Solution for mobile browser megathread accidental link activation
February 17, 2017 4:17 AM Subscribe
I've been reading a lot of the recent megathreads on Firefox for Android, and accidental finger-clicking on links while scrolling/favoriting makes for a very frustrating experience. Looking for a browser/add-on/javascript hack to improve the situation.
I will often accidentally touch the screen the wrong way while scrolling down a thread, zooming in or clicking the favorite icon, ending up on somebody's profile or an external link. To make matters worse, going back will often land me in the wrong place in the thread, or a version of the page missing comments loaded via the "X new comments" button.
Since not having such fat fingers is not an option, I'm looking for a way to make Firefox open all links on a new tab - this way I will just close the accidental random tab and continue from where I was. Ideally, I would be able to do this on specific designated tabs (some kind of pin mechanism) or at least on designated sites.
So far I have found one add-on that's supposed to do this (unsurprisingly called Links In New Tab), but it's killing the X new comments functionality. I am open to any kind of solution, including switching to a different browser.
I will often accidentally touch the screen the wrong way while scrolling down a thread, zooming in or clicking the favorite icon, ending up on somebody's profile or an external link. To make matters worse, going back will often land me in the wrong place in the thread, or a version of the page missing comments loaded via the "X new comments" button.
Since not having such fat fingers is not an option, I'm looking for a way to make Firefox open all links on a new tab - this way I will just close the accidental random tab and continue from where I was. Ideally, I would be able to do this on specific designated tabs (some kind of pin mechanism) or at least on designated sites.
So far I have found one add-on that's supposed to do this (unsurprisingly called Links In New Tab), but it's killing the X new comments functionality. I am open to any kind of solution, including switching to a different browser.
I wonder if moving the thread to Instapaper would help.
posted by mecran01 at 5:50 AM on February 17, 2017
posted by mecran01 at 5:50 AM on February 17, 2017
I switched to Brave a couple of weeks ago and IMO it's a much better experience - faster (Chromium build), built-in privacy features that I would have to have added as add-ons to FFfA (HTTPS everywhere, no-script, ublock etc). I had many of the issues you outlined, but browsing Metafilter now is a vast improvement. Maybe give it a go.
Note, it's still in beta, but they have lots of things coming up this year that they're going to implement (although I can't find the roadmap atm). Also, it's worth pointing out what it's ad-removal feature is actually about.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 7:36 AM on February 17, 2017
Note, it's still in beta, but they have lots of things coming up this year that they're going to implement (although I can't find the roadmap atm). Also, it's worth pointing out what it's ad-removal feature is actually about.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 7:36 AM on February 17, 2017
schmod's "Mobile Filter" tool (current thread) does away with the "X new comments" feature and just hard-paginates the thread, so maybe it would work in combination with the add-on you've already found, or would be adequate on its own.
posted by XMLicious at 9:02 AM on February 17, 2017
posted by XMLicious at 9:02 AM on February 17, 2017
The mefi preference to open all links in new tabs won't avoid accidentally clicking through to a profile, I do that even without fat fingers!
posted by ellieBOA at 9:53 AM on February 17, 2017
posted by ellieBOA at 9:53 AM on February 17, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by instamatic at 4:51 AM on February 17, 2017 [1 favorite]