IE8 and D7

My site seems to work fairly well in Firefox and even better in Chrome but there seem to be so many issues with IE8. Just wondering if anyone is  experiencing the same thing.

Is no-one else having issues with ie8 then?

Any chance you can describe the issue so those of us on the BeOS don't need to keep playing the guessing game?

The site freezes up shortly after logging in, or it goes very slowly.

Sometimes when you type in the url it can't find it but if you try  it in FF or chrome it finds it straight away.

The simple messenger stops responding or a little window open up saying 'Please wait'.

None of this happens on any other browser only ie8.

I've noticed that too! It's true. I have same issue with my website. Very strange indeed!

The stuck-up web developer in me calls this a feature, but my common sense is calling this a genuine bug. I personally want to call this a feature, though.

Sorry to hear that but I have to say I'm glad its not just me. Have you a clue why this is happening?

lol..........why would you call this a feature?

To ward-off people from using this God forsaken web browser. Seriously, people: use NetPositive, a real web browser.

 I am seriously starting to despise ie8 for its many failings and am trying to get my members to use chrome or firefox but so many people still use ie8 that you have to cater for it. So at the end of the day we still need a solution.

Just wondering if there is anyone else experiencing problems with their site when using IE8? Problems where the site freezes up for example.

Yup, IE8 is a problem for me too.  There is the delay, and even after adding the url to the compatibility list, you need to ctrl-f5 a bunch of times to get back missing things.  Some of the please wait and loading images seems to work weird, etc.

Carol

 Apparently D7 was tested in IE8 but was optimized for Firefox and Safari...........so I am told.

I've stated there is a problem with D7 and IE (any version, especially 7) since beta 6.  But is it Dolphin's fault or MS for bucking what most other browsers use as uniform rulesets?

I have my money on both being at fault.

I made that change to the .htaccess file a few days back which sorted everything. My site was originally running like a dog under IE8. All sorted now. However I cannot find the original URL. Sorry...

I think IE just fried my router, whole thing fried last night and I had to replace it and spend hours reconfiguring my firewall. The thing was running slow for the last few days, I think it just overheated it or sumthin. That has to be Gates fault. I also have issues with IE8 like when I'm using it, my tea tastes more bitter. (more bitter, lol)

All kidding aside. Just like Dolphin, IE gets blamed for a lot of issues that aren't it's fault but many of us have got to have SOMEONE to blame cuz we're too stupid to find the real problem so he's an easy target. The real truth is we need to work through these issues because 90+ percent of the people on this planet use that browser. We have no choice.

My personal choice is Chrome and I have never heard of NetPositive. Is that like an ion exchange system or sumthin?

At least Gates was smart enough to turn off the cruise control when it tried to make his car go 140mph unlike some other unlucky bastards....

I am so sorry to see that so many people are having the same issues with IE8 but ..............Thank God....for a while there I thought I was the only one.

Its amazing the difference in performance there is between IE8 and the rest of the browsers. Unfortunately, in my case, as is probably the case for most people, IE8 is still being used by the majority of my members. I don't know what Boonex were thinking when they were optimizing Dolphin for Firefox and Safari without considering the still high but slowly dwindling usage of IE8.

The number of complaints I've had from paying members is ridiculous and it is starting to affect the traffic in my site.

It's hard enough getting people to find and the use your site but to then have to tell them that they should install another browser to get the best use of this site is internet suicide.

Boonex, you have such an amazing product on your hands but you seem to constantly be taking 2 steps forward and one step back.

To not optimize D7 for IE8 is one hell of a massive step back.

THIS REALLY NEEDS RESOLVING NOW...............please?

I would have no problem of putting on the homepage one of those blurps "Best viewed with FireFox"...HOWEVER, some things just don't work quite right with Firefox either!!!

Carol

for me it runs great on both browsers using ie 8 & ff 3.5.7

@ Carol.........I have already added something to that effect in the news on my site with links to download the browsers that do function best. 

@ Prolaznik.........Out of curiousity, how many members do you have on your site? 

My site is currently receiving about 200 new members a day.  I switched to Dolphin 7 a few weeks ago because this was a better script then the one I was using.  I'm having similar issues with IE.

My site runs awesome on Firefox and Chrome, etc. but runs slow on IE (all recent versions).  I agree 100% that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

Despite what many people think of IE, the reality is a lot of people coming to our site use this browser.  If our site takes a long time to load, they will simply back up and move along somewhere else.  We are going to lose a lot of potential members.

i will say IE 8 is much better at parsing the site then IE 7, but there are still many little css * hacks to get IE to behave properly.

@jasonvan nice sub rate!

One thing that has improved the performance of my site in IE8 was after I disabled all the permalinks. It is still not perfect but it is better.

Jason, I'm wondering if you would mind sharing your url.  That is really fantastic growth - you must be doing something right.  Maybe we could learn from you.

Rob

view my profile there's a link to my site :)
but how many members a site has, has nothing to do how the site works in different browsers

yes also please provide access to your server there's gotta be something we can copy/steal from you heheh  j/k

a url would be ok just to see what the site looks like

 The  amount of members was asked with the permalinks in mind.

Nah, I don't want to steal or copy anything - it is mostly just intellectual curiosity.   Growing at 200 users per day is pretty darn good for a new site - but he said he just switched to Dolphin so he must have already been really active in some market.   Is anyone else experiencing growth anywhere near that?  I know that just "good design" couldn't account for that.  Getting people to use one of those "inviter" mods? - maybe.   It would be nice if he would just tell us.  At 200 users per day you can't stay under the radar that long anyway.

We opened in January and our average is 9.7/day since open.  However everything really picked up in the end of Jan, and in Feb we're averaging 19/day and the indications is that number will grow as the month goes on.

My site is UstillUp.com - started over with Dolphin 7 script about 2 weeks ago.  My site is PR4 and I do well in Google for "singles chat", "dating chat", and dozens of other keywords/phrases.  I'm not much of a programmer, but I know a lot about SEO.

I switched my site to Dolphin 7 from another very popular dating script because I honestly believe Dolphin 7 is now the best.

I hope we can hear some more ideas on how to make Dolphin 7 a bit more IE friendly.

My growth was almost 40,000 in one day.  But that's because I imported already-existing members :))  It's a subsection of my overall site and I get about 5-10 new people daily.  It's not a dating or chat site.

Jason, I like the design, very nice, good job on that.

I'm surprised about your SEO comment because no matter how nice D7 has been in addressing the social site CMS niche, it's terrible for SEO.  I'm never going to share a link to my site here (not even via PM) but I tweaked D7 to my satisfaction in 2 weeks after downloading it and the only thing I feel I'm going to have to wrestle with now is the SEO factor.  It's going to take some hardcore surgery to do it right.

I'm curious how you see the SEO limits currently in D7?  If you've had a lot of SEO experience, you'll know what I mean... there are some major SEO hurdles in D7...

I spent a year tweaking my last script, and I have barely even touched the surface on this one.  But give me a few months...  Nevertheless,  I think offsite optimization now far, far out weighs onsite SEO.  If you have hundreds of high PR, trustworthy and relevant sites linking to yours (using different varieties of your keywords in and around anchor text), this can overshadow any SEO limitations of a dating or social networking script. 

Cool site Jason - just joined.  Slow as all get out though.  I guess that is to be expected with rapid growth.   May I ask what software you used before?  No reason not to mention it since you like Dolphin.  I'm wondering - does that automatic activation give you any problems?  i.e. do you get many "junk" accounts?  For certain kinds of sites I guess it is appropriate but I was just wondering how it works.

 Hi Jason.........that's a nice example of SEO. Getting your website link to appear in forums around the world is one way to increase your Google ranking as well as your Alexa ranking. I think this type of link placement can even get picked up by Alexa as a link to your site thus helping  boost your ranking because Alexa sees it as being more poplular.

Is that right Jason?

Might want to try this link Profesize: http://www.boonex.com/unity/forums/topic/How-to-reduce-load-time-of-dolphin-7.htm

Credit goes to prolaznik it may help with the load times.

@JasonVan - Would you mind telling us your business model? - if you are willing to reveal it.   That kind of growth must be pretty exciting.  Do you plan to make money with just banner ads?

@JBFB - Would it be possible to see your site also?  Five new members a day actually isn't bad.  The 40,000 you imported though could be good or bad depending.  If they were already a "community" it could take off, but if this was more like a "directory" maybe not.  I know a guy here who imported 250,000 members.   They were technically "opt ins" to that domain but from more of a directory type system.  In pure numbers, this would be one of the biggest sites here - if not the biggest.  Looking at his site now, though,  he has maybe 20 active members - if that.   Defining "success" is tough with these things.

Not possible, sorry.  It's an existing community of double opt-ins, within a larger site (it's just one piece of the site).  Most of them aren't likely to have known I even changed the system until I email them about the change this week.  Seems about 300 members were active in the past few days, mostly kicking the tires.  Maybe 1,000 or so will be active on it weekly going forward.

I don't recommend people using D7 as the central strategy to create a community.  It's just a tool.  You still have to offer value on your own.  What many have to realize is this: What if someone handed you the keys to the Facebook platform & all the horsepower needed to have unlimited members?  A lot of people would think all they had to do is put it up on their server and the members would come rolling in non-stop.  It doesn't work that way.  You need some other value to draw them in, and some other value to keep them.  You need a momentum based on a value proposition that can't be had anywhere else.

No worries JBFB - with 40,000 members it is not going to be secret that long though - if you even want it to be.  Agree with what you said about the importance of a "value proposition" to get and retain members.

Thanks for the pointer cbassfish and thank you again prolaznik. Giving it a go.

Just wondering if anyone had a solution for this problem with IE8? I am also experiencing the problems already mentioned, plus I also find that the back button takes several attempts before working... works with one click in chrome.

anyone have the solution?

Bump

I am also having HUGE issues with IE8. Running Windows 7 64-bit, and both the 32 bit IE 8 and 64 bit have horrible formatting issues. I have done a little bit of custom formatting, but nothing much beyond changing colors and a few other things.

The whole site is left aligned, instead of center, the Welcome box on the front page is at the bottom of the page (the rotator is still where it should be) but somehow the Welcome bar that is normally at the bottom of the rotating images is at the bottom of the page!!

Site works fine in all other major browsers, just the same old problems that IE has always had. Would love it if everyone would stop using IE, then Microsoft would stop making it and we could all live easier, but that wont happen anytime soon.

Cory