[ale] (Advocacy) looking for opinions

[John Mills]

ALErs -

Never one to resist flames, I sent off the following, using the "Mail Us"
button on the GPSC web page. What _should_ I have said? (Flameage deserves
flameage, n'est pas?)

Regards -
 Mills

On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, John Mills wrote:

> Attn: GSPC Webmaster/mistress -
> 
> I have read correspondence to the effect that your Committee's web page
> can be expected to view properly with Microsoft Internet Explorer, but
> not with Netscape. I opened your page and found the link to Microsoft's
> download site, but no comment of relative usability.
> 
> I am aware that there are problems [with] some functions in the latest
> release of Netscape, and indeed some sites which I use recommend that
> their customers _not_ upgrade beyond Netscape 4.x if they prefer to
> use that browser. That version has current security, Javascript and
> Java features, however, and meets today's needs for most electronic
> commerce sites.
> 
> Microsoft Internet Explorer is not available for my usual computer
> operating system, so I would not be able to use features of your page
> which depended upon Internet Explorer: some Microsoft-specific features
> might even render your page unreadable to me. (Historically, Microsoft
> has implemented features in their Windows operating system which
> gratuitously degraded the appearance of web pages viewed with Netscape,
> quite independently of Netscape's qualities or limitations.)
> 
> I know web-page design is always a compromise between attractive
> functions and user access, but I suggest that my situation is not
> unique, and that you should consider this problem when you design your
> page. I recommend a policy of broad access over specialized function for
> a public-service organization such as yours.
> 
> Thanks.
>  - John Mills
> 


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