me, nice to have.

EHLE / Lelystad, Netherlands, Netherlands

On an iOS device, click the link with your finger, but hold it on it - a menu will appear which will include a "Open in New Page" option. Click that and bingo, the link will open in a new page.

Administrator
EGTR / London, United Kingdom

Thanks for the tip - learn somehing new everyday :)

EHLE / Lelystad, Netherlands, Netherlands

I appreciate that this 'issue' is controllable at the user end, but I would agree with the suggestion of making a new tab the default behaviour. I have grown very accustomed to this usage (perhaps just through chance that most sites I use will open links in new tabs) and I always find myself opening a link here, then closing the page and realising I have in doing so just closed the site.

Old habits die hard.

United Kingdom

I have exactly the same problem as Pirho. New tab every time please.

Egnm, United Kingdom

+1 for new tab. Current implementation is annoying (especially if the link leads to another link, etc).

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