Often when browsing the Empire forums, I read something and want to see more posts by the same people, but when I click their name I only get a pop-up of their basic info, then I have to click their name again to get to their profile page. I think this pop-up should be shown as you hover over the person's name or trashed completely.
I think that pop-u hovering could get annoying, as you might be bombarded with pop-ups as you move your mouse from say, the Post Reply button to a button at the top of the screen. Or you could be trying to read something and accidentally cause a pop-up. I also don't think that this pop-up should be removed, as it gives quick access to the main page, conversations, etc. People might also want to know a quick bit about a person such as post count... without traveling to a whole new page. Though this would be nice, I think that if you really want to see somebody's posts than you are likely to be willing to take a few extra seconds to get there.
Names take up very little space on your screen, so I don't think you would be bombarded with pop-ups. YouTube uses the same system of hovering to get a preview and clicking to go to people's channels, and it works fine.
Hovering still can get in somebody's way, and isn't the difference between hovering briefly and adding two extra clicks very little? I think the system seems to work fine for now.
All you have to do is click their avatar once, then click again. It eventually becomes a subconscious process.
