# Hint ballons have disappeared

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 9, 2004, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275 "2004-07-09T12:54:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/1 "2004-07-09T12:54:23Z")

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I’ve just noticed that all hint ballons have disappeared. Has this happened for anyone else?

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**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/2 "2004-07-09T13:03:13Z")

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Not me. I’m using Opera 6.

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/3 "2004-07-09T13:27:51Z")

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Well, now they’re back. Sorry.

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**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/4 "2004-07-09T14:14:51Z")

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Please humor an idiot and tell me what a hint balloon is.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/5 "2004-07-09T14:33:57Z")

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> [@Exgineer](#):
>
> Please humor an idiot and tell me what a hint balloon is.

Hover your mouse over certain buttons and links here and a little (yellow, on my system) box pops up telling you what the button or link does. For instance, if you hover over the Reply button on the bottom of this post, the box says “Reply With Quote”. It’s more fomally called a Tooltip, in the Windows OS.

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**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/6 "2004-07-09T14:50:36Z")

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Ah, okay, I didn’t know what they were called. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/7 "2004-07-09T23:32:19Z")

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I don’t think you get them if you’re not logged in.

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/8 "2004-07-09T23:47:38Z")

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I’ve always known them as ‘Hint Bubbles’.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/9 "2004-07-10T23:40:30Z")

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I just tried logging out and the popups still showed up.

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**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hint-ballons-have-disappeared/254275/10 "2004-07-11T02:58:51Z")

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As soon as you find out what made them stop coming up, please tell me. I don’t like them YMMV.