I've reproduced the problem here: http://jsfiddle.net/Rc52x/5/
If you click on Click here!
while using Chrome, the textarea gains focus and you can start typing as expected.
If you click on it while using Firefox (I'm using 3.6.15 right now), the textarea does NOT gain focus and typing does nothing.
What the heck?
This works:
return false prevents from navigating to "#..."
You need to prevent the default action of the link: http://jsfiddle.net/JAAulde/Rc52x/7/
Firefox is following it causing the textarea to lose focus after gaining.