Forum menu update: a delay to reduce accidental opening

MSE_Stephen

Hi everyone,

We know the menus beneath Quick Links and Categories have caused frustration by opening as soon as your pointer passes over them.

We’re now trialling a change to make them less easy to activate accidentally.

Your pointer will need to stay over either heading for a little while longer before its menu opens.

Previously hidden the menu?

During this trial, the old hide-menu option is switched off, so everyone can try the new behaviour. This means the menu will appear again even if you previously chose to hide it.

There’s nothing you need to reset. Your old preference will remain saved in your browser in case we need to revert to the previous setup.

Thanks everyone.

Jenni_D

Works perfectly for me .. about a 0.5s delay before the menus appear. Brave browser on Windows 11 26H2 on a laptop. 👍

This is how we would have expected the menus to work from day 1, as this is how things have been on the "web" for 20 years. 😉

libra10

Usually I delete cookies weekly, and then use the link

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/menu-hider?utm_source=old-menu-page

to hide the menu.

Does this mean that I will no longer need to use this link?

Thank you

MSE_Stephen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82198312#Comment_82198312

Hi @libra10

Yes, unless we find a major issue and revert, the old fix has been retired and everyone will now see a delayed menu.

I'm just leaving that old menu-fix page live for a little while until we're sure everything is okay then it will be removed.

libra10

Thanks for your help

cc123mm456

I found a problem.

About 50% of the time, when hovering over the Quick Links or Categories the drop down menu flashes up on screen then immediately disappears, and can't be brought back no matter how long I hover over it. I have tried moving the pointer away and back to the menu but that continues to repeat the same quick flash of the drop down menu, so it can't be accessed while this issue is occurring.

The other 50% of the time, the menu appears as expected after a short delay about 0.5 seconds.

It is an intermittent issue, and I can't find a consistent sequence of steps to recreate it. I found that to stop it occurring, sometimes highlighting some text, or scrolling the page down or up works, but not always.

My browser is Firefox on Windows 11. Both Windows and Firefox are updated to current versions. While testing this, I disabled all extensions in Firefox.

By the way I had previously hidden the menu, due to the old frustrating behaviour.

MSE_Stephen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82198326#Comment_82198326

Hi @cc123mm456

I managed to reproduce and I made some tweaks.

Could you check if this is still an issue?
As always with these things, it might help to clear cache, or try in another profile/Private Window

cc123mm456

Hi @MSE_Stephen

I have tested again. It is working correctly for me now in Firefox.

I also sometimes use Waterfox (a fork of Firefox with a privacy focus) and in that browser, even with a new clean profile, the problem still occurs.

It works correctly while the forum session is not signed in, but the problem occurs after signing in.

Also the problem doesn't occur while browsing the list of threads. Only while viewing a thread while the 'Leave a Comment' box is available.

I'll understand if the issue can't be fixed some browsers that have a limited user base. I could work around it by using Firefox. I'm mentioning that testing for completeness.

molerat

Still as annoying as it ever was. I don't want it popping up at all, If I want it I will click on it, please leave the hide option available. Have reverted to the old method before the choice was introduced, deleted the buttons with uBlock Origin.

cc123mm456

I would also vote for keeping the hide menu option (for those that prefer it) in combination with the change to delay the menu opening.

MSE_Stephen

@Le_Kirk Could you tell us more about the device and browser you're using?
While there has been mention on the update thread of an issue with Firefox, we haven't had any reports yet of the menu still showing instantly.

The underlying menu has remained completely the same, so what we've done is tried a different workaround/fix that we hope will help more of our users - especially users who are just brief visitors.
Additionally, that menu should be full of useful navigation and links, but we've only been able to use it for very basic stuff because we couldn't rely on all our members having access thanks to the old fix.

We'll do what we can to make sure the new delay works for everyone, but it's not possible to have 2 different patches to maintain that possibly conflict with each other and slow the page.