- From: Boris Zbarsky <bzbarsky@MIT.EDU>
- Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:31:35 -0400
- To: Shelley Powers <shelleyp@burningbird.net>
- CC: public-html@w3.org
Shelley Powers wrote: > If the page does not show correctly, most people send an email to the > page author, or ignore it. If they're using the browser they've been using for years, yes. If they are using a new browser or new version of a browser and a page does not show correctly they conclude that the browser is broken and go back to whatever they were using before. Especially if this is a page they need to look at often. > I doubt that many people will surf the web, come upon a single page that > isn't working and make an assumption that the browser is broken. You can doubt, but based on what I see in user feedback, that's precisely what happens: people try a new browser, browse around for a few hours, if they see any pages broken they conclude the browser is broken and stop using it. Chances of them trying that browser again are low. > We have to operate under the assumption that most people act reasonably. They do, actually. If you try a new piece of software that claims to do X and it doesn't do it as well as your old software, you go back to your old software. Pretty reasonable, all things considered, if you have no idea what X involves or why the behavior might be different through no fault of the new software. -Boris
Received on Tuesday, 8 September 2009 14:32:29 UTC