Wiiiiild Horses

May 15, 2012 1:16 PM

Seeing all the prancing ponies on Metatalk lately reminded me of something I've been meaning to suggest for a while now, regarding links.

I know this sounds pretty small, and I do know what Right-click>Open in New Tab is, but why do links I click on here open on the same page? There are other sites I visit where clicking on a link opens it in a new tab. I think it'd be nice and more comfortable to see that here, too, especially seeing how many multi-link FPPs we get. But maybe there's a special reason for links opening in the same window by default that I'm not aware of.

Anyways, no biggie, just thought I'd toss that out there.

posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing to Feature Requests at 1:16 PM (66 comments total)

You can set this in your site Preferences. Look for the checkbox next to "Open links in new windows?", check, and Save.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:17 PM on May 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

Yeah, settable in preferences. Yay ponies!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:20 PM on May 15, 2012

Well I'll be damned!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:21 PM on May 15, 2012

Huh. I had never selected this because I thought it would open a new instance of my browser, not a new tab. Thanks!
posted by workerant at 1:21 PM on May 15, 2012

Also, I need to spend more time on the Preferences page. Who knows what other magic awaits!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:23 PM on May 15, 2012

Right-click Open in New Tab

This is crazy talk. Cntl-left-click, son. (Or wheel click, whatevs.)
posted by shakespeherian at 1:23 PM on May 15, 2012 [6 favorites]

I had never selected this because I thought it would open a new instance of my browser, not a new tab.

Before the advent of tabs, that was the case, but all the browsers that use tabs default new window links to a new tab (should be in your browser prefs selected as a default).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:24 PM on May 15, 2012

YAY PONIES
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:27 PM on May 15, 2012 [5 favorites]

I love me some ponies, but I'm kinda ready for a temporary hold on pony requests. Surely we all had other unreasonable dreams as small girls? Pierced ears? A basket full of kittens? The Barbie dreamhouse? A Barbie dreamhouse full of kittens with pierced ears?
posted by maryr at 1:28 PM on May 15, 2012 [7 favorites]

From now on, new feature requests shall be referred to as "Easy Bake Ovens."
posted by bondcliff at 1:32 PM on May 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

I rather preferred the "I Can Haz ________" option, because that's what this site needs, more Lol Speak.
posted by Chekhovian at 1:35 PM on May 15, 2012

Never forget, guys.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:36 PM on May 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing: "Also, I need to spend more time on the Preferences page. Who knows what other magic awaits!"

Ye may have heard tales of the Great White Professional Background, and it is rumored it can only be found hiding amidst the hidden bays and shadowy coves of the Preference Isles...
posted by Rock Steady at 1:48 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm a big fan of cmd/ctrl+click, myself.
posted by michaelh at 1:52 PM on May 15, 2012

I'm kinda ready for a temporary hold on pony requests.

We call those reins, ma'am.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:55 PM on May 15, 2012 [8 favorites]

A basket full of kittens?

Ok, I am formally submitting my request today.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:59 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is crazy talk. Cntl-left-click, son. (Or wheel click, whatevs.)

Yep, wheel-click a.k.a. middle-click. On some devices that don't have a wheel/middle button, such as laptop mousepads, simultaneous left+right click may function as a middle-click.

I got so used to simultaneous left+right click = middle-click = open in new tab on my old laptop, that when my new laptop didn't do that (strange, as both the old and new computers were HPs), and failing to find any software/plug-in to achieve that, I ended up installing a Firefox plug-in to make right-click = open in new tab. (Context menu for a link is then relegated to right-click-and-hold.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:59 PM on May 15, 2012

Gah, MStPT, you've got this version of Wild Horses stuck in my head. Garth Brooks, not the Rolling Stones, naturally.
posted by librarylis at 2:00 PM on May 15, 2012

I'm glad you warned me that was Garth Brooks' version - I nearly clicked on that.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:12 PM on May 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

Really? I ticked that box in my settings, and it works for some links, but not others. For example, if I click on a username anywhere on the site, the profile page opens in the same tab. Same thing happens when I click on the comments link from the front page of different subsites.
posted by heyho at 2:20 PM on May 15, 2012

Yes, links within the MetaFilter Universe open in the same window. You'll have to use Ctrl+Click if you want internal links to open in a new window too.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:24 PM on May 15, 2012

Oh, cool. Thanks.
So if I'm reading you correctly, you're saying that I need to learn to stop blaming all of my problems on Ubuntu. Ugh, but that was so handy.
posted by heyho at 2:30 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

gooooodbye hoooooorses
posted by The Whelk at 2:34 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

*does "the tuck", dances in front of mirror*
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:36 PM on May 15, 2012

I'm glad this is a preference. I want links to open in the window I am in (and they do!).
posted by cjorgensen at 2:42 PM on May 15, 2012

The pony you are seeking has been within you all along!
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:47 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

So links outside of the MetaFilter Universe aren't canon?
posted by maryr at 2:57 PM on May 15, 2012

AltaVista x Dogpile will always be my OTP.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:03 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

So links outside of the MetaFilter Universe aren't canon?

The what outside the what?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:09 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

In my headcanon Dark Cortex NEVER HAPPENED.
posted by The Whelk at 3:12 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm kinda ready for a temporary hold on pony requests.

We call those reins, ma'am.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:55 PM on May 15

neigh.
posted by special-k at 3:31 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well I'll be damned!

No, no, it's worse than you think! They don't have cookies there!
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:58 PM on May 15, 2012

In my headcanon Dark Cortex NEVER HAPPENED.

Wait, what? Some of us aren't caught up to the most recent issues, you know. Distribution in the United Commonwealth is usually about 1-2 publication-cycles behind, as all of the deviant original spellings need to be changed to fit Law 101.

In other words, some of us have been spending our time on the Internet carefully avoiding any hints about the third, fourth or sixth years, so that we can see them play out. I know that you're going to say "just import", but Amazon won't violate Law 101, and I don't really want to start dealing in bitcoins and risk facing gaol just to catch up on a BD faster.

So, I guess what I'm saying, is could you please, for the benefit of those of us not in the Central Universal Republic, find some way to mark things like that as spoilers? Because now I'm going to be reading the next three years of FILTER!!! wondering, each time I see "...posted by cortex (staff)..." whether this is going to lead into a face heel turn...

Or whether he just ends up playing Bauhaus on the ukelele.
posted by frimble at 4:16 PM on May 15, 2012 [5 favorites]

The pony you are seeking has been within you all along!

"Where you only see one set of hoofprints, that is when I carried you."
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:27 PM on May 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

For what it's worth, and not related to MeFi, but some websites do not conform to the Shift-click and Ctrl-click standard. Yahoo is one, and I have encountered a couple of others recently. It's annoying, because they open the link in the same window, and if I don't look closely at the Firefox Back button, I won't know it. (And thanks a bunch, Firefox developers, for changing that button when it's active from bright green to a slightly darker grey than it is when it's inactive.)
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:02 PM on May 15, 2012

Maybe the entry on the Preferences page should say "Open links in new browser tab?" Right now it says "Open links in new window?" which is what Internet Explorer says when it asks if you want to open a link in a new separate browser window, not a tab.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 5:25 PM on May 15, 2012

> Yes, links within the MetaFilter Universe open in the same window.

Except for [# of favorites]. Well, for me anyway.
posted by heyho at 5:28 PM on May 15, 2012

wheel click

Oh my.

I have wasted a LOT of time.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:11 PM on May 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

I like peonies!
posted by two lights above the sea at 7:00 PM on May 15, 2012

I would like a peon too, please.
posted by flabdablet at 7:39 PM on May 15, 2012

This is a paen for ponies.
posted by arcticseal at 8:12 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I hate hate hate when sites make left-clicks open in a new tab. Dammit, if I had wanted that I'd have done a wheel-click, I'm not a savage over here! When sites override the normal interface constrols to force links to open in new tabs it's as if a stranger has reached out of my monitor, rapped my knuckles like a Catholic-school nun, taken the mouse away from me as if I were a child, and then wheel-clicked the link for me with a condescending "we wouldn't want to leave so soon, would we?"

MAYBE I DO WANT TO LEAVE, OK? IS THAT A PROBLEM? MAYBE I WON'T EVEN COME BACK!

Does anyone else have this pet peeve, or is this my special cross to bear? Anyway, I'm glad this is opt-in here on MetaFilter, otherwise I'd live in a state of nonstop indignation. More than I already do, I mean.
posted by Scientist at 8:54 PM on May 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

shakespeherian: "Right-click Open in New Tab

This is crazy talk. Cntl-left-click, son. (Or wheel click, whatevs.)"

Oh good gods. Why did I not know about this? I never get the good memos!
posted by deborah at 9:10 PM on May 15, 2012

Did you get the one about Ctrl-wheelspin doing zoom?
posted by flabdablet at 9:24 PM on May 15, 2012

time to make people aged 26-33 cry
posted by The Whelk at 9:29 PM on May 15, 2012

The Sundays is the version I had stuck in my head and I fit your demographic, but why is it supposed to make me cry?
posted by maryr at 10:42 PM on May 15, 2012

Oops, nevermind, saw the YouTube comments re: Buffy.
posted by maryr at 10:43 PM on May 15, 2012

CLASS....PROTECTOR
posted by The Whelk at 11:28 PM on May 15, 2012

You aren't the only one Scientist; unprompted new tabbing is just plain rude.
posted by Mitheral at 5:39 AM on May 16, 2012

Does anyone else have this pet peeve, or is this my special cross to bear?

It offends me too.
posted by stebulus at 6:47 AM on May 16, 2012

See, I remember the class protector thing, but not the song. Maybe I just remember it from the opening 4th season ep.
posted by maryr at 8:45 AM on May 16, 2012

Since we're talking ponies, I demand a NOPE tag for instances like this. Each NOPE flag accumulated by a comment or post will add the word "NOPE" at the end. For example:

Check out the head of T. solium. Fascinating little bugger has four suckers and a ring of 26 hooklets. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
posted by Rhomboid at 2:10 PM on May 16 [+] [!] [quote]
posted by charred husk at 11:21 AM on May 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

I have had the open in new window option checked in Preferences and have noticed that it doesn't always work consistently. For example, links clicked on from the front of Ask replace the window, whereas the same links clicked on the category page will open a new tab. Annoying. There are some other instances, but I haven't noted them in detail.
posted by mimo at 11:26 AM on May 16, 2012

I can't duplicate that one mimo. If I click a link to an external website it opens in a new tab for me whether I'm on the front page of Ask or a category page. Is there a specific post that's causing problems for you? Maybe if we narrow it down we can find out why that's happening for you.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:35 AM on May 16, 2012

No, it happens for all posts in Firefox and IE (although in IE it opens a new window rather than a tab from the category page). I suppose it could be related to my work computer, over which I have limited control. I get the feeling this happens at home too, although now I am beginning to doubt it. I'll have to test it out tonight.
posted by mimo at 11:46 AM on May 16, 2012

I think I found the problem. Links that point within Ask MetaFilter should never open in a new window. So if you click "more inside" or "6 comments" to view a thread, that should always open in the same window you're viewing no matter what your profile preference is. The preference relates to opening a new tab for external links only. For example, this Ask MetaFilter post has a link to an article at an external website. If you have the preference set to open links in new windows, that link should open in a new window. Other links on the page that point to ask.metafilter.com, such as the poster's profile page or the category page should open in the same window.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:59 AM on May 16, 2012

I see now that the category page had the "x answers" link opening in a new window as if it was an external link. I fixed that up.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:01 PM on May 16, 2012

Oh no, I've just asked you to break the thing I liked! Drat! Oh well, much future right clicking for me.
posted by mimo at 12:11 PM on May 16, 2012

mimo: "Oh no, I've just asked you to break the thing I liked! Drat! Oh well, much future right clicking for me."

ALL FEAR THE NEGA-PONY
posted by Rock Steady at 12:52 PM on May 16, 2012

Perhaps that makes it a changeling - looks like a pony, but is actually there to suck the love out of you.
posted by maryr at 1:13 PM on May 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oh no, I've just asked you to break the thing I liked! Drat! Oh well, much future right clicking for me.

You don't miss it until it's gone.
posted by arcticseal at 1:32 PM on May 16, 2012

ugh, sorry mimo. Here's a greasemonkey script you can use in Firefox if you have Greasemonkey: ALL THE LINKS in new windows. This will force even internal links to open in a new tab.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:59 PM on May 16, 2012

Much thanks! At least I can use it at home.
posted by mimo at 2:02 PM on May 16, 2012

I have fire gestures installed. I only wish I could somehow have it work all across windows, because I find myself gesturing all the time in other programs.
posted by Trochanter at 2:47 PM on May 16, 2012

You can also use the Tab Mix Plus add-on to lock/protect tabs, amongst other things.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 3:47 PM on May 16, 2012

>Right-click Open in New Tab

>>This is crazy talk. Cntl-left-click, son. (Or wheel click, whatevs.)

I drag my links. Have for years. I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:56 AM on May 17, 2012