Should NewsCloud.com Remain Firefox Only?

Posted by newscloud on Tue, 07/25/2006 - 23:52Spreading Firefox

NewsCloud has gotten a lot of passionate feedback for blocking Internet Explorer:

 "I'd love to check it out.  Unfortunately, your site refuses to allow IE to access it.  While I support your right to do as you please, it's hard to imagine a social driven site thriving when it shuts the door to 90% of the users before anything happens. It's fine to optimize for Fiefox, but shutting out IE is self defeating."

"I don't understand... Is alienating 80% of the world something to be
proud of?  I'm a huge Firefox lover, but IE6's standards support is
perfectly fine, and on Windows, generally consumes much less RAM than
Firefox.  Many users also don't have a choice over the software that
they can run on their own systems (i.e. libraries, corporate
environments, schools), so you're blocking your site to them entirely. In my opinion, the best way to support Firefox isn't to piss off IE users.  It would be to let them use your site, but mention why Firefox can be better."

"So the first thing that 98% of the people who might visit your site see
is a message telling them they are WRONG in the browser they use?  You
aren't even showing them any reason why they should upgrade their
browser in order to see YOUR site.  You aren't boycotting Microsoft here
- you are boycotting your own audience. Why not let people using IE see what your site can do, albeit not perfectly, and let them know that they would have a better experience if
they used Firefox?  After all, your site depends on audience/editors,
and if you immediately drive most of them away..." 

"You have a lot of nerve. I have used both Foxfire and IE (now useing 7 WITH TABS) and PREFER IE
7. It is bombastic of you and highly inappropriate for you to REQUIRE
Foxfire to go to your site.  If you prefer Foxfire, fine, but I
personally will not be visiting newscloud with this fascistic policy
you have implimented.  What happened to freedom of choice with you?"

 What do you think? Should NewsCloud re-open support for IE? We've opened support for IE 7 and Microsoft's CSS implementation is still non-standard requiring more workarounds. Should we make them?

 


 


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Required Reading
Submitted by Kelson on Thu, 07/27/2006 - 00:08.

I think those emails you posted should be required reading for anyone considering making their site Firefox-only (or anything-else-only)

Basically, change the numbers around and they look exactly like messages from Firefox users to sites that require IE, or from Opera users to sites that require IE or Firefox.

The lesson: blocking users will not convince them to switch browsers.  Some of them are very attached to their choice, and some just don't like to be told what to do.

--

Can Firefox users and Opera fans agree on anything?
The Alternative Browser Alliance

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Thanks for all the comments
Submitted by newscloud on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 20:14.

I'm currently thinking I might display a large upgrade to Firefox banner at the top of the IE page - and let people see the content as it renders in IE... poorly.

My Microsoft friend was surprised to learn how poorly IE renders standard css. 

 Thanks for all your support.

If you have time, please check out NewsCloud and let me know what you think of the site.

 

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Not a good Idea
Submitted by jenic on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 17:44.

While I respect your right to ban IE users, (as I have done in certain limited circumstances) I don't think its fair of us to ban them completely. I know how annoyed I get when I'm banned from an IE only website and to resort to their tactics just doesn't seem fitting for our (hopefully) more open-minded thinking.

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For the last time
Submitted by Avinash Gupta on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 14:20.

It's Firefox people not Foxfire.

I say keep displaying the image using the if IE tag but allow them access to your site.
 

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Don't do this
Submitted by Frederik Vds on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 11:22.

It's a very brave thing to do, but you're losing too much visitors.

I wouldn't do this. Of course you do what you want with your website.

I think a good idea would be to place (a lot of) banners on your pages when using IE, to compensate for the cost of making your pages IE-compatible.

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I would like to know does
Submitted by aggro on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 10:59.

I would like to know does that increase the amount of Firefox users? Have your earned more points (conpared to normal) after blocking IE out? Numbers would be quite interesting to see, in addition to knowing what kind of traffic your site gets daily.

Your actions are quite radical and will cause bad reputation for Firefox, but it will also cause reputation for Firefox, so it is both good and bad in this manner.

If you want to be really evil while still looking like you are the good guy and making IE look bad, you should allow IE users to access your page (for example after seeing the warning), but in addition, you could use the CSS bugs in IE to make the page look really bad in IE. If you know about acid2 test, you know how easy it is to make a site look bad in IE with CSS, while it looks normal in other browsers. ( Of course the hacks for making site look bad in IE would be obvious for web developers, so it wouldn't be a secret that you are doing it on purpose. )

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I don't think the first
Submitted by Frederik Vds on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 11:26.

I don't think the first reaction of people will be to blame IE.
They will almost certainly blame the website owner "for not being able to make proper pages, while everyone else can", no matter how much you explain it's IE's fault.

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Then the person has not
Submitted by aggro on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 11:29.

Then the person has not explained well enough. Simply ask them to download another browser and try with it and they will see. Or even add screenshots to show how the page looks like.

Of course anything like this can affect negatively to the person hosting the web site, but as the person has already blocked IE out complitely, I would consider this less evil method.

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I know some of these
Submitted by Frederik Vds on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 13:02.

I know some of these guys. 

They won't believe you.

They will not download another browser. Even with screenshots, they will still claim that a mistake in your website causes the problems. They won't ever believe a product made by microsoft could be bad.

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It's your site
Submitted by Ken Saunders on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 00:38.

You know, we could simply say the comments are all a load of crap, but we’re more mature than that.
Look, this is 100 percent your call, but I have some words of things that I’ve learned.
My IE to Firefox ratio of visitor’s swings back and forth, but the majority of visitors is usually IE users, and they are the majority of users on the Internet.
I have a decent amount of Firefox content on my site so a decent amount of Fx users.
I had considered going with all Firefox content and do the same as you, require Firefox,
but I came up with a different plan and it’s very effective.
My site contains all free content and very few ads.
The content is the bait to bring in IE users, the ads that are there, are mostly to all for Firefox or Thunderbird. Plus there are sections to let people see the difference between Firefox and IE, a beginner’s guide and more, all to hopefully get an IE user to download Firefox. It works pretty good considering the size of my site.
So it’s up to you if you think that you can sustain your website with Fx users only.
Chances are that you could but totals wouldn’t be as high as if you had IE visitors.
There are IE only sites still around, too many of them and I’ve always suggested that if you come across an IE only site, then create your own site as a replacement no matter what the site or service is.
My advice, let the IE users in and then come up with a site wide marketing campaign for Firefox including banners, maybe a quick why use Firefox page and other Firefox content.
PM me if you’re interested in me sending you some Fx content.



Firefox Guide

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Stay Firefox Only.
Submitted by ALIENDUDE5300 on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 00:25.

If you open support for IE, less people will download firefox. Also, Opera, Camino, Safari, etc. users can still use NewsCloud.

Visit My New Website based on Spreading Firefox

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We should never resort to Microsoft's activities.....
Submitted by Avinash Gupta on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 14:23.

Just to get a couple of users.

Mozilla has been taking the higher road and will continue to do so.

We are about promoting choice on the web not alienating IE users.

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But we shall only block IE users...
Submitted by ALIENDUDE5300 on Wed, 07/26/2006 - 23:00.

BY PROMOTING CHOICE! Internet Explorer tries to block OUR CHOICE of OTHER WEB BROWSERS such as Firefox, Opera, Camino, Etc. and WE MUST FIGHT BACK if we want 200 Million Downloads! Personally I Don't Block IE Users, see my site below But NewsCloud is popular enpugh to convert many users. And In The Process they will promote Firefox. Also they aren't hurting other users in the process. Isn't the point to SPREAD FIREFOX?

Visit My New Website based on Spreading Firefox

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