Littlemouse, why do you think that updating your browser is the last thing you should do? While I don’t agree with the accelerated release cycle that Mozilla is doing with Firefox, surely something more modern than 3.6 will improve the situation. Mozilla has always supported the international web standards fairly consistently. Now upgrading IE, that might be a bad idea.
Updating your browser is the last thing you should do. That, and using Internet Explorer.
Actually it should be one of the FIRST things you should do.
It’s too difficult for companies to write web applications to work on ALL versions of ALL web browsers. HTML and CSS is NOT very compatible with earlier versions. So if you develop a web app that’s designed to run with the latest versions of (IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari)…then it may NOT be compatible with earlier versions. We had a customer who was still using IE Version 5…and was having a problem connecting to our website…Sorry…upgrade…We can’t have an extra 5000 lines of code just to accommodate old outdated software.
@littlemouse, I agree with the others. Keeping your browser updated ensures you have the latest security updates. The only time you don’t want the latest version of a browser is when it’s MS Internet Explorer, but then again, if you’re using IE, you’ve probably got bigger problems (like security vulnerabilities). If you’re using Firefox or Google Chrome, updating is a good idea.
when version 4 came out, I hated the look of it. So I downloaded 3.6 manually, then turned off auto updates. I see version 8 is out, so I’ll get that and see where it goes
Hi bscar2 (and everybody else), there have been changes made that are supposed to be implemented tonight to rectify some of the issues we’ve been having. Please keep us posted on the progress.
@Mike and Whitey: I’ll say at the upfront that this is an agree to disagree situation, probably based on varying experiences.
"Actually [updating the browser] should be one of the FIRST things you should do.
It’s too difficult for companies to write web applications to work on ALL versions of ALL web browsers."
And I’m not expecting that.
“HTML and CSS is NOT very compatible with earlier versions. So if you develop a web app that’s designed to run with the latest versions of (IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari)…then it may NOT be compatible with earlier versions. We had a customer who was still using IE Version 5…and was having a problem connecting to our website…Sorry…upgrade…We can’t have an extra 5000 lines of code just to accommodate old outdated software.”
HTML not compatible with my browser? Yes, I can see how that would be a problem. I’m going to assume you made a typo.
My advice was based on the fact that usually the most recent version has known and unkown problems, therefore upgrading should not be the first step in the troubleshooting process, especially in a case where the problems are obviously with the site itself and not the individuals’ browsers.
The site runs fine with Firefox 3.6 point whatever it is I have.
“So if you develop a web app that’s designed to run with the latest versions of (IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari)…then it may NOT be compatible with earlier versions.”
That’s fine for an inhouse application where you can control browser versions, in the real world not so much. It means designing exclusively for a version that’s almost sure to have bugs, and then what do you do when the new version comes out? Stop supporting New Version -1 ?
I once had to deal with a sales team that told me their application (which we liked because it integrated Oracle Business Objects) was “cross-platform and cross-browser” and it turned out by “cross-browser” they meant “you need IE with Microsoft Smart something or other” (it’s been a couple years.) Three hours I’ll never get back.
I put “design for the latest version only” in that category.
The bottom line is that multiple people with multiple browsers are reporting problems with the site after changes were made to the site. That indicates that the problem is with the site, not the browsers.
Ok finally so hosed I had to create a new profile to post here, 3 days of reset password etc. I could log into the site as waterboy, go everywhere but discussions, then stuck on the edit screen. If any of you remember waterboy I am now barkydog.
@Barkydog @waterboy I just pushed out a small change to the way the account linking stuff is handled. If you’d prefer your old waterboy account, I can take a look at it and make sure it is linked up properly, or at the very least unlink it and allow re-linking to occur. Would you like that?
That’s fine for an inhouse application where you can control browser versions, in the real world not so much. It means designing exclusively for a version that’s almost sure to have bugs, and then what do you do when the new version comes out? Stop supporting New Version -1 ?
Well…in a word …NO…Most companies who design web applications that are used externally do NOT write the apps for many versions of all the web browsers on the market. This web site is NOT a very complicated site…so the compatibility issues should be minimum. It’s when you design more complicated web apps that use some of the latest features of the current web browsers. \
The bottom line is that multiple people with multiple browsers are reporting problems with the site after changes were made to the site. That indicates that the problem is with the site, not the browsers.
No one is saying it’s NOT the sight…But it could also be browser compatibility also. I’m using the latest version of Firefox on my work and home computer…and I’m NOT having any issues what-so-ever. I did about a week ago…but that was fixed.
I was having trouble logging in on one of my computers, but I could still log in on the other, and at work. I use the same browser on all three machines (Chrome). I think I created this problem for myself by installing ScriptNo on Chome, and even after I enabled all of the same scripts that are enabled on the other computers, I couldn’t log in on my netbook. I was able to correct the issue on the one computer by deleting all of my temporary internet files and clearing my internet history, and re-linking my account, which didn’t work until I cleared my temporary files and history.
So whatever problem you are having, and whichever browser you are using, try clearing out your history and temporary files, to see if that helps you log back in.
BTW, in case you like to control the scripts that websites run on your machine, this forum runs 8 scripts, but only 3 of them are necessary to log in and use the forum. See the picture I attached for details.
Dear system I would love to save waterboy for a login, your help is appreciated. Let me know what I need to do!
Thanks for fixing the box on top.
At this point in time nothing has changed for me; still a variety of error messages. Temp. internet files cleaned out, scanned and defragged, etc. Same old, same old.
problem still occurs
So curious. In firefox I can log on as barkydog, and post, I wanted to look at problems in IE, but in IE if I log in as barkydog I am redirected to the edit page for waterboy, and cannot figure a way to logon. FYI.
Opposite problem of mine. They should be looking into it. Lord knows I’ve been vocal about it enough.
On the bright side though, I have noticed there are no red bars on the side of the forum anymore, just the big space up top.
Not to be too rough on what MUST be an all volunteer effort, but this web site is a joke.
Try googling terms like W3C, web 101, validator, etc. and maybe you will get the idea.
I ran one page through the validator and got: Result: 51 Errors, 18 warning(s)
ON ONE PAGE!
Granted, most can be chalked up to just typically sloppy coding,
but still, if you can’t solve the easy problems …
Ever heard the term “web experience” ? Generally, the idea is, that web browsing should be a pleasant experience such that you will want to return and generate repeat traffic.
In this case the opposite is true. What a frustration.
There isn’t even a HOME tab on any page. That’s web 101 for sure.
I would be amazed if the designers actually used a testing methodology, rather if the page loaded at all in IE or FF, all is well.
EVERYTHING is a mess … Tried to respond to a puzzler today, and all that was there was last week’s episode.
It took 10 page hunting trips before I gave up and had use use the search function.
Navigation is a mess … even trying to get back to this thread was a joke. The only place I could find it was on the home page (but, maybe that was by design ???)
This is just one more example of the “close enough is good enough” mentality that is so pervasive in our society today. They must have burned all of the copies of the book “In Search of Excellence”
Give up this do-it-yourself project and just hire some people who know what they are doing. This isn’t some personal web site from 1990 built just so that you can say you have a web site.
Geeez …
Someone would say the solution is to upgrade to the exact right version of the exact right browser to use the website. I wouldn’t say that, but some would. @90camry: you’re being a little harsh, expecting testing, aren’t you? bscar2, ok4450, Barkydog, Trembenik, just upgrade your browser and it will be roses, roses, roses. So some say. Or you could just use Firefox 3.0.19, which works just fine.
Littlemouse, firefox 8.0 works for now, but part of being in the big world is being compatible with many browsers, OK, I only go back to IE 6.0 for compatibility on sites I maintain, but your thought an out of date firefox browser and IE problems are the responsibility of the user decries common sense. OK Littlemouse says downgrade your browser to firefox 3.0.19 and forget ie is not what maintaining a website is all about.
Hi Folks,
I wanted to chime in with my comments on a few items related to our recent web site migration into a content management system, site redesign, and our move to new servers. Some of these changes were invisible to all but the most attentive of users. But, they’re all big upgrades for us. The changes give the site a lot more power and flexibility as we move forward.
One of the bigger technology issues we had to tackle was that of “single sign on.” We have about 40,000 registered users in the Car Talk Community, and all those accounts had to be passed into our new registration system and integrated with the rest of the site. Because it was the one element we could not test before launch, we did see a number of bugs with the system. Some of these, such as javascript conflicts with third party widgets on the site, we simply had to debug the old fashioned way. So, it took some time. Thank you to those of you who were patient as we worked to isolate the issues and deploy solutions. We still have a few SSO issues to address, and will work to steadily cross those off the list. Please realize, too, that it’s not just Car Talk working on this project. We have a number of partners, from NPR, our forum providers at Vanilla, cars.com and others-- many of whom need to be consulted on some of the fixes. So, it can take time.
For those of you experiencing search issues when using the Google search tool, we simply have to give Google time to index the new site. From talking with several folks knowledgeable about Google and search engine indexing, we’ve been told this can take up to a month or more for full indexing of a content-rich site with a fair bit of depth, such as cartalk.com.
Carolyn has done a great job, guiding folks to various fixes and reporting bugs, as her time allows. She’ll continue to be your contact on the front lines, guiding the community and helping solve issues as they arise. If you notice further bugs, please document them as thoroughly as possible, and use our reporting tool here: http://www.cartalk.com/content/feedback-form
Once we’re through migration fixes, we look forward to working on a number of new projects in the months to come. Some of them tie in to the Car Talk Community, including profiling a number of our long-time posters. (Thanks to you all, for the great and thoughtful answers over many years!) We also will be rebuilding and relaunching the “My Car Talk” service, which allows folks to be notified of a post about a particular make and model, so they can be informed about discussions regarding their car. (Inside tip: that’s the “email me when there is a discussion about my car” box that’s visible when you register on the site.)
The beta Car Talk logo was removed a few hours ago, now that many of the kinks are out of the site. The regular Car Talk logo links back to the homepage.
An aside about the site and how it is managed-- the site is run by Car Talk, not NPR. The revenue we generate from the site pays for the operation of the site.
Thanks for bearing with us, during the biggest series of transitions we’ve made since we launched the site over 15 years ago. We started this project over a year and half ago. It’s great to have it in the rear view mirror, and have a stronger architecture and a new design for what is, for many of us, one of our homes on the internet.
All Best,
Doug Mayer
Senior Web Lackey