🚀 go-pugleaf

Joao Carlos Paulino Cabedal Vicente (ay513@torfree.net) wrote:
: Laslo Orto (cc317@torfree.net) wrote:
: : As you said IBM designed the site so if you have complaints about it take 
: : it out with the "big mighty IBM that cant screw up"


: If you were paying attention, you'd have noticed that my original comment 
: was:

: Why put this up on the entry screen, 1996 Olympics WWW Site -
: http://www.atlanta.olympic.org, when no information can be accessed on
: these pages with LYNX?

: If IBM screwed up or not, was not what I was trying to get at. I was 
: trying to get an explanation, as to the reasoning behind advertising a 
: site on the entry screen of the freenet which has a minuscule amount of it's 
: pages accessible from the freenet.

: If having a site that isn't minimally browsable from the freenet 
: advertised on the freenet's own entry screen makes sense to you, explain it, 
: otherwise, I must ask you to keep your comments to yourself or send them 
: by mail so I don't have to give you a public answer.


Yes, indeed, web sites that use the 'frames' 'technology' are the most
problematic. A year ago, when I launched my web page, the people who run
the place where it's located said "gee, a TEXT based web site? what's that?".
The fact is, the web was mostly text based and, therefore, very LYNX 
friendly for quite a long time I hear. I don't own a computer with
Windows or Netscape. Just a laptop with mono monitor and built-in modem,
and that's good enough. It actually is faster than the machines at
Metro Toronto Ref Library, where you have no option to keep images
from slowing down the machine (worldvue). 

Case in point: The Weather Network's site, www.theweathernetwork.com
(ugh! too long!!!), will give you a 'sorry! this site uses FRAMES
technology' message. Some sites will give you the annoying [INLINE]
or even highly annoying [ISMAP] symbol, indicating a graphic or a
graphical map is there -- in other words, a point-n-click dealy.
To get around this, I always use the \ symbol. Do this in LYNX and
you'll see the HTML code pop up -- which will reveal the exact URLs
for the page. Of course, some places are not as nice as to provide a
text only page. For example, the people at Greyhound www.greyhound.ca
have pretty much refused to accept the fact that LYNX is still being
used. In fact, they answered an e-mail of mine saying they "thought
LYNX was obsolete". Indeed, I had to tell them that many universities
and institutions still use LYNX and it is much better due to the lack
of pictoral distractions...and it's faster than Netscape. Lynx has
an upgrade available right now, actually. 

A lot of web site developers are using this frames stuff and it's
pretty easy, but I have a personal philosophy at my web site that
I don't want to piss off people with a lot of graphics. I used very
few and refuse to use graphical maps. Want a nightmare web site to
see what I mean? Go to www.oocl.com, Orient Overseas Container Lines.
You'll know them better as the people who have those ocean containers
running all over the Toronto region, with the flower logo onthe side.
It's a nicely laid out site...but every selection has an elaborately
scanned photo of one thing or another. The second coming of Christ 
will happen before all the images in this page are finished loading.
And this is a page that gives you the 'text only' option as well,
as I seem to recall. I saw it on one of those WorldVue terminals
at the MTRL. A very good argument NOT to design stuff with frames!
Another nightmare? Go see www.7-11.com (yeah, 7-11 Stores). In lynx,
you'll only see something like [ISMAP], but do the \ command, and you'll
find the URL for whatever you wanna see. Then just go to that URL.
Works for me!

In short, all you should do, if annoyed with a web site that is not
text browser friendly is to send a note to the webmaster (ugh! I hate
that term!). With the emergence of Java-based sites, the rest of us
in the text world will have it crappy. Lynx is nice! It's uncomplicated
and doesn't rely on glitz because it's users care for substance not
fluff (at least that's how I see it, as a Lynx user).

Shawn
http://www.ptbo.igs.net/~shawn



: Respectfully, 
: -- 
: Joao

:           A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat.
:                  ---Monty's circus #3---
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shawn Berry   http://www.ptbo.igs.net/~shawn     
by463@freenet.toronto.on.ca     shawn@ptbo.igs.net