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dspilletttoday at 8:55 AM7 repliesview on HN

> You get a link from LinkedIn [or such]. You click on it, the URL loads, and you read the post. When you click the back button, you aren't taken back to wherever you came from. Instead, […]

I've taken to opening anything in a new tab. Closing the tab is my new back button. In an idea world I shouldn't have to, of course, but we live in a world full of disks implementing dark patterns so not an ideal one. Opening in a new tab also helps me apply a “do I really care enough to give this reading time?” filter as my browsers are set to not give new tabs focus - if I've not actually looked at that tab after a little time it gets closed without me giving it any attention at all.

Specifically regarding LinkedIn and their family of dark patterns, I possibly should log in and update my status after the recent buy-out. I've not been there since updating my profile after the last change of corporate overlords ~9 years ago. Or I might just log in and close my profile entirely…


Replies

bluGilltoday at 12:48 PM

When I intentionally want to read something that is what I do. However once in a while I'm scrolling, selecting a window, or some other activity; and I happen to click on a link: instead of whatever action I intended I end up on a new page I didn't want to read (maybe I will want to read it, but I haven't go far enough cognitively to realize that). That is when I want my back button to work - a get out of here back to where I was.

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sidewndr46today at 12:37 PM

given the level of hostility most businesses have towards their customers, we should probably be opening links in disposable virtual machines

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cortesofttoday at 3:37 PM

I have always done this, although mostly so I don’t have to reload the page I am coming from when I hit the back button.

RajT88today at 2:13 PM

This is the way. People think I am eccentric for the number of tabs I keep open.

znort_today at 10:24 AM

>I've taken to opening anything in a new tab.

this is the way.

bertiltoday at 9:50 AM

I do that everywhere, but it seems to fail for LinkedIn: they don’t redirect the link if it’s not in the same tab.

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troupotoday at 10:16 AM

> Closing the tab is my new back button.

In Safari if you open a new tab, don't navigate anywhere, and click back, the tab closes and takes you back to the originating page. I've gottent so used to it, I now miss it in any other browser