Can text ads open in a new window?

October 22, 2001 1:28 PM

Can the TextAds kick out a new window, so I don't have to leave the warm confines of MeFi and be sent hurtling through the vast expanses of cyberspace into areas unknown, unseen and untrusted? That would be muy bueno.
posted by jpoulos to Feature Requests at 1:28 PM (22 comments total)

Also, what happened to the preview box (and spell checker?) in the MetaTalk post-a-link function? Just curious.
posted by jpoulos at 1:29 PM on October 22, 2001

Oh, and a pony.
posted by jpoulos at 1:29 PM on October 22, 2001

If you're using IE, hold down the shift key while you click. That opens the link in a new window.

I would personally hate to see MetaFilter come down with Zeldman New Window Disease :-)

posted by wenham at 1:49 PM on October 22, 2001

Ya know, jpoulos, you can do that on your own by expending the Herculean effort to hold down the shift key while you click the link. I know, it makes me sweat just thinking about it too.*




*non-mainstream variants include middle button (some x-windows setups), right click followed followed by appropriate choice (damn near everything), and something slick that escapes me at the moment in Netscape 6.1.
posted by NortonDC at 1:49 PM on October 22, 2001

Perhaps have a setting on the customize page that would allow use to spawn a new window with a TextAd?
posted by gluechunk at 1:52 PM on October 22, 2001

Or right-click and select "Open in new Window".
posted by Steven Den Beste at 1:54 PM on October 22, 2001

Or control-click and select "Open in new Window", if you're using a Mac.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 2:01 PM on October 22, 2001

As previous comments show, it's fairly easy for someone who wants to open any link into a new window to do so. It's not so easy for someone who doesn't want extra windows to prevent a "new window" link from opening one, or even to identify those links ahead of time. (I think someone — sudama? — once created a bookmarklet to redirect such links to the existing window.) At any rate, I think it makes more sense to point links to the current windows by default.
posted by harmful at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2001

There's already a setting to spawn external links into a new window. Why don't the text ads just honor that user choice?
posted by willnot at 2:30 PM on October 22, 2001

I’m with willnot on this one. A separate user pref for textads only seems like overkill.
posted by gleemax at 2:56 PM on October 22, 2001

Yeah, I never figured out how to refer to it. Today we'll call it open links in this window.
posted by sudama at 3:02 PM on October 22, 2001

There's already a preference to open links in new windows under "Customize." Why not just apply that preference to the TextAds, too?
posted by fraying at 3:40 PM on October 22, 2001

Why didn't someone else think of that?


;)
posted by sylloge at 5:00 PM on October 22, 2001

I'm working on this now, it should be working by tonight at the latest.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:05 PM on October 22, 2001

Hey, Matt, after you get done with that, do you think you could have the preference to open new windows apply to the textads too?
posted by gleemax at 7:15 PM on October 22, 2001

Hey, Matt, after you get done with that, do you think you could have the preference to open new windows apply to the textads too?

This should be in the requested features list.
posted by rodii at 7:42 PM on October 22, 2001

Hey, Matt, after you get done with that, do you think you could have the preference to open new windows apply to the textads too?

Nope, sorry. It doesn't sound like enough of a feature to warrant the extra work or storage (like you said above "A separate user pref for textads only seems like overkill")
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:43 PM on October 22, 2001

the target stuff is done and should be working now.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:01 PM on October 22, 2001

I know you've done it now, Matt, and I do appreciate Mars's position but I wish you hadn't reintroduced the sidebar-collapse feature. People who pay for textads, no matter how cheap, are being short-changed if their ads can be made invisible or less visible.
No one likes ads but these are not only discrete, but friendly and sort of in-house too. In their light-blue guise, with their amusing come-ons( there must be a lot of would-be copy writers amongst us!)they do no harm at all. Some, like me, think they actually add to the fun.
If selfish users can just switch them off, it defeats the purpose and signals they don't want to share in the common purpose of making MetaFilter viable.

Also, I thought the ad for used computer books was truly encouraging because it showed the way to growth. People may tire of plugging their weblogs - the stickiness thing - but all we have to do is grab any newspaper's personal ads to find a world of everlasting opportunities.

Would you consider non-URL(or just e-mail)based ads, as long as they obeyed the same tasteful rules and were strictly personal? I'm thinking flat-hunters, job-seekers, people looking for stuff - even lonely hearts.

I fear that, after the novelty wears off, people will start collapsing the sidebar and nixing the ads, thus preventing this excellent idea from becoming a going concern. I guess I think it's easier to remove that temptation rather than facing accusations of unfairness later on.



posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:19 PM on October 22, 2001

PS

I mean that the ads look better with the dark-blue sidebar underneath, of course.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:27 PM on October 22, 2001

Hey, wait, thar's TWO buttons on this here mouse! Maw! Paw! Look whu ma friends on thu Innernet dun showed me!

Sheesh!
posted by jpoulos at 6:43 AM on October 23, 2001

That was so totally a joke, yo.
posted by gleemax at 9:38 AM on October 23, 2001