Why does "jump link" pattern not copy?

Question

I am asking this question as a user. I have used several websites with the "jump link" feature, and after clicking on the button I go somewhere else and press Ctrl+V only to find out that the button does not copy the link. It only updates the status bar

How did this pattern arise? Is it good UX or is it only due to historical reasons? If this was redesigned, would it copy to the clipboard when you press the button or is my expectation of copying wrong or inconsistent with most users?

If I want to add this on my website but make it copy, should I need to show some kind of toast saying "✔ Copied", or would this only confuse users into thinking that things would be copied on other websites?

Answer 1

These types of permalinks are very useful in allowing users to link to the most relevant sections of your post/article.

One of the most interesting bits about browsers is that, if an element has an id attribute, it can be linked to using the #. So, if the "Purpose" header you showed in the question has an id of purpose, then the link could look like this: example.com/post-name#purpose. Now when someone clicks on that link, it will load the page with that section at the top of the viewable screen.

Now, one small important detail is that the permalink is a link (yes, stating the obvious), but this means it needs to behave as such. So, adding a copy feature might lead to confusion. But that heavily depends on whose reading your article. Experienced developers will almost immediately know what to do with the permalink, but others or younger developers might not.

If the copy feature is very important you might want to track it's performance (a.k.a. are users using it).

As for the toast, that is a requirement, otherwise the user will not know what just happened when they clicked on the link.