Ask HN: Why doesn't HN open links in a new tab

All the other platforms do it. Kind of makes me wonder if there's a specific reason...

It gets especially annoying when I start browsing that link's website, after a bit realize where I came from, and now that page is gone.

4 comments

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LinuxBender 7y ago ↗

You could email them and suggest it. Since they don't specify a doctype in the page and browsers are using quirks mode, it should support a target [1] without issue.

[1] - https://html.com/attributes/a-target/

Their email is:

    hn@ycombinator.com

sylvanhughes 7y ago ↗

Email sent. Thanks!

Tomte 7y ago ↗

I don't want that behaviour.

If you want it, cool, use middle button click or whatever works on your system. But don't take my preferred behaviour away without any remedy.

Cederfjard 7y ago ↗

Opening in the same tab is the default behaviour of links in most browsers. If you want to, you can probably configure yours to always open links in new tabs, or like Tomte said, middle click on them. I don't like websites altering default behavior either, especially since it's usually so easy to open in a new tab anyway when you want to.