Firefox Bugs

February 17, 2004 4:19 PM

I've switched to Firefox. I have my MeFi preferences set to open links in a new window. I have the Tabbrowser Preferences extension installed on firefox and everything set to open in new tabs, links on metafilter still bring up new windows. While I can just CTRL + click to open in a new tab, I'm wondering if this is a mozilla thing, or a mefi thing. Thanks.
posted by Grod to Bugs at 4:19 PM (15 comments total)

Can you give me a little more about your tabrowser settings? I have it set to Expert Settings and as of Firefox, it defaults to "Use Multiple Browsers Only When I Open Them"-- this is opening MeFi links in tabs for me.
posted by yerfatma at 5:06 PM on February 17, 2004

Ah, well, I'm not using Tabbrowser Extensions, I'm using the Tabbrowser Preferences. Reason being, it either interacted badly with some other extension, or isn't completely stable. At anyrate, I found it did more harm than good, especially since all I wanted was to change the default behavior for where links open. I guess the way Metafilter preferences are set to a cookie might have something to do with it, in which case there's probably a line somewhere in about:config that will fix it, or something could be added to user.js, but I don't know much about this stuff yet.
posted by Grod at 5:11 PM on February 17, 2004

As long as your fielding firefox questions, how come visited links, whether opened in a new tab, new window, or the same window, don't change color? It isn't much of a problem on MeFi, but its driving me nuts on google.
posted by Grod at 5:16 PM on February 17, 2004

i just set middle-click to open in tabs, so clicking the scroll wheel does the trick.
posted by Hackworth at 5:36 PM on February 17, 2004

Good idea, but I'm on a laptop. I guess I'll just ctrl+click. I was just wondering if it had something to do with how the cookie is handled or something.
posted by Grod at 5:43 PM on February 17, 2004

heh. since you're mentioning FireFox -- I'm usually on FireBird/OSX and everything's OK with MeFi but I've recently tried to comment on MeFi using FireFox/WIN2000 and I don't have the Bold/I/link function. why?
if it's already been covered, feel free to hurl abuse in my general direction
posted by matteo at 5:48 PM on February 17, 2004

I don't have the Bold/I/link function. why?

That's a fine question: I didn't notice it, what with being so grateful MeFi was back, but the shortcut icons are gone. I don't know if Firefox has some different JavaScript or what, but the links started showing up (in Preview only) on SpoFi for a while. Then again, I just checked the source and there's no reference to the include file anymore.

I'll admit Tabbrowser Extensions is a bitch goddess who demands tribute every time you want to upgrade, but she's worth it to me. Safest way to add it (if you want to; it's the only way I know to get full control of the tabs in Firebird/fox) is to destroy your existing profile(s) and work from there.
posted by yerfatma at 6:03 PM on February 17, 2004

This is really strange, but since I first posted this bug it has disappeared. I don't know how or why, as I haven't changed a thing in my settings. I wonder if it'll reappear?
posted by Grod at 6:03 PM on February 17, 2004

Yup, it came back.
*scratches head, shrugs
posted by Grod at 6:14 PM on February 17, 2004

Grod, I've had the exact same behaviour using TabBrowser Preferences. I disabled it and tried TabBrowser Extensions but it gave me much aggravation, so I switched back. I think it's just an incompatibility between Firefox and the T-B Extensions. Everything worked fine for me in the old version (Firebird). I expect it will be resolved soon. Perhaps send a note to the creator of T-B Extensions?
posted by Succa at 7:03 PM on February 17, 2004

I don't have the Bold/I/link function. why?
I don't know why, but they were not around in earlier versions of Mozilla, then they appeared after some tweak or other by mathowie and now they have disappeared again with Firefox.
posted by dg at 9:33 PM on February 17, 2004

The same thing happens to me in Safari/10.3 (i.e. clicking on a link brings up a new window, ctrl-click brings up a new tab). I have MeFi prefs set to open links in a new window too. I guess the Mefi preferences just override the browser preferences.
posted by carter at 6:13 AM on February 18, 2004

I guess the Mefi preferences just override the browser preferences.

i beleive all the mefi preferences do is cause a <base target="_blank"> to be inserted in the page that's sent to you. check your tab options for something like "include links specifying new target window" or similar.
posted by quonsar at 9:49 AM on February 18, 2004

OK. I've found what appears to be a solution. By adding the following line to your user.js file the target="_blank" is disabled.

// disable target="_blank" (open in same window):
user_pref("browser.block.target_new_window", true);

It seems to work.
posted by Grod at 12:59 PM on February 18, 2004

Cool. Thanks.
posted by yerfatma at 2:19 PM on February 18, 2004