Random hovercard popups can be annoying for readers if they do not automatically close in, i.e, 4 seconds and appear more than once every few articles or inside the same article while someone tries to read it. It feels like an ad popup behavior.
Topic on Talk:Page Previews/Flow
It is indeed annoying. This is the main reason why I removed the original user script/gadget after trying it for some time.
See also phab:T96568
He7d3r, if I understand correctly, you're saying that you removed Navpopups because it annoyed you that every single link triggered a popup. Is that accurate?
If so, can you think of any tweaks or configuration options that might make the features (either Navpopups and/or Hovercards) better for you (and other people with similar opinions).
Not really. It is just too much noise every time I'm not trying to read the content of the target pages (e.g. leaving the mouse at a random position in the screen, which happens to be where there is a link; trying to select a text which contains a link; trying to copy the URL of a link, or to just view that URL in the status bar...).
Manoshacker: For the first part, I think you're referring to T92932. Is that correct?
No, I am referring to random popups of hovercards, that occur at any time, without a hover over a link, as announced.
I do not know if we are talking over a bad translation, this is what I have read: "Πριν από την έναρξη αυτής της δοκιμής, έχουμε προσθέσει πολλές οργανικές λειτουργίες - κώδικα που μας επιτρέπει να γνωρίζουμε πώς χρησιμοποιούν οι χρήστες το χαρακτηριστικό, όπως τυχαίες εμφανίσεις Αιωρουμένων Καρτών, χρονικό διάστημα που εμφανίζονται..."
I see some enthusiasm for hovercards, and some objections. I agree with the objectors, even to go so far as to say I hate them. (the hovercards, not the people!) I habitually point with my mouse as I read, The pop-ups are exceedingly annoying for anyone with that habit. ~~~~
(text removed, I will add it to another comment)
Interesting perspective, closing the hovercard after a delay might feel confusing to some users, especially if they are slower readers, and haven't moved their cursor, any time a system acts or reacts without the users input that might feel odd.
To your second point about only loading a few cards per session, we might face the same problem, how would a user know when the cards will show and when they won't? Our goal for hovercards, and really any design is to have consistent behavior.
Reality = adaptive behavior or .. ! Let users customize and use average settings as defaults.