3 ms·

Not even the links along the top work without JS, I guess the temptation to re-implement the <A> tag in JavaScript was too strong. Their re-implementation doesn

Not even the links along the top work without JS, I guess the temptation to re-implement the <A> tag in JavaScript was too strong. Their re-implementation doesn't even support middle-clicking to open in new tabs.

kevincox 6y ago
This is one of my top three annoyances on the web. Soooo many people re-implement links but don't realize that you can do more with links than just follow them. What about copy url, open in new tab, open in new window, share, ... Just use an <a> tag! And if you really need to carefully prevent only left clicks to do internal navigation. (I do wish that <a> tags had a better semantic event that could be used to override only "regular navigation")
- Nadya 6y ago
  A lot of issues like this are to solve problems for less tech-savvy people or are more about poorly thought and untested ideas about how to make browsing easier. Or at least, that's the intention/reasons given by the project managers and clients for why they want things done a certain way. For example opening external links in a new tab is one such common practice. It is done so that people don't lose the page they were on (which is what the Back button is for) because clients are afraid once the user navigates away from their website they won't know how to return to it. But the back button is one of the most used browser features in the browser [1]. If users wanted to open the link in a new tab the browser has the functionality to let them control that behavior but "some people may not know to M3 click, shift+click, or right click->open in a new tab". So instead it is forced for everyone with no way to opt-out without running a userscript that strips out target="_blank" from all <a> elements. And <a> elements are just one of the many cases where "We know how the user wants to interact with our site/the internet as a whole" is often and annoyingly wrong. [1] https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/36017/is-the-browser-back-button-still-the-second-most-used-navigation-feature https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/36017/is-the-browser-...

kevincox 6y ago

This is one of my top three annoyances on the web. Soooo many people re-implement links but don't realize that you can do more with links than just follow them. What about copy url, open in new tab, open in new window, share, ... Just use an <a> tag! And if you really need to carefully prevent only left clicks to do internal navigation. (I do wish that <a> tags had a better semantic event that could be used to override only "regular navigation")

Nadya 6y ago
A lot of issues like this are to solve problems for less tech-savvy people or are more about poorly thought and untested ideas about how to make browsing easier. Or at least, that's the intention/reasons given by the project managers and clients for why they want things done a certain way. For example opening external links in a new tab is one such common practice. It is done so that people don't lose the page they were on (which is what the Back button is for) because clients are afraid once the user navigates away from their website they won't know how to return to it. But the back button is one of the most used browser features in the browser [1]. If users wanted to open the link in a new tab the browser has the functionality to let them control that behavior but "some people may not know to M3 click, shift+click, or right click->open in a new tab". So instead it is forced for everyone with no way to opt-out without running a userscript that strips out target="_blank" from all <a> elements. And <a> elements are just one of the many cases where "We know how the user wants to interact with our site/the internet as a whole" is often and annoyingly wrong. [1] https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/36017/is-the-browser-back-button-still-the-second-most-used-navigation-feature https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/36017/is-the-browser-...