Toning Down Firefox Evangelism

Ok…here is a thought, when you added in something that actively annoys Internet Explorer users for some time and you still have over 50% of your readers still using Internet Explorer, you have to ask yourself one question. Am I loosing more readers than I realise?

If anything, I would have to say…yes. Seeing that the average returning visitors for this blog dropped from almost 50% to less than 30% ever since I've installed the "Internet Explorer Only Splash Page", that's not really a good thing altogether. That and the fact that I've been getting comments and emails from Internet Explorer users regarding my…aggresive evangelism. It's fair to say that, I do appreciate the feedback on it. I mean you took the time to read what I have to say and comment and it's fair enough that I try and accomodate what would make things easier on you. It's what a friend of mine would call business acumen. Not that I have much of it, doesn't mean I don't have any.

So yeah, I have toned the evangelism down a bit. The splash page doesn't show up any other time, it just comes out once every 2 days after you've viewed my blog. It's a whole lot better than having a permanent bar over the top of the blog saying that you need to switch away from Internet Explorer. I have my reasons for switching away from Internet Explorer, I really do and I'm starting to realize I can't force everyone else to do the same thing because of my reasons. I can do what I can, but there is a difference between convincing people and closing people away from you. What I can do is at least try and find that middle point somewhere that tells people, this is still not something I prefer you to view my blog with.

You still have a choice though, hopefully now, it'll be less anoying.

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lionel wrote from on July 19, 2006 at 12:57 and said:

No, sometimes there’s no choice. What of public computers at libraries, campuses, cybercafes, etc. that don’t offer the Firefox option? IE’s still around, like it or not, because it works fine.

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Kamigoroshi wrote from on July 19, 2006 at 13:21 and said:

There is always a choice, whether instituitions install it or we carry it around with us as a portable application on our thumbdrives.

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Tiara wrote from on July 19, 2006 at 18:10 and said:

Some places won’t let you install random stuff on their computers. And some places you shouldn’t be poking a thumbdrive in anyway - who knows what’s been there.

And then there’s the PDAs, which as far as i know don’t support FF.

Not everyone’s supremely computer literate to understand how to use a portable program. Most people use IE mainly because it’s there.

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Tiara wrote from on July 19, 2006 at 18:11 and said:

…and some people don’t even have thumbdrives at all! :O but yes! thumbdrives are not yet ubiquotous!

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Strizzt wrote from on July 19, 2006 at 19:50 and said:

I personally don’t think it’s about evangelism; but by having the IE-only splash page, it takes away the user-friendliness of this website - which is one of the many important issues to look out for when it comes to web design. I’ve always thought that this IE-only splash page is a big no-no, because this website does not cater only to yourself; it caters to your readers as well.

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lionel wrote from on July 19, 2006 at 23:52 and said:

Ah, thumbdrives. I knew you’d say that.

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Kamigoroshi wrote from on July 20, 2006 at 10:41 and said:

Tiara: Well, that’s fair enough…but I do know sites that do cater to non-IE users, simply because their statistics show a marginal percentage of their users using IE to begin with (much like the resolution debate). I had no choice but to tone it down and maybe in the long run, remove it altogether because half of my readers still use IE to view my blog. It’s just stupid for me to keep that splash page up at that level.

Strizzt: It took me a long time to get there to begin with simply because coding isn’t exactly my forte. This blog as far as I know it, can be viewed in IE without any problems altogether. I just wanted to move the browser demographic away from IE, which is still harder than it looks.

Lionel: That I do.

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ChickyBabe wrote from on July 20, 2006 at 11:40 and said:

Well what do you know… I had to check out your site in IE to know what you’re talking about!

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Kamigoroshi wrote from on July 20, 2006 at 12:09 and said:

Haha, God bless you and your geekiness ChickyBabe.

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Albert Ng wrote from on July 24, 2006 at 13:36 and said:

You could just put a header at the top, instead of a splash page. Splash pages were the death of a certain site you used to work for.

Like I quote some blogger, “The Firefox movement is like communism.” I don’t care for politics to know what he meant, but it sure as heck sounds cool to say.

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Cas wrote from on July 25, 2006 at 01:40 and said:

That splash page (whilst I applaud the sentiment behind it) completely borked the blog for me when I tried to view it at work today - I could not get beyond the splash page. Hence, no reading of the blog when I’m at work, which is prime blog-reading time for me

And I really have no option other than IE when I’m - no thumbdrives, nothing.

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Kamigoroshi wrote from on July 25, 2006 at 07:38 and said:

You couldn’t get beyond the splash page? That’s odd. There should have been a link going directly to my blog with the splash page appearing only after 4 days. Maybe I should change it to a permanent header. Might be better for everyone.

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Cas wrote from on July 26, 2006 at 00:58 and said:

I clicked the link and nothing happened. I have a feeling it is something to do with the redirect and/or javascript. Or our IT department getting fussy (they are very, very strict )

A permanent header/banner on one corner or something sounds better to me. Then I could read at work

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Kamigoroshi wrote from on July 26, 2006 at 08:27 and said:

Well…I’ve already put the permanent header up. Now you can enjoy reading for your guilty pleasures.

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