Forcing them to open in new windows/tabs is bad for accessibility. Read
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_16_not_opening_new_windows.html
Might be the “correct way” but for a comercial site its stupid…fundamentally your customers run out the door and down the road to look at a catalogue!
True, but another stupid thing for a commercial site to do is annoy its customers!
If a thread contains a link of interest then sometimes I may choose to open that link in a new tab, sometimes in a new window and sometimes in the same tab. I like being able to choose – being forced to always have a new tab would annoy me.
I usually have multiple tabs open on STW (one on the main forum and one on each thread I am reading) so if I open in the same tab I’m not “running out the door”. I’m.. errr.. just glancing out the window.. or something.