There are a lot of reasons for this.
It sucks to lose the thread just to click on a Casino Link, a Video, or an Image. For me, it feels not right.
So, it would be nice to add:
Target="_blank"
To each link on the site...
That way it would open links in a new tab, and I promise this will be something good for the forum and it will increase the traffic, and I don't mean more visitors, I mean the people will spend more time on the site because each time they get redirected to another site is like lose a customer, but that doesn't happen if links open in a new tab.
This is a good idea being suggested, I've also encounter loosing content or threads am supposed to post on just by clicking on links that override the current page i am on instead of opening the link on another tab, it should be noted that these links do take one off the forum and uses the current tab to load their website instead of loading on another tab, the more am very careful of opening links except am done with what am doing on bitcointalk page before checking on links, this will help members maintain being on forum than leaving unaware through click on links.