Lack of interest Inconsistent Prefix behavior... bug or suggestion

[beerForo]

This inconsistency is perhaps a hyperlink bug (if so please move thanks!). The hyperlink is mistakenly activating the prefix in non-prefix active areas. This can lead to unintended behavior when assuming the prefix will take you to that prefix's results, so I was hoping it could be addressed.

I don't think I need screenshots, I will just use brackets below to represent the two different elements; prefix and title.

Forum view
[prefix: active] [title: active]... correct
New posts and various new content listings
[prefix: inactive] [title: active]... assuming correct
Latest activity & Last poster info on forum home (+widget)
[prefix and title active as one to thread destination]... assuming incorrect, prefix should be inactive here.

Could the solution be to be consistent by not hyperlinking the prefix with the title destination in those two areas, and any others that may exist? Even though I would like prefixes to be active in these areas and lead to prefix results, that is a different suggestion and this inconsistency only contributes to that confusion. Thanks!

 

[beerForo]

Question to staff. Should I report the active prefix that links to the title as a bug? The fact that it is inconsistent behavior for that area just irks me... but don't want to fill up the bug section with what is more of an inconsistency unless I should. Thanks

 

[Mike]

Should I report the active prefix that links to the title as a bug?

In short, no -- it wouldn't be something we'd be planning on changing. This has been the approach since prefixes were added in 1.x (I don't even remember the version). We generally consider the prefix to be part of the thread title, so linking to the thread isn't necessarily incorrect. This is generally something we only do in sentence contexts (partially for technical reasons).

In terms of the thread listing though, it was deemed that the ability to filter was likely of more use and with that in mind, linking to the thread in contexts where the same output was used but the prefix usable for filtering would cause more confusion.

 

[beerForo]

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

I understand what you mean by sentence form, as in, Latest Activity. But also the last poster column has it on forum home + widget, which are not sentence form, which is the same format as the rest of What's New, where the prefix is not hyperlinked with the title (it is plain text).

Since this is still in Suggestions I will just suggest a little more consistency. The confusion comes where, you are in What's New and click the prefix and see nothing happens. Then in What's New >> Latest Activity you see you can click it and your initial thought is, oh this is taking me to a filtered prefix list since I can click it. Perhaps loop them all into the title link in all of What's New (for consistency), or remove all outside of filter areas (to avoid confusion of a sort, which only happens when filtering a forum). Which would to me be the best case scenario so clicks here, clicks there don't mean different things. It means one thing, filtering. I think filtering upon click could be expanded to search result areas as well.

Thanks a lot!