Forcing Links to Open in a New Window = E.V.I.L.

Repost from my blog. ^_^

It is, perhaps, one of the practices I’ve long ago chosen to forget, even before I adopted the teachings of web standards

See, this topic is brought about by a couple of fanlistings I’ve joined owned by the same person. In her rules, it is mentioned that the link back to her fanlistings must be opened in new windows. Immediately frowning upon the (in my opinion, ridiculous) rule, I set to explain on the comments box that I’m not about to do it because

• it breaks the Strict compliance of a page, as the attribute target is deprecated in the specifications
• it goes against web usability and web accessibility
• target="_blank" takes up precious kilobytes, and typing it is, quite honestly, very troublesome
• it is of my opinion that if users want links to open in a new window, they’d do it themselves (get acquainted with the yummy hotkeys, people!). I’m not about to force it on them
• to put it mildly, it’s helluva lot annoying and unnecessary

This isn’t from just a point of view of an idealist of a standards compliant web. I don’t give a damn if users leave my site in favor of another; there’s always a back button in the browser that can be used (I’ve developed this amusing habit of hitting the backspace key for every website I visit, ugh). And even if I wanted visitors to stay on my blog and be graced by more of my idiotic rants, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to [stay/be]. In the end, I leave the decisions up to the web users. It’s all about their choices. I should know. I’m a web user myself, and I want to have a choice.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bashing the practice of having the links on your website open in a new browser window. I’m not even saying it’s bad practice (though I do think it’s, uh, awful) just because it isn’t exactly recommended.

However, in my point of view as a web user, it can get pretty frustrating (I don’t want a new window, dammit!). As a Firefox user, it can get pretty annoying (a - I have too many open tabs as it is; I don’t need another one, b - I only need and want one window, thankyouverymuch). As a pseudo-standardista, it’s just plain wrong unnecessary (read first two reasons).

I can’t control the practices of different web designers, but the very least I want is to have some control over my browsing experience. And to have such a rule (heh, so now I go back to the cause of all this ranting) is just plain…well…evil. Of course, I’m no angel myself. Those cute little icons I used to use to indicate external links are now a goner (but if and when I decide a major site overhaul, it will be done again).

And don’t even try to force everything your way with Javascript; I can always turn the damn thing off (and I do it most of the time too, because I hate Javascripts…for the most part anyway), and you’d be a fool in my eyes hahahahahaha.

Ahem. So.

No, I’m not about to write a lengthy article about the topic (awww, and I used to do that too, darn). We have the trusty Google for that one. I’m sure some other people have covered this topic well, and explained why links should be opened in the same window (in most cases).

As a very important sidenote, this is only my opinion. I do not speak for the other 99.999% internet users out there. I want things my way, and they want things theirs. *shrugs*

All I’m saying is that, sorry, but I just don’t want my back button to break.