Any links on profile page should open in a new tab!

[buddhamaan]

The links there on the profile page (say personal / company website, slack & social links) currently open in the same tab which basically leads the user to a different website thereby leaving the .org website which I feel is wrong. It should actually open in a new tab so that the user can get back to the .org website anytime.

[obenland]

Hey @buddhamaan, welcome to meta trac and thanks for bringing this up!

Users can always navigate back to the .org site with the browser back buttons. I think generally the approach has always been to keep the decision with the user, of whether to open a link in the same or a different tab. On .org sites we're not too worried about users leaving, they tend to come back on their own ;)

[iandunn]

Replying to obenland:

keep the decision with the user

+1

[SergeyBiryukov]

In addition to the above, opening links in new tabs ​should be avoided for better accessibility:

Avoid target="_blank" in your links. It can be confusing to all types of users, especially for visually impaired folks. They can wind up with all sorts of open tabs that they don’t even know about. Leave the control of whether the link opens in the same window or in another tab in the hands of users.