Strange Thing I Noticed in Firefox

[hp-p00nst3r]

Hello,

Whenever I try to make new posts with Firefox, the blinking text indicator is not there in the input text area. I can type in it just fine, but I cant go back and delete the text I typed previously. Nor can I select a body of text and manipulate it. I can only add/remove text at the very end of the typed text. Do you guys notice this or am I the only one?

[sekasi]

User CP -> Edit Options -> Scroll to the btm

change "full wysiwyg" to "standard + advanced controls"

voila. btw there's been 26 posts about this. ;p

[hp-p00nst3r]

Oh, sorry. Should have used the forum search feature.

Thanks for pointing that out to me though.

[Fidodo]

Can an admin change the default for this? Since a very significant amount of users use Firefox it would make sense to have the default editor be one that's compatible with all browsers.

[chrisclick]

There isn't much point in doing that, as Firefox should fix this problem. Or if they cant wait. Get off Firefox and use Opera or IE like me.

[Fidodo]

Well... They should fix this problem, but it isn't. And there's no point in telling me to switch browsers, because I already fixed this problem by changing my settings. I'm worried about the 20% market share of users that use firefox who will undoubtedly have this problem. It's ultimately the website's responsibility to maintain cross compatibility with all major web browsers (and they don't get much more major than firefox). Any developer worth his weight knows this, and would never dare tell the user that their browser is not supported.

The website exists to serve the user, and any smart web master would take suggestions to help their users have a better online experience if they want their site to be successful.

[Templarian]

Fido, if you feel so strongly go over and talk to vBulletin people about it.

Plus its not that big of an issue.

[Env]

Its a big issue. This does not happen with over vB versions

[uji]

Well... They should fix this problem, but it isn't. And there's no point in telling me to switch browsers, because I already fixed this problem by changing my settings. I'm worried about the 20% market share of users that use firefox who will undoubtedly have this problem. It's ultimately the website's responsibility to maintain cross compatibility with all major web browsers (and they don't get much more major than firefox). Any developer worth his weight knows this, and would never dare tell the user that their browser is not supported.

The website exists to serve the user, and any smart web master would take suggestions to help their users have a better online experience if they want their site to be successful.


here here.

use IE? that dude *has* to be joking. firefox is more like 40 % now anyhoo...

[Krilnon]

This issue has been fixed already, I believe.

[glosrfc]

here here.

use IE? that dude *has* to be joking. firefox is more like 40 % now anyhoo...

Dream on...2008 year end has IE at 68% and Firefox at 21%.

Stats (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=119&qpmr=100&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qpf=1)

[kirupa]

Yep - this issue should be fixed. Yell very loudly if it isn't.

:)

[tpspoons]

Chrome has a bigger market share than opera? When did that happen?

[Templarian]

^Opera is probably one of the worst browsers down there with IE... its never going to get up past the 2digits... isn't it at like 3% or less?

[tpspoons]

Care to elaborate? From my experience it is the best browser to use. It has a lot of features, and uses much less system resources than its competitors (except chrome, but that lacks a lot of features).

In what way is it on par with IE?

Edit: although right now it hasn't even reached 1% (its on 0.71%) :P

[glosrfc]

Chrome has a bigger market share than opera? When did that happen?

Probably since:
a) the ubiquity of Google has given Chrome a higher profile
b) the technical knowledge of the average user has only recently become sufficient enough to encourage a few to switch browsers
c) with the exception of Eastern Europe, Opera has always struggled to make any inroads into the personal computer market
d) Opera is one of the few browsers to reuse cached content without resending requests to the remote server; hence its usage statistics will naturally be lower than those that do resend requests
e) Opera's rigid adherence to web standard compliance probably hasn't helped to increase its take-up by those who are less net-savy.

[tpspoons]

Fair enough :P

[ajcates]

Safari or Chrome are easily the best browsers, no other browsers follows web standards so strictly. Firefox is starting to make me angry like IE with the way they ignore standards.

Oh it is up to the web site and the browser to implement web standards. Anything that doesn't use web standards in my eyes deserves to be murdered in front of there children.

[glosrfc]

Market share isn't necessarily a reflection of each browsers' adherence to web standards. But why should there be strict standards anyway? Should every browser display information in the same bland manner?

That's like insisting that every book, newspaper, magazine, etc. should only display text in 12 point Times Roman. Or, to paraphrase Henry Ford, that every car made should only be available in black.

There are standards in lots of things but they can be still be misused or bent. Take language for example; the standards are known as grammar but that doesn't mean we understand people any less when they flout these rules...using "there" instead of "their" for example!

Variety is the spice of life, I say.

[TheCanadian]

You're way off. Browsers are just a tool for displaying the data given to them. Standards are a way to prevent having to code for 10 different tools that display the same data in slightly different ways and are not restrictions placed on creativity.

[glosrfc]

Paper is simply a tool for displaying data. But it comes in a variety of shapes, patterns, colours, sizes, thicknesses...that vast majority of which don't fit any of the international standards. Far from restricting creativity, it encourages it. And printers/publishers seem to be capable enough to work around the lack of adherence.

I just find it amusing, particularly given the purpose of this site, that a certain, extremely popular, browser is berated for not adhering to standards...would Flash be as popular and ubiquitous if it hadn't been automatically bundled with this browser? Can you imagine the pitiful number of Flash Player installations if it was only available on, oh, let's say Safari or Chrome?

[tpspoons]

In what way do broken websites due to a browsers lack of adherence to standards encourage creativity?

One of the main reasons flash became so popular (both with developers and the public) is because of its consistency on all browsers/operating systems. Standards let you spend less time worrying about how different viewers will see your work and more time actually developing the website, which is where the creativity is really shown.

[TheCanadian]

I'm not talking about aesthetics, and paper is far too abstract to compare to a browser. You mention Flash in your ramble, which, by the way, adheres to a strict set of standards.

[glosrfc]

AS1 and AS2 were hardly resounding advertisments for setting standards. And Flash gained its popularity not because of standards but because it was bundled with the most popular browser. On the design side, it certainly became popular because the looseness of AS1 and AS2 made it simple for people to produce visual effects that they couldn't have done otherwise with a more rigid and structured tool. Witness the plague of mostly unimaginative intro scenes and countless game rip-offs.

As it is, users don't give two hoots about standards....it's just a term that "designers" use as their own personal hair-shirt.

Sure, stick to standards if it makes it easier to churn out blandness. But a good designer/artist, in whatever field of design, won't adapt his work to fit the available tools...they'll adapt the tools to fit their work. Would Michaelangelo have refused to paint the Sistine Chapel because the ceiling wasn't perfectly square?

[TheCanadian]

Uh uh, so why don't we all start programming websites with common English since it's up to the tools to adapt?

[glosrfc]

I thought that was already the case ;)

[TheCanadian]

Well, I don't know about you, but I don't start every sentence with <p> and use CSS to style myself.

[Charleh]

I don't agree with you at all glosrfc - a lack of standards doesn't spark creativity. Your analogy to Michaelangelo and the Sistine Chapel didn't make any sense to me - are you saying that the walls of the chapel are akin to the browser - and his brushes his tools?

Surely then the walls only represent one browser - he could be as creative as he wanted within those walls, and paint whatever he wished, but then imagine that he could take an exact copy of the painting and move it to another similar chapel - when the painting did not quite fit because the walls were not square and the roof pitched differently he would have been frustrated and annoyed as he would have to repaint certain bits.

This is the problem that developers face - not that they can't be creative, but that their creation won't always be consistent from anothers perspective.

Yes you can only be as creative as your 'canvas' allows - but the standards have nothing to do with what's allowed in the canvas - they only serve to make sure that someone viewing the canvas can see the same image as another.

If there are creative limits, they are those of CSS, HTML and the media used to display content within the browser - not because of standards set.

There is a big difference between a standard and a restriction

Also it's my opinion that creativity often comes from being restricted - if you give someone unlimited scope for creativity they usually fall short, but give them boundaries to work within and they will try to break or stretch them.