GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 309136
Numbered page links are awkward
Last modified: 2005-07-15 00:18:02 UTC
Underline some or all links, especially the page number indicators. Other information: On web pages, users expect links to be blue and underlined. While the Bugzilla and GNOME site use black underlined links, the GNOME Art site uses blue non-underlined links. It may be bad to make links black, but it is far worse to no underline them, unless the user is accepting of non-underlined links, in which case he can specify this in his local stylesheet. When browsing application themes, there is an indicator for which `page' one is on at the bottom. It reads `1 2 3 4…'. However, the contrast between black and blue alone is not enough to quickly discern which page one is on. Underlining the links would create more contrast, as the current page would not only be black, but would not be underlined.
I cannt confirm this. People who is expected to visit this page allready habe basic understanding off web-browsing and have feeling for this. You can see clickable objects on changing mouse pointer. I see no reason for LINK style changes here.
One shouldn't need to hover over a link to know it is a link. The primary concern is the number links when browsing a multi-page gallery; it is difficult to distinguish the non-link that is the current page from the links that lead to other numbered pages of the gallery, as stated earlier. Also, non-underlining links gives the are site an inconsistent look against the main GNOME site.
What about a compromise: underline links in body text and leave the heading links not underlined (or only underline on hover)?
The headings don't need underlines if it is obvious in some other way that they are links, such as being separated from non-links. The largest problems are in-text links and page number links. Those should be underlined. Underline on hover sort of defeats the purpose, since hovering over a link changes the cursor anyway. It would also be annoying to have to `scrub' the mouse over some text to see whether or not it is a link. It should be obvious.
I agree, in-text links should be underlined, otherwise one would have to hunt and peck for a link.
Committed a change to the style sheet that fixes this bug.
People don't expect links to be underlined for at least five years now. Underlined links look horrible and adds nothing. As long as the link has a clearly distinct color and causes a cursor change, there's no point in explicitely adding underlines to links. Whether or not a link is underlined is a user setting in the client browser. You should consider to revert this change.
Why not just keep it out of the stylesheet altogether, and let the user decide? Obviously there are those who prefer underlined links and some who do not, so just leave the choice up to the browser. As a side note, people do expect links to be underlined. That is why it is still the default setting in all (excepting perhaps a few) major browsers.