Alternatives to popup windows for social sharing

[gravitystorm]

I think that using a popup window for the social sharing functionality isn't a great user experience, but I would like to have a more detailed discussion about the pros and cons.

In my mind, either one of these would be preferable:

• Links open in a new tab, or
• Use a bootstrap modal dialog

What do other people think? Why were popups originally chosen?

cc @kcne

[AntonKhorev]

Links open in a new tab

That's what already happens on small screens. If you do Bootstrap modal, it probably won't.

[tomhughes]

I think that using a popup window for the social sharing functionality isn't a great user experience

I certainly agree with that - in my case it was opening in the opposite corner of my monitor to the main window. Plus popups are pretty rare on the web these days so it will just surprise people in general I think.

So I'm certainly interested in what the alternatives are.

[kcne]

Popups were chosen initially, inspired by rails-social-share-button, which is now deprecated. I didn't thought too much about alternatives at the time.

To be honest, I’m not a fan of popups either. Refactoring to open links in new tabs would probably simplify the code and make maintenance easier.

For the other alternatives, using Bootstrap modals with iframes likely won’t work due to CSP restrictions on most websites. While the Web Share API is promising, it’s not yet widely supported.

Opening links in new tabs seems like the cleanest and most maintainable solution in my opinion. I would be eager to do a refactor if there is agreement on the approach.

[AntonKhorev]

Anyone who wants new tabs can already open the links in new tabs by middle-clicking.