Layout Change Update

[Glenn Holland]

Thanks to everyone supplying their feedback on the design changes.

I have temporarily put all the other forums and the main page back to the old design. I should have known better to do more testing, but things are very hectic...

Anyway, it looks like there were two issues on the new design - load speed and the layout look for Netscape users.

Speed should not be much of an issue. The new graphics are very low file overhead and, once your browser loads them, it should be about the same. Now, EKN will be placing additional ads on the forum pages (the reason for the new design) and they will mean more bytes to download. We make every effort (and do a pretty damn good job, if I do say so) to optimize each and every graphics file. I have checked the speed for both dial up and higher speed connections, and so far am satisfied with the result.

The Netscape problem is a more complex issue. Although I do not profess to be any sort of browser or web guru, I have had to deal with Netscape's peculiarities (some would say everyone else moved off their standard - a moot point now).

I downloaded Netscape's latest version, 6, and found that the look was acceptable, with a few strange things happening that I'd prefer not to see, but would accept for the bigger picture.

I have noticed many users have Netscape 4.x. I'm not sure if Netscape had a version 5, but if they did, those people are two major version updates behind the current version.

We will make every reasonable effort to mitigate the Netscape problem on the forums. Please note that we will be moving to a new design - there is no question of that. I suggest everyone download the latest official browser release for their respective browsers - Microsoft Internet Explorer (www.microsoft.com) and Netscape Navigator (www.netscape.com). I will stop short of endorsing a certain product - mostly due to my general contempt of Microsoft. But I need to make it clear that Ekartingnews.com is best viewed on Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Thanks again for your feedback. I ask everyone to check out this forum and it's layout and to keep supplying us this important information. I will be at Mid-Ohio for the next four days, but will be checking things in the evening.

Thanks, Ekarters!

Glenn

[bird]

Netscape never released a version five - people use v4.7 because it is the latest release that Netscape officially support. Takeup of v6 has been slow because when it came out it was abysmally buggy but IMO it's pretty good now. Those people that don't like it, if its 'cos of the "snazzy" interface you can change that back to the classic version.