# Minor "back-arrow" weirdness **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 13, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-back-arrow-weirdness/467701 "2008-10-13T12:40:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-back-arrow-weirdness/467701/1 "2008-10-13T12:40:54Z")
This just happened _again_, so I thought I’d mention it: When I’m reading here, I go to a forum, browse down the page, click into a thread I want to read, then, if I don’t post, click the back arrow to go back to the forum page. What has happened at least a half dozen times over the last week or so is that instead of going to the previous page, I go to the page _before_ that, which might be elsewhere in the SDMB site or might be wherever I was elsewhere on the net prior to coming into the Dope. (My bookmark takes me to the MPSIMS forum page, so if it happens in the first thread I read in MPSIMS, two clicks back would be offsite.) If I check the dropdown, there’s no sign of my having been on the intervening forum page. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-back-arrow-weirdness/467701/2 "2008-10-13T15:51:33Z")
This might sound stupid – and if it does to you I apologize – but what I do is essentially a two-tab method. I call up a forum page and then click into a thread using the “Open thread in new tab” function. Then I have an independent tab window to work with without disturbing the forum page. I read the thread, respond as needed, or just close the tab. Then I can return to the forum page whenever I need to without waiting for the page to be re-rendered again. I can also change to a new forum page as needed by simply dropping to the menu below. This seems to me to be the most efficient way to read the board; it’s fast and doesn’t take up a lot of resources. I thought that’s why they made tabbed browsing in the first place. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-back-arrow-weirdness/467701/3 "2008-10-13T23:14:55Z")
I’m an old-fashioned girl. I’ve usually got four or five tabs open for different sites, but navigate around each site in a single tab – otherwise I’ve just got too fucking much open at once. Anyway, since I do use the forward and back arrows, I thought I’d mention this – this is the only site where this happens. It’s not a huge problem for me, just some minor, recurring, weirdness. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-back-arrow-weirdness/467701/4 "2008-10-13T23:47:04Z")
Which browser are you using? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-back-arrow-weirdness/467701/5 "2008-10-14T01:19:51Z")
Don’t yell – IE.