Is there a way to turn off thread previews?

[Kobold-Bard]

While I'm sure many people will appreciate the mini preview you now get when you mouse over a thread's title, I personally find them annoying (they are new right, I'm not just a bit dim and never noticed before right?).

Is there a way to turn them off, either on the site or some other way (using Chrome if that matters)?

Thanks in advance,
K-B

[grimbold]

i would just like to say that the forum update allowing you to see the beginning of a post is fantastic and really helpful
i commend the giant on this

[Tirian]

It's not even mousing over the thread's title on my browser, it's the entire "cell" that contains the name of the thread.

I'd also like to cast a vote against it or appeal for a way to turn it off personally. It makes a little sense for short threads, but the first post of a thread doesn't have much value when the thread is five pages long.

[Asthix]

I don't get it. What are the drawbacks specifically, aside from finding it annoying? If a thread is named 'look at this' and its five pages long, I'd still like a mouseover of the first post.

[Kobold-Bard]

I don't get it. What are the drawbacks specifically, aside from finding it annoying? If a thread is named 'look at this' and its five pages long, I'd still like a mouseover of the first post.

Rubbish titles are a separate issue addressed here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179397).

Besides it being annoying there are no drawbacks, but when something's annoying to some there will hopefully be a way to turn it off.

[Asthix]

Hmm. Rubbish threads aside, Mouseovers do serve a purpose. I think an option to turn mouseovers off needs a reason to exist beyond personal preference.

[Tirian]

I don't get it. What are the drawbacks specifically, aside from finding it annoying? If a thread is named 'look at this' and its five pages long, I'd still like a mouseover of the first post.

The information that I want on that page is all of the thread titles. That's difficult if there is a large tooltip window giving me the first post for one topic (which is of limited or no interest) that covers part of the title of the next topic or two. This could make some sense if there was a small icon in the table cell that had the post as its tooltip that you could deliberately steer towards if you wanted that information, but instead it's the whole cell.

[Kobold-Bard]

Hmm. Rubbish threads aside, Mouseovers do serve a purpose. I think an option to turn mouseovers off needs a reason to exist beyond personal preference.

Why exactly? The ability to appear offline is a personal preference. That serves no other purpose

[Claudius Maximus]

Oh wow. I never noticed that that happened.

My question would be why you hover your mouse over the titles long enough for the text to pop up. I never did it even by accident.

Edit: So it was a recent addition. :smallsigh: Go on, laugh.

[Tirian]

*shrug* I go through the forum list and right-click-"Open in a New Tab" for each thread I want to read, so that's a natural place for my mouse cursor to rest before today. I suppose it probably won't be now.

[Irbis]

Actually, we had this before, it was just turned off. About two years ago, IIRC.

And I bet uncommenting that one line required a decade or two of tests :smalltongue:

[happyturtle]

I also really like the hover text. Thanks. :smallsmile:

[Mordokai]

I, on the other hand, find it quite annoying. Any way to turn it off?

[Claudius Maximus]

I just middle-click the titles or the green new post thingy. I do it fast enough that I really didn't notice the update.

That said it would be nice to get a turn-off option if possible. Obviously some people don't like it.

[Mordokai]

Yeah, I'm one of those who don't much care for it either.

[mucat]

I'm in the "really like it" camp. Thanks, staff!

[Strawberries]

Hey, I had not noticed it till now! :smalleek:

...but I like it. :smallbiggrin:

[Marnath]

I, on the other hand, find it quite annoying. Any way to turn it off?

I agree with this sentiment. It keeps blocking the thread names below it.

[The Dark Fiddler]

See, I was just about to mention how there were redundant threads. I find it fascinating that they were merged right before I said it. Obviously there is no mind reading either, citizen. Go back to your fun.

[Mando Knight]

I just middle-click the titles or the green new post thingy.
Middle-clicking is what I do, too. Much faster than accessing "Open in New Tab" from the menu.

[Elder Tsofu]

Oh, I didn't think that it was new - just felt natural so I didn't really notice it.

If there is a simple solution for a personal turn-off then go for it - otherwise I like it how it is now. (and I middle-click too, but that's because I have an external mouse and not just a mousepad)

[Rawhide]

Move the mouse three centimetres?

[Kobold-Bard]

Move the mouse three centimetres?

Well obviously yes that does it, but seeming them pop up all the time is still irritating to my meagre mind.

I shall take this post from the person I assume would know the answer as a resounding no, and move on with my life.

[Rawhide]

As far as I am aware, there is no way to turn the thread preview on or off on a per-person setting. Moving the mouse out of the cell will disable the preview, or try hovering over an area you don't mind it covering.

Alternatively, you can see if there is a way to hide the box after it appears, like there is in Excel. In Excel, if you press Esc after a little helper box thingy (technical term) appears, it will vanish. I haven't found anything for IE, but if you press Alt, it will show the menu bar and hide all of those boxes until you press Alt again or click on something (including blank space) other than the menu bar.

[senrath]

Using Firefox you can hit pretty much any key to close the preview box after it comes up.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Using Firefox you can hit pretty much any key to close the preview box after it comes up.

I don't know if it's just my computer, but I also have the fortune of it not showing if I scroll down without moving the mouse.

[Mando Knight]

(and I middle-click too, but that's because I have an external mouse and not just a mousepad)
Some mousepads will let you treat clicking both the left and right buttons simultaneously as a middle click.

[Rawhide]

Some mousepads will let you treat clicking both the left and right buttons simultaneously as a middle click.

Or you can just hold down Ctrl and left click.

[Zherog]

As far as I am aware, there is no way to turn the thread preview on or off on a per-person setting. Moving the mouse out of the cell will disable the preview, or try hovering over an area you don't mind it covering.

When WotC was running a vB installation (before they mucked it up with their Gleemax integration), they had an option in the User CP that disabled the "preview on mouseover" option. However, I'm quite certain it was an extension (or mod or whatever vB calls them) and not standard functionality.

So, it is possible to make it user controlled. However, it's most likely that such an option is not standard, but instead requires modifying the code. Working on the assumption that vB has a "mod community" similar to the one phpbb has, I'm also going to go ahead and speculate that finding an appropriate modification won't be difficult; however, verifying it, vetting it, testing it, and documenting it is - as always - a much bigger task.*

* I work in software development. A simple "one line" code change takes me at least three days to complete, due to documentation, test scripts, regression test scripts, and so on. Since text-based communication isn't always clear, I wanted to mention that just to make sure my comment isn't read with any snark, because none is intended. Having a solid, well-documented, verifiable, reproducible change control process is a terrific thing, and I applaud Rawhide for making sure the environment here is so well-configured.

[Castaras]

Add me into the "Love it" camp. Use it allll the time on other forums, didn't really realise it was new on this forum until I realised I'd only been using it on this forum for a short while.

[Dragonmuncher]

Wow... I forgot how much I missed these! I remember, Back In The Day, when we had them... good times. Back in the Dark Times, when the entire giantip server was a Macbook running in an internet cafe in Liberia*


But yeah, awesome. Thanks for the upgrade!






*probably not true

[Capt Spanner]

I find the mouseover appears really really fast.

As I move my mouse down the page to a link I want to click on, it's pretty common the brief time it takes for my mouse to pass over the link one or two above my target to link to trigger the preview box, blocking access to the link I want to click.

This could be helped by increasing wait-time for the box to, say 2 seconds, so the act of getting the box is more deliberate.

[Irbis]

This could be helped by increasing wait-time for the box to, say 2 seconds, so the act of getting the box is more deliberate.

That's how it behaves for me :smallconfused:

[happyturtle]

If you're using Firefox, type 'about:config' in the url bar. Read the warning and click 'I'll be careful, I promise'.

Find the line that reads browser.chrome.toolbar_tips. Right click on it and choose 'toggle' to change the value from true to false.

The hover text should now be disabled. At least it did for me. (Windows 7, Firefox 3.6.13). Of course, then I toggled it right back because I liked it. :smallsmile:

[littlebottom]

i think its got its uses, but it does annoy me when its a thread i go to often, i dont need to keep seeing the first post, so if it could show me the first unread post of the thread it would be much more usefull to me.

either way, im in the middle, its good, its bad i can live with it:smallconfused:

[Mordokai]

If you're using Firefox, type 'about:config' in the url bar. Read the warning and click 'I'll be careful, I promise'.

Find the line that reads browser.chrome.toolbar_tips. Right click on it and choose 'toggle' to change the value from true to false.

The hover text should now be disabled. At least it did for me. (Windows 7, Firefox 3.6.13). Of course, then I toggled it right back because I liked it. :smallsmile:

That works awesomely. Thanks for the tip and au revoir to annoying pop ups.

[Zherog]

Indeed it does.

Should we ever meet, Happyturtle, I will be more than happy to buy you a beverage of your choice.

[Nohwl]

is there a way to disable it for chrome?

[Salbazier]

Hmm, normally I donn't particularly care but there is some case where I think it is quite nice. So put in the 'Love' camp?

[happyturtle]

Sorry, I don't use chrome, so I couldn't say. :smallfrown:

[TechnoScrabble]

I appreciate the pop up thing for interest gaining without opening anything, but it doesn't help that much.
Maybe an option thing?

((I'm surprised a thread lasted this long in the board/site issues board...))

[Kobold-Bard]

I appreciate the pop up thing for interest gaining without opening anything, but it doesn't help that much.
Maybe an option thing?

((I'm surprised a thread lasted this long in the board/site issues board...))

That was the point of the thread, and Rawhide said it doesn't exist.

I'm now on the edge of my seat in case a Chrome version of happyturtle's solution pops up.

[Thufir]

If you're using Firefox, type 'about:config' in the url bar. Read the warning and click 'I'll be careful, I promise'.

Find the line that reads browser.chrome.toolbar_tips. Right click on it and choose 'toggle' to change the value from true to false.

The hover text should now be disabled. At least it did for me. (Windows 7, Firefox 3.6.13). Of course, then I toggled it right back because I liked it. :smallsmile:

The disadvantage of this is it appears to disable mouse-over text in general. So, anyone who reads xkcd, Dr. McNinja, or any other webcomic which has interesting mouseover texts on the comic may want to avoid this solution.

[happyturtle]

You can still right click and choose 'View Image Info' to see image title text.

[DaTedinator]

I find the mouseover appears really really fast.

As I move my mouse down the page to a link I want to click on, it's pretty common the brief time it takes for my mouse to pass over the link one or two above my target to link to trigger the preview box, blocking access to the link I want to click.

This could be helped by increasing wait-time for the box to, say 2 seconds, so the act of getting the box is more deliberate.

This. It only lasts a second, and as you said, Rawhide, I just have to move the pointer three centimeters. It's small enough that I wouldn't mind if it was rare, or even occasional, but this at least every other thread I click on, and it's getting frustrating.

Well, frustrating is too strong a word. Annoying, I guess, like mosquitoes at a barbecue: it's not that it makes things not fun, just that it makes things less fun.

[John Cribati]

Um... Am I the only one who is thinking that the solution is simply to not mouse over the title of the thread? If it's not, please enlighten me otherwise.

[Kobold-Bard]

Um... Am I the only one who is thinking that the solution is simply to not mouse over the title of the thread? If it's not, please enlighten me otherwise.

Makes it damned difficult to click on them that way.

[John Cribati]

Um, I just tried it. I have to hover over the thread title for a second and a half before a box shows up. I really don't see a problem here.

EDIT: The box also shows about 10 pixels away from the pointer for me, allowing me to click anyway.

[Ceric]

I don't like them either (they appear immediately for me when the cursor enters the box, which doesn't seem to be the case on other computers/browsers).

But if we can't get them to turn on and off... can we get the size of the preview to be based on number of lines rather than characters? Some of the OPs with single, doublespaced (or even triplespaced) lines have previews that fill a good deal of my screen. (10.1" netbook, so that's my fault, but still :smallbiggrin:)

[SPoD]

Makes it damned difficult to click on them that way.

I think, based on this response, that what you are seeing in your browser is radically different than what some of the rest of us are seeing. Specifically, it is impossible for the little yellow alt-text box that I see when I hover over a link to ever block me from clicking anything, because the moment I move my mouse, it disappears. That's true whether I use Safari or Opera, though the Opera boxes are a lot bigger.

Based on previous answers given around here, I don't think they're going to make a change to the message board based on the experiences with one or two specific browsers if all other browsers work fine.

[Rockphed]

((I'm surprised a thread lasted this long in the board/site issues board...))

Largely it is still open because the mods answer was no, but they realized that there might be other ways to turn it off.


The disadvantage of this is it appears to disable mouse-over text in general. So, anyone who reads xkcd, Dr. McNinja, or any other webcomic which has interesting mouseover texts on the comic may want to avoid this solution.

I wonder if there is any way to restrict the site where HappyTurtle's script works. Okay, I'm pretty sure there are ways to do that, but I wonder if there are any effective and simple ways to accomplish it.

[Fin]

Add me to the 'dislike' group. It appears for me straight away and it is in the way when I try to view other titles. As far as the solution being 'move you mouse', that is all well and good but you have to do that every time. Surely a better solution would be 'move your mouse to the preview text toggle and switch it to off', is a much more convenient and permanent solution.

Only at the next site update that is, it doesn't bother me so much that I demand the site's worker pixies to drop everything else they are doing and make a fix immediately

[Trixie]

I wonder if there is any way to restrict the site where HappyTurtle's script works.

Um... it's not HappyTurtle script. It's browser-wide configuration sheet.

If you wanted the change to affect only OotS page, you'd need to make custom CSS sheet.


Surely a better solution would be 'move your mouse to the preview text toggle and switch it to off', is a much more convenient and permanent solution.

Given SAA#1 usually given here, I guess it will take about 24 years of coding and about a decade of testing to give you that option* :smallsmile:



* Probably exaggerated. A bit. :smalltongue:

[Zherog]

Only at the next site update that is, it doesn't bother me so much that I demand the site's worker pixies to drop everything else they are doing and make a fix immediately

This implies that something is broken. It's not - it works exactly as intended. Just because some folks (including me) don't like it doesn't mean it needs fixed.

[Fin]

This implies that something is broken. It's not - it works exactly as intended. Just because some folks (including me) don't like it doesn't mean it needs fixed.

Oh I know, I just use the term 'fix' for any and all changes included in a patch or update in this kind of context, like patches or new version releases of software.

[happyturtle]

You could also try checking your mouse settings in the control panel, to increase the lag before hover popups.