Hi Doug, I noticed you’re posting at 1:29 in the AM. I hope you’re posting from home and you’re just a night owl. You should be with your family at that hour and not at work.
Thank you for the information and status on the project. I’ll be glad when all the orange barrels are gone and all is right in the Tappet Bros universe 
“Barkydog November 27 Report
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.”
"part of being in the big world is being compatible with many browsers"
That’s of course true. I don’t hold with those who advocate building websites for only the latest versions of browsers because to do otherwise would take “thousands” of lines of extra. It appears you misread me.
“but your thought an out of date firefox browser and IE problems are the responsibility of the user decries common sense.”
I have trouble parsing that so I’m going to try to guess what you’re trying to say.
What I am NOT saying is to downgrade your browser. What I have been saying all along is based on user testimony and my experience, in this case browser version is not the issue. “I upgraded my browser and it worked great!” Okay, good. Did you check that all the settings were the same between the two versions? Probably not.
All I’m saying and have been saying is upgrading the browser is probably not the first step to solving the problems reported. If a browser upgrade is the solution, the site should detect your browser version and tell you so. That for sure isn’t rocket science, but as I’ve said, isn’t needed in this case.
“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.”
Doug, are you proud owner of the $5,000 Google box, paying for indexing, or waiting for Google to index the site in the normal course of events? Just wondering.
All I’m saying and have been saying is upgrading the browser is probably not the first step to solving the problems reported.
I don’t think anyone ever said that…I surely didn’t.
Someone who writes a web page/app doesn’t know what all the browser settings for all versions work on their web-app. Nor should they. Yes it could be a browser setting issue…but then that’s on YOU to set the browser to the correct settings. NOT the web designer. The web-app may work perfectly fine in older browsers…but it may require some tweaking on the browser settings to get it to work. But those are rare. There’s not a lot of settings that will actually STOP a web-app that from working on your browser…ESPECIALLY since that browser works with other web-apps.
A public web-site like this one could have THOUSANDS of users. They’re not about to start debugging everyone’s browser settings to get each of them working. Sorry…NOT going to happen. The simplest thing to do is force everything to upgrade to the latest browser they know works.
“All I’m saying and have been saying is upgrading the browser is probably not the first step to solving the problems reported.”
If your current browser is Internet Explorer, and you upgrade to Chrome or Firefox, upgrading might very well solve some of the problems reported. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Unless you want your account hacked, use something better than IE. IE users are cannon fodder for hackers.
“They’re not about to start debugging everyone’s browser settings to get each of them working. Sorry…NOT going to happen.”
I never suggested that, and the smart money says you know it.
“If your current browser is Internet Explorer, and you upgrade to Chrome or Firefox…”
Where I’m from we don’t call that “upgrade” in spite of my personal feelings, otherwise I’d be talking about “upgrading” from Safari.
“The simplest thing to do is force everything to upgrade to the latest browser they know works.”
Ah, you’ve tweaked it. Instead of “latest” you’re now saying “latest browser they know works.” Well tweaked. Now everyone can upgrade to Firefox 3.0.19!
Site looks good but when going to Mechanics files and following through to a particular Mechaqnic review there is no way to get back to the former results you must re enter search again. very time consuming and disconcerting.
One screen I’m logged in, follow a link, then I’m logged out. I tried all my passwords and nothing so I set up another account. Went to one screen and see my user name at the top, follow a link and it asks me to log in again. Just click login and it lets me back in, no password.
Elmer Fudd would says “…there’s something scwewy going on around here…”
Rich
Still having that problem over here Rich. Try switching to a different browser and see how it works. Some say IE won’t work, but for me it does.
@littelmouse, Safari is also an upgrade from IE. Sorry, but IE is the worst browser on the market, and really nobody should use it any more.
So, in this case the browser version wasn't the problem... but, a browser upgrade can solve problems. Newer versions of Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or Safari, are more standards compliant than old one (mainly edge cases I must admit). Older versions of IE did not even attempt to follow a large portion of the industry standards. If I were designing a site I would write to industry standards -- I wouldn't push the limits in terms of using bits of the standards that need a brand new browser to work, but I also wouldn't add in hack after hack after hack so something like IE6 works with it.@bscar2, on my work laptop we’re restricted to IE8, but that’s a newer browser and the highest you can go with XP operating system. I keep getting ‘page recovered’ errors when I select various links, which probably causes my account to logoff or at least not pass the information to the recovered page. I’ll just keep struggling. Just FYI for others, clearing your cache file can sometimes help, although you’ll lose some of the cookies and other helpful items. You’ll have to reenter IDs and passwords when you access your favorite sites.
Just my 2 cents but if a site is optimized for a particular browser/version it should say so on its home page.
Rich
I have found that if I use the links instead of the browser back button, I don’t get the errors. That’s a little cumbersome, however, since you read down the page and the links are at the top.
I was able to link my old and new accounts now so maybe that will help too.
I’d deal with the red bars on the sides again if I could login using FF. Maybe they’re right and the new forum software IS great, but if so many users are having problems, something is wrong. Like trying to load Mac OSX/10 onto a customized PC.
Getting ‘Recovered’ error messages when I take the link off the main page to get here. I wonder is it doesn’t have something to do with blocking cookies or other security things. The cookie blocker doesn’t give me any notice that something was blocked, however.
Oh well, it’s remembering my ID again from session to session, so I got that going for me.
Rich
@richw46: “I have found that if I use the links instead of the browser back button, I don’t get the errors. That’s a little cumbersome, however, since you read down the page and the links are at the top.”
That’s become the norm with many sites, and usually, it’s intentional. Using the “back” button is a good habit to get out of. I only use it as a last resort.
As an IT professional who’s been doing this since the early 80’s, let me give you something to think about:
If you’re refusing to update your browser, whether it be IE, FF, Chrome, Safari or Opera, then consider this: At some point, you will end up with a system that has been compromised.
“Upgrades” aren’t pushed down your throats for various reasons. Yet.
The majority of the companies and groups that produce these products (not just browsers, either), are starting to be held accountable for the products they produce. There are stories everywhere about companies being blamed for a software failure. Whether the problem was with the software itself, or the users’ lack of responsibility in upgrading is always at question, and millions are spent on lawyers every year defending the software companies.
The end result of this bickering between end users and software writers is that upgrades and patches are now, and will much more in the future, be pushed down your throats. If you’ve upgraded to a more recent version of FireFox, I’m sure you’ve seen the message that it’s been updated, and it needs to be restarted. You can expect this to happen more and more with operating systems, browsers, and every other piece of software you run.
It’s a self defense act.
If you can’t be trusted to keep up with the changes - which by the way are designed (mostly) to protect YOU - then you shouldn’t be given the choice anymore. Chrome is doing it. FireFox is doing. I’m not sure about other browsers.
Browsers aren’t advertised as being compatible with certain sites. They’re “HTML version X”, “CSS version X” compliant. Likewise, sites aren’t compliant with certain browsers. They’re also HTML, HTML5, CSS1, 2, 2.1, 3 complaint, etc. If they’re comfortable putting out a statement that the site will work with IE7, FF3.8, ChromeX, whatever, that’ up to them. If not, that’s fine, too. If you want to know all about CSS, got to the W3C and read all about it.
Blocking portions of the site may lead to the site not operating correctly. If you are blocking portions (with adblocker, scriptblocker, etc), and it’s not working correctly, then it may be on your system. I do advocate using those programs and addons, but you have to understand the implications.
Of course, this post is really aimed at an individual. I was just hoping to point out a few facts. Do what you will with them.
Chase
AMEN, chaissos!
Looks like the “Links We Like” part of the new web site is no longer supported. Now only old links appear.
Well I can’t login to the new cartalk.com website if I use FireFox.
-Theopholus Punovahl
seems they done something that’s allowing me to stay logged in while viewing the forums again.
@bscar3, can you please try to log in with both of your other usernames?