The lightbox that opens up asks, "Looking for the GitHub logo?"
But it doesn't let you answer no. It just presumes that your answer is yes, and supplies you with what it thinks you actually want (or, more cynically, what it wants you to want).
I would suggest adding a "No thanks -- just let me right-click" link at the bottom. That link would close the lightbox and prevent it from reopening for the rest of the session, which would be in contrast to its current behavior, where the lightbox pops up no matter how many times you right-click.
You must be a program manager - you have taken a simple and easy solution and added a ton of complexity for a problem 1% or less of people will encounter.
Though it's falling further and further behind mainstream browsers, Konqueror seems to take a principled stand on some of these things - I can still right-click on the github logo normally, and my keyboard isn't intercepted by flash plugins.
I think there's a small market for a browser (or browser plugin) that's all about client control. Querying mouse position, hijacking keypresses and showing popup windows and modal dialogs should be activated with a "This site tried to... Allow/Deny".
NoScript gets part of the way there, but I think you could go even further. Pages should display as soon as the HTML starts downloading, before CSS is loaded, before JS is all there, whatever. I don't care if this causes the page to jump a few times, or if it breaks a few scripts because it's not standards compliant, I just want to read my content on a slow connection.
I probably want to disable webfonts. They're a vanity thing, mostly, and the more I consider it the more I think I should be picking the fonts I read.
Maybe you could go even further - for specific sites with really atrocious interfaces you could have custom-written interfaces that almost completely remodel them (a'la Readability, I guess). I'm sure it would annoy web developers to have their pages render "incorrectly" on your screen, but screw them. My browser, my rules.
Am i the only person who uses middle click(the scroll wheel button) to open a link in a new tab?
This worked for the github icon too; i just checked (Opera 11.61/Linux)
To all that mentioning middle-click: what about when I want to open the main page in a new window? Or copy URL to the page? (sometimes it's faster to right-click on logo than to move up and copy-paste from address bar; also keyboard is not involved).
I'd say the best way would be to add a "No, I just want to get to the homepage!" option to the lightbox. No cookies or saving preferences, just a simple link.
But track how often that link is clicked, and if it really is a lot more than 1% of people, then you know it's a behaviour worth accounting for and can code in your preference tracking thing accordingly. If not, no time wasted.
I doubt it's a matter of knowing or not knowing about those, it's just convenience. If my hand is not on the mouse then I will just Cmd-L gith<TAB><RETURN>, but if my hands are not on the keyboard then I will right-click Open In New Tab.
they really should save this kind of preference to their database so that it follows the user across other sessions and machines too. and then add a setting in their account preferences to opt back in to the right hand click lightbox.
Maybe it's also useful to sync this settings to the Mac App and possibly other apps... an email every time it gets changed would also be useful, in case someone with your login decides to change it. And finally, in teams one should be able to control which member can change this setting for himself, and which not, and the team lead can also set a default what should happen on the right click.. Yeah, that's it.
We're also going to need a way for someone to report on the right click actions. Log the action, build an alert system to distribute and then auto generate an email letting someone know the alert is sent. The reporting should have control levels so the team lead can designate whether someone can see this report, share this report or print this report.
Can someone get on crunching numbers so I can get a pie chart on how many users disabled the right-click, how many people never right-clicked (hey, maybe a tutorial-like tooltip bubble that says "Right-click me!" ?), trends in right-click usage over time and separated by geo localisation? That should be trivial to do, I'm sure.
No, really, please don't turn every comment page into a pun thread that would be an end to HN as we know it. Please try to keep it serious and technical, and down-vote if you can this kind of conversation.
Can you also get in touch with the marketing department to create a new landing page with email opt in which will put all email subscribers in to a 3 day launch sequence to demonstrate this awesome new feature along with video tutorials on how to use it. Please include the usual A/B testing and analytics features. Regards, dolan
Personally, I'd use a combination of Dropbox, iCloud as well as an arbitrary SFTP server. They could use the SSH key you register with them to allow seamless log in, and also encryption of the setting on Dropbox and iCloud.
It's probably overkill to save the preference. A good-and-still-simple solution would be to include a (non-linked) replica image of the original button along with an explanatory link to github.com.
Bravo. This is so simple, I can't believe I didn't think of it -- just put a "github homepage" link/image on that pop-up that users can then right-click to their hearts content.
And here I was thinking about adding cookies and saving client-state. :)
You could say the same thing about what Github is doing with the interception of the right-click event. The "about us" page would be a better place to put links to logo. Leave the user's right-click alone.
The point is they found that members of the press or bloggers who want these assets in the first place are not bothering to drill down to the Press section; they're just grabbing it right from the root index, causing sub-optimal assets to propagate through the media, which reflects poorly on the brand. This way, Github makes sure they're getting publication-friendly versions of their logo when people do that. Ultimately, ensuring their brand is well-represented in the media was deemed more important than avoiding inconvenience to a few power users.
By the same type of abrasive, quick to conclude mindset, you must be a different type of program manager - you believe that just because you do not use a certain feature, no one else should be allowed to use it either.
The complexity is already there. GH went to the trouble of doing it, why not add another button that sets a cookie. Compared to what they've done it's peanuts. Heck, if the website was here (https://github.com/github) they'd get a pull request.
So many people on HN coming up with elaborate ways to get a consistent UX that works for all cases. In my mind the best thing to do would be showing the lightbox but also not disabling the context menu.
Advantages:
* Shows context menu immediately, allowing for edge cases
* Shows lightbox
* Always consistent, no clearing cookies or preferences to get it back
* Unobtrusive; "don't make me think"
* Simple to implement (just allow the event to propagate)
* Robust, context menu works if lightbox breaks
I think this is a fantastic way to handle it. I feel like it should probably be a user-configurable setting, too. There are a surprising number of comments in this thread from people whose process has been interrupted, and I think it's a cop-out to just tell them to ctrl-click to open a new tab. Don't get in the user's way.
I think it should include a note that Shift+Right Click opens the standard context menu. And then let the standard context menu open when you hold down shift.
Why do you need to answer no and right-click otherwise? If you don't want it, you close the dialog; closing it effectively means "No thanks". You're not going to be right-clicking on that logo often like a mad man. The current solution makes perfect sense. Your solution is terrible and overly complex.
But when I close the dialogue and right click again, the dialogue reappears. It'd be nice if it didn't, which is what the OP is suggesting. Maybe the extra "No" button isn't necessary, but I wouldn't call it "terrible".
Why are you going to right click again? Do you want the browser's regular right-click context menu? Okay, that's a valid reason. But then what if you want the popup AGAIN after you click "No thanks"? Does the user then have to clear his cache? This is overly complex.
If the right-click behavior is being overloaded, then the current solution is better than making it a global preference. Many user will be confused with what "No thanks" means. Are you going to have an explanation saying "If you click "No thanks", then you'll get the browser's regular menu after you right-click from now on? If you get rid of the "No thanks", then you'll have inconsistent behavior. The first time you right-click, something will happen, and something different will happen the second time, and users will be like "WTF?" All this trouble with such a small feature shouldn't happen in the first place. The person who suggested this does indeed sound like a typical PM.
If I want to open Github's homepage in a new tab, I can't use only my mouse (right click -> 'open in a new tab'), I must use Ctrl+click. Why Github force me to do that ?
[Edit: middle-click doesn't work for me]
Then this is an argument for NOT overloading the right-click behavior, not for adding a "No thanks" preference. Then all users who want to right-click have to go through ONE EXTRA STEP just to be able to do that?
I think the idea is that you would only have to do that extra step once, have that preference saved, and after that all right click / middle clickers would have the functionality they wanted. Doesn't seem too inconvenient to me, honestly.
The lightbox that opens up asks, "Looking for the GitHub logo?"
But it doesn't let you answer no. It just presumes that your answer is yes, and supplies you with what it thinks you actually want (or, more cynically, what it wants you to want).
I would suggest adding a "No thanks -- just let me right-click" link at the bottom. That link would close the lightbox and prevent it from reopening for the rest of the session, which would be in contrast to its current behavior, where the lightbox pops up no matter how many times you right-click.