Re: The Age (AU) Technology Not Supporting Old Browsers

hi, was just pointed to this thread and subscribed.
 
I cant speak for the whole f2 organisation as there are a multitude of
people involved with these sites, but to respond quickly to some of the
points that have been discussed:
 
re >> Geoff & others wrote: <snip> old browser message... makes the site
look foolish
 
we're removing it. it was originally intended to (hopefully) ease the shock
of seeing an un-designed page if you were a NS4 or similar user. We are
aware this message is actually doing more harm than good, & is potentially
wrong, so its being removed.
 
re >> Geoff wrote: But to cut out browsers older than early 2004????????
 
sorry, no, on the page in question we say "From early 2004, f2 network sites
will no longer offer support for browsers earlier than Microsoft Internet
Explorer 5, or Netscape Navigator 6". We are still "supporting" IE5 (as an
example) which was released much earlier than 2004 ;-)
 
re >> Michael wrote: <snip> Netscape 4.76 ... Totally illegible.
 
In NS4.72 (agreed its not .76 but) you get an unstyled page with white
bg/black text. is it possible custom OS settings may override the browser
settings and give the offending grey bg/grey text?
 
re >> Michael wrote:  <snip> Does this mean f2's brazen breach of
accessibility standards will likewise crush the opposition ;-)
 
Again, I cant speak for the entire organisation - um, ok, I'll try ;-)
 
We are making a genuine concerted effort. We look to organisations and email
lists like this one for knowledge and guidance. We are serious about doing
anything we can to improve the sites we create. In the department i work
with, creative services, we feel that css has some huge advantages to the
way we work and the commercial success of the company, and at the same time
can (once we get it right) provide the most accessible sites we possibly
can. There are other departments (people that work on the CMS, serving ads,
editorial, membership etc etc) that we will be continuing to work with to
improve the quality of user experience.
 
Right now we are taking some massive (and frankly i think quite brave) steps
in changing the way our sites work for the better. From simple stuff like
getting headings into <h> tags and lists into <ul> tags right up to
full-blown css layouts that are intended to give us more time to devote to
things like accessibility rather than hacking tables together. 
 
I genuinely appreciate the feedback :)  & am happy to try to respond to any
other q's that may be relevant to the list - if not, feel free to email me
directly offlist. 
 
cheers,
pete
 
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter Ottery
Head of Design
f2 Network

(02) 8596 4450
pottery@f2network.com.au
www.f2.com.au <http://www.f2.com.au/>