So far IE seems to work well, Nutscrape chokes badly on the columnation is the forum view.
IE centers the buttons at the bottom of the reply window, Netscape left justifies them.
From what I’ve read outside of this board, the higher the version of Netscape, the better experience you get with this software.
So this might be a good time to test that Netscape 6.0 . . .is it still in beta?
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Very interesting…I just tried both browsers and there is a significant difference in the way the page is displayed. I usually like Netscape better than IE (in some part due to my desire to use other than Micro$oft products whenever possible, but that’s another story), but in this case, the IE display is much better.
'Fraid so…
From what I’ve heard, though, it’ll be good when it comes out in its final form.
Netscape 6.0 is far from ready for prime time.
Netscape 4.72 is doing fine with the board. Unfortunately, I can’t handle the SDI pardiagm of Netscape and IE in places like the SDMB.
As I noted in another thread, Opera 4.0 beta 3 is a disaster with the new S/W
Beware the Beta version of IE 5.5
Some sites like WellsFargo won’t work with it due to unresolved security holes. Also, once installed you can’t go back to IE 5.01
You can see a screenshot of the SDMB as it looks to me using IE and NS here: http://fff.fathom.org/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000066.html
In IE it displays just fine, in Netscape 4.7 it is pretty much unusable. 
Since I only grudgingly use IE when I absolutely have to, this means I’ll probably not be coming around much anymore. (yeah yeah, try to control your cheering ;D)
Yes, Netscape 6.0 has some major, major buggage still. I really don’t recommend that anyone try it, just yet. FWIW, I am using 4.72 and the boards work fine. I do see the differences in the way the tables render on the forum view pages, they’re a little neater with IE, but they’re perfectly “usable” with NS.
I can’t post replies to the board from Netscape 6! I get a screen that says “No bulletin board specified” or something like that.
Same thing I see with Opera 4.0. I wonder if it’s the persistent connection of http 1.1; the board may be expecting something in the header of a new connection, and it’s not getting it because the connection isn’t persistent.
These problems with Netscape useability have been brought to the attention of the makers of vBulletin. They are currently beta testing vBulletin version 1.1.1 which has fixes in place but has not been released. You can reference information about this version at:
It also has a fix for WebTV users so you’ll be covered as well. We’ll see if it does anything for Opera.
Jerry
I tried to reply using Mozilla M15, but it didn’t work as has been documented above. However, M15 does render the forum topic view correctly. All in all it just looks much better than Netscape 4.x.
Aha! When I tried to preview a reply using M15, it went to forumdisplay.php and tried to shove my whole reply into the URL. Netscape 4.x, which works correctly, just goes to newreply.php. It looks like Netscape 4.x is (correctly) using POST whereas Mozilla is (incorrectly) trying to use GET. JonF, does Opera do the same thing?
D***ed if I know, let’s see … yup, it tried to go to boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php and my whole reply is showing up in the URL.
Please note this only addresses the Netscape rendering problems encountered on the forum display screen. We’re aware of other problems and are looking to the next version of code to fix them:
I’ve reverse engineered the vBulletin beta version 1.1.1 code running on their web site and have incorporated it as a temporary fix on SDMB. Netscape users should see a marked improvement in the forum display screen. All users should note that the “new thread” icon is now on the left hand edge of the forum display screen instead of the right. This modification is not extensively tested so I won’t be surprized if there are further issues but it’s rendering much better in my Netscape 3.02 browser. Comments appreciated.
Jerry
I looked at what they were going to do with the 1.1.1 upgrade and it was so much better in my netscape 4.7 browser that I was hoping that we didn’t have to wait too long for it.
Thanks, it looks great.
And if your ever in Dallas … I’ll buy you a beer.
Jim
Jerry,
I think waterj and I have come across two things that make Netscape barf on the boards:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21744
waterj notes nested tables while I noted cascading style sheets, which seems to be coded in the forum pages. Netscape is notorious for being a whiney baby under these circumstances.
I am not 100% sure that it uses cascading style sheets, but if it does that could be a large part of the issue.
Opera doesn’t seem to be having any trouble with the CSS. It’e even handling the hover.
Thanks jdavis, your fix makes things look a lot better for Netscape Navigator 4.08.