Bearclover.net "El Capitan" Award - Cross-Platform Criteria

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El Capitan Award: Cross-Platform & Browser Issues

No Big Deal - Big Deal - Final Thoughts

Let me assure you right now, I am not a rabid anti-PC person. I started out on PC, and I still own and use one. (No "Windoze Sux" from me!) But I love my Mac, and do most of my design work and web surfing on it. So cross-platform compatibility will be an issue for me when viewing and judging sites for this award.

What isn't a big deal to me:

Little differences - slight formatting differences. Slight color differences. (Mac monitors are different from PCs - they show things a little lighter.) And you know those nifty colored drop-down menus that we are seeing more of these days? They don't show up in the 4.75 version of the Mac Netscape. They still work fine, they just aren't colored.

I will not take points away for a lot of the minor things. Sometimes some special java "trick" won't show up on Mac. (And you know those "no right click" java messages? They don't work on Macs! I can right-click to my heart's content.) Sometimes Cascading Style Sheets screw up in Netscape, especially on a Mac. Often this is not a huge deal - a little bit of wonky text, or a table messed up a little. That's fine. In fact, most of my award winners have some of the above mentioned Mac issues. And these issues did not affect what award I gave them. I can deal with these things. However, if you win, I will probably mention them to you - just so you know. I think it's interesting information - I'd want to know! So I'll tell you - but not to be mean!

What is a big deal to me:

A hard crash that makes me reboot my Mac. (Some very sophisticated-looking sites have done this. It isn't always the cheesy ones!) I can forgive a slight "hang" of my browser, especially with IE5. It's a great browser, but sometimes a bit picky. But a hard crash? That makes me have to reboot? Sorry, no second chances there.

Cascading Style Sheets problems so bad that I am unable to read the text, click on links, or anything. I've only seen it a few times, but it's not pretty. Images overlap and obscure text. I can't read anything! Text overlaps itself, creating an unreadable jumble. Depending on how much time I have, I might check the site in my other browser. Or I might not. (Here is an example of text and images overlapping each other. Real attractive!)

Text that is super small. For some reason, occasionally a "stylishly small" font looks really really small on a Mac. Smaller than any normal human can ever read. The only way I can read such small text on some pages is to turn on my PC, where it is displayed at a readable size. Please don't expect me to turn on my PC for the sole purpose of evaluating your site.

Final thoughts...

As I mentioned on the previous page, there are plenty of newsgroups and forums for webmasters that provide "site checks". If you have a PC and don't know any Mac users, just go to one of these forums and ask for a "Mac site check"! There are plenty of us around, and we will be more than happy to give your site a look, and tell you if there are any major problems.

Between 3% to 7% of your web visitors probably use a Mac. (At least on all of my sites that's the percentage!) That may not seem like a lot, but that isn't nothing, either. And, I'd like to also remind you, a high percentage of Mac users are design/graphics oriented (i.e. "arty"). We want to admire your good web design along with everyone else. We are not nonexistent! Please don't forget about us when doing your site checks.

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