JEDs

I did try to tread lightly as I had an idea it might have been your personal view. We are are entitled.

Your reasons are good ones and as I said the effect has to be measured and is certainly a decision of the site owner.

Once again I have to ask, why now have you chosen to lash out (poor choice of words perhaps)only yesterday on the practice of opening new windows on this thread specifically, instead of 3 months ago? The OP has perhaps come and gone, never to benefit from your point of view. The reason may be a good one; you were not operating here in your present capacity, you only just became aware of the thread, etc.

You see, I was concerned that it would become personal, and it felt that way on this side of the screen. If you can divulge why, I would appreciate it.

Best Regards,

-JEDs

Oye! Good Sir, as you are a moderator of this fine forum, I am ill-advised to get into a back-and-forth with you on probably most anything. I should at least bow to you for your help on a recent thread!
(Read: Thank you)

Yet…deep breath. I have followed the conventional wisdom of not opening a new window for many years. Now some argue on the improved sophistication of the end user. There are those that will angrily close a site that opens a new window. The site can warn the user about the new window link. The site owner has to juggle what the effect will be against the purpose of the site along with the purpose of the new window. And then test to determine if it should be changed.

Does not the use of a plugin to open a new window provide the same result? (If so, then your post here could have been 3 months ago)

My only purpose here was to provide a compliant method for those that are looking for a way to open a new window. The OP validated that it might be useful to someone.

Guardedly, (where are the emoticons? ;+)

-JEDs

If you want to open a new window with xhtml strict compliant code, the widgett is not sufficient.

Instead use a script such as at: http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/standards-compliant-world

then in wp-includes\default-widgets.php, about line 759:
$title = "<a class='rsswidget' href='$url' rel='external' title='" . esc_attr__( 'Syndicate this content' ) ."'><img style='border:0' width='14' height='14' src='$icon' alt='RSS' /></a> <a class='rsswidget' href='$link' rel='external' title='$desc'>$title</a>";

(rel=’external’ added twice)

and line 880:
echo "<li><a class='rsswidget' href='$link' rel='external' title='$desc'>$title</a>{$date}{$summary}{$author}</li>";

(rel=’external’ added once)

This will open the rss icon window, the feed title window and the feed article window in new windows and is compliant.

-JEDs

Ditto: Hostgator;worked

Thanks!
JEDs