Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Some folks like links, especially links in journal entries, to automatically open in a new window when clicked. I really don't, because when I want a link to open in a new window, I explicitly tell the computer that by means of right-click, shift-click, command-click, control-shift-click, command-shift-click, or click-and-hold, depending on the hardware, OS, and browser I'm using, and whether I want the new window on top or in the background. If I simply left-click (or on a Mac, just-plain-click) on a link, it means I explicitly want -- and darned well expect, since it's the default behaviour -- that the destination will be opened in the current window, replacing the page I'd just been looking at. (Or that something expected and sensible will happen with frames, if I'm viewing a page that uses frames.)

That said, I understand why some other users prefer to have links open in a new window, even if my preference is that the default behaviour not be messed with. And I think I understand a bunch of the reasons some web designers want links to open in new windows, even if it usually annoys me. (I'm assuming that most LJ users who use this feature in their journal entries prefer that behaviour as users and are doing so as a courtesy to their readers who they expect to have the same preference. I know that's the motivation for at least some of them.)

But I've got a complaint that goes a smidgen farther than my personal preference to remain in control of the user interface and the operation of my tools.

Sometimes it actually breaks things (though perhaps it requires a coding error to do so).

Twice in the past three days I have been surprised by a link that appeared to do nothing when I clicked it other than to change from the "unvisited" colour to the "been there" colour. (In at least one case, it was in somebody's journal; the other I don't recall what site I was looking at.) No new page loading in that window, no new window suddeny opeing, nuffin' ...

Until I was going through my stack of previously opened windows containing pages I wanted to come back to before closing, and found that one of them had been overwritten by the page I'd been trying to get to when I clicked on the apparently-no-op link. **growl**

The one that I checked the source code of (I'd closed the other one before figuring out what it had done) used target="_new" instead of what I had expected to see, target="blank" so I'm guessing that one of my already open windows just happened to be 'named' _new for some reason? I was able to spot which window had been overwritten and use the back button to return to the page I wasn't finished yet, because at that moment there were no other windows whose titles were blue (Opera uses colour to indicate windows that have not been selected since the pages displayed in them finished rendering), but that's an unusual condition for my desktop, since I use "open in background" as often as I do.

I don't like having unexpected behaviour messing with windows that the site I'm viewing didn't create. Actually, I don't like having unexpected behaviour screw up what I'm trying to do in windows that are tied to that site, either. Some time back I had a problem with Yahoo Groups or Yahoo Clubs (I don't remember which; it was during the time both were in use). Since I'm on a slow connection, I try to interleave downloading and reading -- pop open several windows for pages to trickle into while I'm reading the first one, rather than twiddling my thumbs waiting for a page to render, reading it, then twiddling my thumbs waiting for the next one. So I tried to open a bunch of messages from a few different clubs in separate windows, planning to then move through the stack of windows closing each as I finished reading it. On most sites, this works. But in Yahoo Clubs, sometimes when I said "open in background" I got a new blank window while the message I'd asked for in that window got loaded into some other already-open window, overwriting a message I hadn't gotten around to reading yet. Which was enough of a frustration that I hardly ever even bother with the Yahoo Clubs/Groups any more.

So please, if you're going to get fancy with the target clause, don't get too fancy, make sure you get it right, and don't assume I'm going to use my browser exactly the same way you do. So that if you surprise me it's only a smallish surprise. As much as I'd like folks to just let the default thing happen, I know I'm not going to change the minds of the folks who really prefer having new windows pop up ... as a compromise, I'd appreciate a bit of warning, like "(opens in new window)" after the links that do that, but I'll mostly settle for just not having them do really strange stuff, load where I can't find them quickly (I may have as fifty or sixty open windows to look through) or overwrite pages I wasn't finished with yet (i.e. any window already open, 'cause if I were finished with that page for now, I would've closed the window).

Basically, please don't break my UI. Thanks.