Extension, or browser that gives you better MetaFilter link reading?

July 29, 2024 7:35 AM

I don't know how to describe this exactly, and it is sort of a general issue I have with webpages, but is there a better way to read posts that link to multiple articles?

For more detailed MetaFilter posts there are often several links cited in the body. I have to click on each one separately, and go back and forth between the article, and the post to make sense of the information.

Is there a way to load the articles in line with the post? So that there is a more coherent, less bouncy way to absorb the data?

I tried searching, but I wasn't sure how to word my question.

I hope this makes sense. Maybe researchers have suggestions, or ideas, that aren't necessarily an extension.

Thanks!

posted by thebadseed to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Do you know about "open in tab" and "open in background tab?" The exact keyboard modifier depends on your browser and your OS, but on Firefox on Windows, I can middle-click to open on a new tab (and leave what I was reading in another tab), or hold control (ctrl) while clicking and the link will open in a new tab, behind the tab I'm currently reading. I can switch to it (cmd+tab / cmd+shift+tab) or just click the tab in the UI to switch to it. Similar shortcuts exist for Chrome, Safari, and Edge, I just don't have them all memorized. I'm not sure this solves your problem, but if you aren't already doing it, you might find it helpful.
posted by Alterscape at 7:40 AM on July 29, 2024 [6 favorites]

Using Edge right now and I can right click a link to get an option to open it in a split screen window.
posted by soelo at 7:44 AM on July 29, 2024 [2 favorites]

Best answer: If you're on Firefox, I just saw a port of NiftySplit.

In its own words:

Use NiftySplit to split [your browser] into two windows. Any link you click in the left window will load in the right window.

I've never heard of any extension opening links inline, though I'd love that kinda thing myself.
posted by tripsix at 7:59 AM on July 29, 2024 [6 favorites]

There are RSS feeds for Metafilter - perhaps one of the RSS reader applications has this feature?
posted by TimHare at 9:56 AM on July 29, 2024

I mostly read Metafilter on an iPhone using Safari, and the way I manage this is to long hold on interesting links and select "open in background" which creates a new tab without taking me away from the current page.

When I get to the end of the Metafilter page I look at the new tabs and close them when I'm done (or forget and then mass-close 60 open tabs several days later via show tabs -> long hold on "done" while hearing the voice of Roy Batty saying "all these memories lost, like tears in rain." But I digress)
posted by zippy at 10:42 AM on July 29, 2024

I use Readwise Reader and subscribe to Metafilter's RSS feeds. When I come across interesting links, if I click them in the app, it gives me the option to just add them to Reader, and I come back to them later.

Don't know if that's helpful to you, but that's how I deal with the issue.
posted by bridgebury at 11:36 AM on July 29, 2024

I just right-click on links I want to follow up on after I'm done reading the current page, and do Open Link in New Tab (Firefox). This keeps the page I'm already on exactly as and where it already is, so there's no immediate disruption. Flipping between tabs also preserves context in each one, so going back to an already-read tab after absorbing some kind of illumination from side quests doesn't involve scrolling to re-find the place I was already up to.
posted by flabdablet at 5:01 AM on July 30, 2024

Any halfway decent mobile browser will also have some kind of tabs facility that lets you pre-open links for later reading without delays, but flipping between tabs on a screen that's really too small to allow for much in the way of window decorations is a complete pain in the arse, which is why 99% of my Metafiltering is done non-mobile.
posted by flabdablet at 5:05 AM on July 30, 2024

Bouncing off of NiftySplit, Mozilla made their own extension for opening things in a side panel. You can have the post in the panel and open links in your main view.
posted by lianove3 at 11:15 AM on July 30, 2024