Bumbling highlights square.

[MidiMagic]

How do I get rid of this square full of text that chases my cursor around the forum topic lists like an angry bee. It is annoying, especially when the text spills out from the square and covers other text. It used to appear only if I hovered over the entry for several seconds, but now it won't go away.

[cscgal]

Go into your control panel and in Edit Options there's an option to "disable tooltips".

[cscgal]

I went ahead and changed the way it works so it doesn't follow your mouse around anymore, and you have to pause over a link before it appears. Better?

[MidiMagic]

But I need them for other things (and they appear after a delay there). I just don't want them appearing constantly on the topic titles (which started happening today).

[cscgal]

When you disable them in your control panel they appear the way they did up to today (generated by your web browser instead of via JavaScript).

[MidiMagic]

I went ahead and changed the way it works so it doesn't follow your mouse around anymore, and you have to pause over a link before it appears. Better?

A little. It still appears instantly as soon as I stop the mouse, and the text still spills out of the square if a url is in the first few lines.

And sometimes I get two squares, one on top of the other, with different text, when I hover over one of the icons.

[MidiMagic]

It's back!
And it is very annoying!

[MidiMagic]

OK, I turned off tooltips, and it works right. But why do you have such an annoying feature?

[cscgal]

Because I love it. I had to put it back b/c I missed it too much, and when it didn't follow the mouse around, it was nearly identical to having it disabled and using the browser's tooltips.

[MidiMagic]

It's as annoying as the moving ads.

I turned it off.

[cscgal]

That's why the option is there. Disabling it in your CP simply puts the same information into a browser tooltip (which appears when you hover over a link for a few seconds). The tooltip feature is just a more instantaneous way of displaying the same information.

For people like me, it's nice because it lets me quickly scan a list of threads to see what interests me without having to stop over each link for 5 seconds.

[MidiMagic]

That stupid thing is back! And the selection to remove it is GONE!

Please remember that you put the ability to disable it there because it drives some people's visual systems nuts.

[cscgal]

Actually that's not true. We were having a problem with some of the JavaScript features on the page causing problems like people's browsers hanging and freezing up, and taking a ridicoulously long amount of time to load. Since I knew it was a JavaScript problem, but didn't know exactly WHICH JavaScript was the cause, I provided the option to disable each of the JS features I thought was the culprit one at a time, so the problem could be debugged systematically (excluding one at a time for a large group of members, since everyone seemed to be experiencing different problems depending on their system). It turned out that the problem was related to the rounding corners script for everyone, and so that has now been removed.

[tgreer]

...but now, by reading the latest feedback on the issue, you realize that the annoyance of the hover previews is unrelated to speed, and that the all-or-nothing option of disabling all client-side JavaScript does not address the issue. Also, removing control over an aspect of the site that was previously optional is in hindsight, perhaps, not wise. I respectfully request, as an interested reader/user of the site, that you make this optional again. It dramatically, negatively, affects the usability and enjoyment of the site.

[cscgal]

About an hour ago I made a change where the hover tooltips no longer follow the mouse cursor. They also now wait for you to pause over the link before they go into effect. This is the behaviour they have been at for the past 2 years complaint-free. The complaints around them started coming in a few months ago when I changed the behaviour to follow the mouse, hence being like "bumbling bees" following you around.

[John A]

Tack my name onto the list of people who prefer separate JavaScript disablement options.

[cscgal]

I can understand those who have been complaining about the way the hovers have been following the mouse cursor around as of a couple of months ago. But now it's back to the way it's been for the last 2+ years with no complaints?

[John A]

It's not a huge deal for me, I simply said I preferred separate options. Basically I still want AJAX, but I want to disable some of the other stuff (like floating popup windows) which slows down the site.

[cscgal]

Floating popup windows??

[tgreer]

Dani, your "no complaints" argument is your standard flawed reasoning. The only feedback that matters is the feedback you've been given. You can make no assumptions about this nebulous "non-feedback / non-complaint" crowd. Hey, George Bush hasn't complained anywhere about Daniweb - he must endorse it!

There is no downside to making these things optional. Those who don't complain and like all the defaults will leave things alone. Those who want to disable certain options, can. Where's the issue?