I've fixed the Netscape 4 comments bug. Though I do consider institutions that force users to use Netscape 4 to be guilty of acts of torture under the Geneva Convention, I don't mind throwing a rope to beleaguered users adversely affected by their IT department's unnecessarily archaic practices.
That's also why I made a light version of the front page, without all the CSS that tends to break Netscape 4 to the point of unusability (the CSS is the page styling information, it's a public standard, and it poses no problem for any decent web browser made in the last three years). The 'light' page is automatically generated from the same content as the normal front page so I don't have to mess around updating it, it's just around as a service to anyone stuck with an old, broken browser.
The fact that I'm begrudgingly happy to take these steps to make the site backwardly-compatible doesn't mean that I'm particularly pleased about the situation. Netscape 4's implementation of several key standards was so badly defective that I strongly believe that its release constituted an act of almost criminal negligence - the requirement for web designers to work around the many serious faults in the software hindered the widespread adoption of promising technologies for years, and the repercussions are still being felt amongst designers unwilling or unable to exclude the few percent of their prospective audience that still uses Netscape 4, usually through no choice of their own.
Truly, the way forward for the Web lies in interoperability based on open, public standards, and fortunately this is now being embraced (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) by every major browser developer. But as long as ancient, bad browsers are being used on unmaintained and forgotten desktops, writing standards-compliant content may not be enough to satisfy every single user.
These old programs are a scourge on the Net. No web developer wants to turn away potential readers. But, some argue, we have reached the point where alienating a few users is the lesser evil.
End of advocacy.
Perhaps I should have stated it explicitly, by the way: the bug wasn't with this site, it's in Netscape 4, and I had to change the site to work around the existence of the bug.
Imagine doing that a few hundred times and having to leave out features from the site because they would break old browsers, and you know what it's like to try to get an entire website compatible with Netscape 4.
Yay! I have a voice again! Nice work Chris! And your thoughts on it all were interesting too. I know, the systems here are ridiculous. I've even sent files to people they couldn't open, because the version of Word we have to use is too old. Seeing my website on other computers is always a treat, the backgrounds are so much more detailed etc. Anyway- keep it up! :o)
Well, ya know, some people actually prefer Netscape 4 to all this newfangled whatchumacallit stuff. I mean who needs smooth scrolling, style sheets or that new-fangled java stuff anyway.
Besides, it's a matter of principal. Those Microsoft people sure aren't getting their orders from up here, and those Opera folks are getting payoffs from Luciano Pavarotti for sure, and don't let me get started on the link between Mozilla, the Japanese Yakuza, and the Chinese Tongs. Lynx is alright, approved by the World Wildlife Fund, or whatever they changed their name to when they got tired of being confused with the World Wrestling Federation. Man those Pandas can do a mean body slam.