I would give the user the option of having a new tab/page open up when a link is clicked.  I hate it when the link loads in the same page, replacing what ever was there.  With a new tab/page I don’t have to use the back arrow

good idea Hugh! Should we implement this only for the (Robitron) forums or actually for all pages on Chatbots.org?

And another question: would that only count for external links or also for internal links, ie refereing to another thread for example?

I don’t think it’s technically possible (yet) to force the browser to open a link in a new tab. If it is, I’d like to know how to do it! But opening a new window is easy (using target = _blank) and has been standard for years.

I don’t know if these new windows are stopped by some pop-up blockers?

Erwin, regarding your second question: maybe this could be a user option.

David

target = “_blank” opens a new window or a new tab, dependent on window settings.

With javascript it seems to be possible to force a new window (try the ‘smileys’ link above the reply field: it gives a popup with smileys; thus a new window).

We would phrase Hugh’s request as:
We’d like to have an user option that open external links always in external window or in an tab.

I guess that internal links should always be opened in the same window as you will get alternatively 20.000 opened windows :-s

@Erwin van Lun, Javascrript uses window.open, to force a new window. I think that is not what you would want to acccomplish. Only external links should probably open in a new window/tab, although it is not standards base. <a target=“_blank”> is depreceated when using XHTML STRICT as a doctype.

Ofcourse if you would like, I could examine possibilities to auto target=“_blank” outgoing links.

I think:

1. It should be a user option to open new links - who knows, some people might want to have the page jump (less cluttered screen)
2. It should be an option for internal and external links.

I agree with Hugh.  May I suggest further that his idea provides an
important advantage of better promoting this new forum by not
redirecting visitors away?

An example might be twitter.com… When a link is opened, you are
not redirected away from twitter.com, as the link opens in a smaller
window in front of it.

Boris, the possibilities to examine may look something like this:

When you click the link:

...Embedded in the tweet via twitter API.

_______________________________________
NOTE:  I just edited this post after posting it.

Thanks for the input, I will examine alternative ways of opening links and letting users decide what option to use. Otherwise we will probably implement target=“_blank” for all outgoing links. I think Erwin has already put this on the request list.

edit: doing some test http://www.nu.nl

I was just wondering if there’s any progress with this. I was going to make my own request for this, but saw this thread, so I’m doing a “follow up”.

This is implemented:
http://www.chatbots.org/account/options/

Let me know if it works fine

I’m afraid it’s not working, Erwin. It still opens links in the same window/tab.