Shouldn't this be up to you and something you can change in your browser?

Interesting. You’re the first person to ask for same tab opening. But it might make sense for this particular case. I’ll have a think.

I think trust people to know and do what they want: left click or middle click. The problem with making the new-tab choice for them is they can't click in such a way as to keep the same tab. I have literally written browser extensions to fix auto-new-tab links, it's that frustrating.

This is a compelling enough argument for me to switch the default.

Another data point: I open almost every link in a new tab, but I also find it very frustrating when a link opens in a new tab by default.

I'm the opposite. I actually wrote a small browser extension to make HN links open in a new tab because it annoys me so much.

I can't disagree with what others have said about making it user-choice though. Maybe some kind of toggle switch that lets users set the behavior one way or the other would work?

In chrome-based browsers, you can also middle-click (mouse wheel click) a link to open it as a new tab.

That predates Chrome by many years, in Firefox if not Opera, Konqueror, etc.

99% of the time I'm using a laptop trackpad, not a mouse.

You that you can open in new tabs with ctrl+click?

Just to be sure.

Yes, I'm aware. I'd rather not have to remember to do it every time though. Just personal preference.

A link should always open in the same tab by default, unless there’s a compelling reason otherwise: for users who prefer to open in a new tab (like myself) they can use the appropriate shortcuts, menu options or click combinations. If you configure links to open in a new tab, it’s impossible for a user to open it in the same tab.

I would agree that same-tab is desirable and the rest of us can use ctrl+click according to our preference.

Following this tangent, I think Twitter has some of the worst dark pattern UX about this. Sure, middle click opens a new tab but it also hijacks focus instead of loading in the background. It's really frustrating when I see X interesting things and want to open them all at once and then go through the tabs.