Strange Problem when Hovering over Thread Titles

[kagstone]

I've exhausted myself trying to find help for this, so I'm turning here.

When browsing forums, most of you know you can "preview" a thread by hovering over the title of the thread. Usually a yellow box with the text of the first post appears up for a few seconds. My problem is that the text box that appears BLINKS! It blinks continuously, and sometimes interferes with my ability to click on the thread. I have to "catch it" mid-blink in order to click on the link. It's very annoying and I haven't been able to find anything to help me. You can imagine what results when googling anything with the words "blinking" or "flashing."

I have 2 computers and it's not an issue on my laptop and it's not isolated to any one message board. It seems to be all of them. Does anyone have any ideas?

[jason]

There are two common ways to do those hovers. One is to simply ass a title="" attribute to the link's <a> tag. The other is to use javascript to dynamically show a layer with the text in it in response to an onmouseover event. The latter appears to be the way it is done here.

Which browser are you using when you see this problem? Have you tried other browsers, and if so, do you see a different result?

My guess is that the javascript interpreter on your machine is corrupted. I'd probably try reinstalling the browser (or repairing it if it is IE).

--Jason

[Spathiphyllum]

Jason has rightly described two methods for a coder to create link "previews." This Jaguar forum uses, at a minimum, the "title='text'" method, and it will work whether or not javascript is enabled.

Before reinstalling the browser, you might try disabling javascript, shutting down the browser, restarting, and revisiting the troubled site. If it's a properly formed page and there are no unique CSS styles screwing things up, the hovering over a link with subsequent text popping up should operate properly (js not required). If it's a javascript dependent "hover" or "onmousover" event, then the text popup issue should resume assuming the author isn't using BOTH "title" attributes AND javascript mouseover events.

Have you modified any browser style sheets such that hovering on a link has "blinking" defined? I doubt it, but it's possible that that is what's causing your issue. Similarly, if it's the same forum software on the host sites that creates this anomaly, then the software may be importing a bad stylesheet and it is a conflict based on their styles that's the issue. Check out your browser style sheet settings and try modifying such that you disable the author's styles. If, when you revisit, the issue disappears, then you may have narrowed it down to a software stylesheet issue.