Keyword links in posts

[Admin]

Now that the new menu system is finished, I am working on the overall site style update. However, the nest thing after that will be a new feature called "Keyword Links".

 

Keyword links will automatically insert a link to a reference of a word when that word is used in a post. For example, when you are writing a post and you use a term like ASI in it, when you submit your post the Keyword Link will automatically change that word into a link to a popup reference description.

 

So you enter: It was showing 100 knots on the ASI whilst making the turn

 

It will automatically become: It was showing 100 knots on the ASI whilst making the turn

 

When either clicking or hovering on the word you will see:

 

 

So, as this is currently in the planning stage what I would like to know is whether you think it is better to have the link so the user must click it to see the popup description OR the user just hovers their mouse over it and the popup will show?

 

What do you want?

 

 

[Diddy Pilot]

Ian

 

Assuming one first has to move the cursor over the keyword link, then click the mouse to read and then click again to close and return to reading the main text. It would be much better usability if a user just moves the cursor over the word (hover) and the description appears, move cursor off and description disappears. Less keystrokes, easier for the user.

 

 

[Admin]

Thanks mate, yes I was thinking that but perhaps we have a contest to see how many aviation acronyms and terms you could use in the one sentence and then that could show how much of a nuisance the concept would be in moving your mouse around the screen or scrolling on a mobile phone, this is why I thought I would ask the question.

 

Incidentally, I see you are in Canberra, I will be up there tomorrow (Thursday) for the day and maybe living there for a while for work

 

 

[ayavner]

what about on ipad/mobile?

 

 

[Admin]

It would be like it is now, a tap of the finger

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Hover reminds me of that really crappy advertising feature where words become ambushed and a pop up add that in a lot of cases has no real relation to the word or the article then takes over.....

 

Can the system be set up to say pop up for new people, and change to link after a period of time/posts or can it be user definable? For me I wouldn't want pop up, but have played this game for years and think, for example, that I have my head around ASI .... I can see benefit for new people however

 

Andy

 

 

[rhysmcc]

I originally voted for the click, my concern was on mobile devices (I hate pop-ups), however since you've now said they will still be clicked (tap of the finger) I've changed my vote to hover (for PC).

 

 

[Admin]

This is still in concept stage so all your input is valuable. One thing that I have to do in this concept stage is to define the limits, for example say you have in your post j170 then this could be a link to the Aircraft section on the J170 entry, or say you have Tecnam, this could be a link to the site's Tecnam page. How far do we go and where do we draw the line between helpful or hindrance.

 

Andy, yes it could also be used for site sponsors but in terms of it having a duration of "life" would be such an enormous task and really somewhat impossible to define, yes you know what an ASI is but do you know what an ??? is etc.

 

This whole concept came out of a post that a user made when I asked "What Now" for the site so as you can see everyone's input really is taken on board

 

 

[rhysmcc]

Depending how easy it is to add new ones later, I would start with just acronyms. I don't really like the idea of linking away from the page (unless by default it opens in another tab :D). You also don't want a thread that is full of hyper links as it will just look ugly to read.

 

Another issue is many acronyms have multiple definitions (i.e. the recent discussion on RoC), how will you interrupt which is the correct one being mentioned? Will the poster have the final say (maybe an option to exclude the markup)?