I apologize if there has been another thread regarding this situation, but something needs to be done. The new homogenic web sites that all the teams and MLS have switched to have a problem. They are written with Microsoft Internet Explorer-specific code. While MSIE is obviously the #1 choice of browsers for most people, I know many, including me, use an alternative as a primary browser. I use Opera almost exclusively. The Fire switched over their web site today, and it is more obvious than ever that something needs to be changed in order to cater to the alternative browser users. People with Mozilla, Opera, and Netscape have already complained that the alignment is off to the point where the site is barely navigable due to items being covered, etc. If anyone else is having trouble with any of the league sites, I urge you to contact the webmasters of the various teams and MLS. This is not just about trying to avoid giving MS a monopoly. I'm not trying to "stick it to the man!" I feel that my preferred browser is far superior, and I don't appreciate it when a site caters only to users of an inferior product.
The more browsers that a site can support the better. But for some perspective, people might be interested in the distribution of browsers used to access SoccerAudio, which I would guess is not widely dissimilar to BigSoccer: MSIE 6 73.25% MSIE 5 19.78% Netscape 7 3.85% Netscape 3 1.69% Netscape 4 0.84% Other 0.28% MSIE 4 0.13% AOL 4 0.05% Opera 6 0.03% WebTV 1 0.01% MSIE 3 0.01% Opera 5 0.00% Netscape 6.39% - MSIE 93.18% - Other 0.39% Conclusion MSIE essential, Netscape important, anything else why bother.
Because these numbers are skewed by the fact that many developers, aware of things like browser checks, place an option in their browsers to identify them as MSIE to avoid being kept out of sites. I always have the option to identify myself as MSIE on. That way, I can avoid screens like, "This site is optimized for use with Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can't look at our stuff, because you're not using that." Opera use is definitely lower, but I bet it's actually higher than Netscape these days. When I log onto a site, I know that it's identifying me as an MSIE user. I'm sure as hell not one though... except here at work. I should remedy that, come to think of it. It's unfortunate that people, including you, unfortunately, believe that barely any alternatives are being used. That's the price that Opera pays to be the brunt of MSIE's wrath. If just over 0% of web users are using Opera... why is MSIE specifically targetting Opera with code on MS sites? They just paid a 12 million dollar settlement to Opera to avoid legal action as a result.
My user agent string: "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.2; Linux) (KHTML, like Gecko)" Web sites that don't follow standards and cater to specific browsers really suck. Having said that, I have noticed only a few annoying oddities with mlsnet.com or the new Earthquakes page. Some things are a bit off, but it's all usable. Well, except for the videos, which are using a different codec from last year. Last year's goal highlights played perfectly
The last 100 browsers at www.ibiblio.org/footy/ IE 6.x - 82 IE 5.x - 15 NS 5.x - 3 This is a pretty typical distribution.
I got only the top and left sides on Mozilla FireFox this afternoon. I don't always use that browser, but will occasionally at work because my MSIE has been acting up. At home, it's MSIE, no problem.
Why bother? Because when Microsoft changes the way it decides to display pages in the next version of IE, they'll have to redesign the site again. Why not conform to industry standards now and be done with it?
I used to exclusively use Netscape 4.x, but the number of Microsoft-only sites - including ordering tickets for WC2002 - forced me into using IE more and more. Now it's my default browser. I still use Mozilla for email. Even though Mozilla is my default email program - Windows knows it - and other apps use - IE insists on trying to open Outlook when I click on a "mailto:" link. There has to be a way for me to change that behavior, but damned if I can figure it out. Any help? I remember registering Opera to use it on my OS/2 machine. Those were the good old days.
Web standards are important. MSIE-specific tags are not compliant. I don't say this because I use FireFox. I say it because without a consistently applied standard, "sh!+ don't work".
About a year ago MS stopped development on IE for Mac because they felt they couldn't do as good a job as Apple could: http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/06/13/explorer/index.php?redirect=1086075253000 That's all well and good, except now I can't even use IE to view newer IE-only webpages (such as the recently redesigned MetroStars site). This is a bad decision imo by MLS that only serves to reduce an already small audience by even more. Shouldn't MLS want to allow access to its sites for as many people as possible?
I'd definitely let the league know about it. I suspect they want the same level of service and technical competence that MLB gets.
Notice the scrollbar on the bottom. Most likely all of the content is off to the right. That's how it is for me on Mozilla.
And Noah wins! I didn't even think to look all the way over there. Yes, it's all there. It's like that stadium in Korea or Japan where they slide the pitch out into the parking lot.
When I try to log onto mlsnet, my browser (IE) immediately crashes. Is there anyway those of you that post links to the site's stories on these boards, might also pull out a few important quotes for those of us unable to gain access? thanks
What Kenn sees is exactly what I see at home with FireFox 0.8. Took me a minute or two to think to scroll to the right. It's annoying, but at least I can access everything. I checked a few of the team sites, and Chicago's was vertically "mashed", with element boxes overlapping each other. This could also be a stylesheet issue, as some hacks to make stylesheets work in IE break pages in other browsers. Very annoying. FWIW, MLSnet works perfectly on Mozilla 1.2.1 ...
Thank goodness! I thought I was going nuts being the only person on earth unable to load MLSnet.com at all. Of course, this is with IE 6.028. I get nothing. Zilch. Any response at all from MLSnet people about problems??
I use firefox, sucks same problem. They use layers which is a no, no. Stuff ends up on top of each other for the team sites.
Layers are OK - in fact, it's a good idea from a design stand point, because it allows the stylesheet to do the layout. You just have to make sure the stylesheet works in all the browsers visiting your site, which is easier said than done. Separation of content and presentation is a very very good thing. I lied earlier. The site is no longer working properly in Mozilla 1.2.1. I looked at the page source, and it look OK from a conceptual POV, but the page failed to validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional with 422 errors (a large number of them appeared to be cascading errors).