Re: Professional Question - Dealing with MANY ppl on one site

At 10:25 AM 1/15/02 -0600, Carol Parent wrote:
>Good morning,
>
>I am about 90% completed with a site that I designed for a local
>chamber.  Totally went low on my price as a community service.  So far
>all the ppl that are "in charge" have said "how great" the site is.
>
>Today I received an e-mail from ONE member who is using Netscape 4 and
>is complaining that the "unlinked" pages in the navigation are Black,
>therefore they are hard to see.  He is also complaining that with his
>machine the email will not work from within Netscape 4.
>
>These are the stats:
>Netscape 5.91%  -  MSIE 91.13%  -  Other 2.95%
>
>Question:
>1) Would you for the relatively small % redo the unlinked pages to make
>sure they are "white" in Netscape 4.

Yes.  Two reasons.

a)  It's the proper and professional thing to do.  If the site is designed 
according to standards, it should be irrelevant which browser a person uses.
b)  It's the political thing to do.  Face it, chambers are political 
entities.  Inevitably, *someone* will complain to the chamber.  That may 
affect your reputation down the road.  It may also affect the chamber's 
reputation down the road.  However, if designed according to standards, you 
reduce, if not eliminate, any charge of bias or favoritism for a particular 
browser.


>2) Since I am using style sheet link and css in header what would be the
>fastest way to "update" all these "black" unlinked pages?

Change all of them to white or yellow.


>3) What do you think the problem is with his e-mail? (I tried it on my
>Netscape 6 box and it worked just fine)

Separate issue.  Just because it worked on your system does not mean there 
isn't a problem.  Unless both systems are identical in hardware, software, 
and use, comparing the two is irrelevant.  Perhaps the problem is with 
*their* email config.  Perhaps *your* implementation of email.  Perhaps 
*their* ISP.  Perhaps *your* ISP.  Forget the tit for tat 
scenario.  Considering their email access has a problem and we are talking 
web pages, it's not germane to the issue at hand.


>4) Would you restrain yourself from telling this one person to go jump
>in a lake?

a) Most definitely restrain yourself.  You are assuming all the problems 
are with this one user.  To do so, without making sure the site you built 
is built according to standards, and not with one browser in mind, smacks 
of arrogance at the very least.  The equivalent is to assume that just 
because Macintosh computers may comprise similar low statistics for a site 
justifies ignoring them.  Yeah, right.  In both cases, you may very well 
disenfranchise a insignificant user population (according to your server 
stats), but they may very well play a significant role in other areas.  I 
know of a few computer dealers who sell only PCs, but have Macs at 
home.  Tell them you don't design for them the next time you need to 
upgrade your system.  See how you are then treated as *their* 
customer.  The same applies to browsers, too.

b)  Most definitely restrain yourself.  The time you tell someone to go 
jump in the lake, based on the scenario you offered, means you are no 
longer a professional.  When you do, let me know.  I can use the work.


I use Netscape 4.79.  After extensive use of Netscape 6x, I went back to 4x 
because the new Netscape is still unstable for my use and my customers.  I 
have never had a problem designing according to standards with Netscape as 
my preferred browser.  However, when I used IE exclusively, I had to always 
retrofit to accommodate non-IE browsers.  Remember that market share does 
not equate with quality.  If it did, Ford would still be selling the Edsel.





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