I use Basecamp, a project management extranet from 37 Signals. It’s good and useful (although I could think of a few things that would improve it). However, it doesn’t support Internet Explorer 7 RC1. This means I can’t use it on two of my computers and at least one client can no longer access it.
Their response, as displayed on the login page:
SYSTEM NOTICE: Internet Explorer 7 is not supported yet
We’ve been getting email from folks using Internet Explorer 7 saying certain parts of Basecamp aren’t working anymore. At this time we do not support IE 7 or any other web browser in Beta. Once IE 7 is officially released we will make the necessary changes to support this browser. Until then please use IE 6, Firefox, or Safari. Thank you.
I’m not sure if this is very helpful or reassuring.
Related posts:
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I ran into the same problem with one of my favorite websites: Colorado’s Historic Newspapers Collection http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org. Last week, I received a flat-out “The version of the browser you are using is not supported. Please upgrade your browser.” Since I *had* just upgraded my browser, it was a frustrating message. After reporting the problem, it now says that my web browser is not fully supported. The funny thing is that previously, the only browser that worked correctly with this website was IE version 6.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!
I see nothing wrong with this … if they indeed have found problems with IE7 – they are doing the right thing by letting you know that it is not going to work. Since IE7 is a beta (ie changing) product they don’t won’t to chase after a moving target that represents only a very small percentage of the user base. Since varying degrees of browser compatibility means that most users (particularily those that would have installed IE7 at this point) would have another browser installed.
Well, I accept that Microsoft are often condemned for breaking conventions and websites with each new browser release. On the other hand, IE is the most popular browser. IE7 is now a ‘release candidate’ with launch due in a few months and it is already widely used, at least among my clients who use my extranet. Simply putting up an error message to say ‘it won’t work’ doesn’t really feel good enough to me in the circumstances. I wonder whether they would take the same view of a widely distributed Safari or Firefox beta / release candidate.
I agree with Matthew. I use Gmail and it’s still in beta. And MS actually encourage everyone to download IE7, which I think is as close to release as you can get. To run and hide from it is inexcusable.
A gentle message saying “We haven’t fully tested IE7 yet – please notify us of any errors you get with it while using Basecamp” would be a far better way of responding.
Andrew Denny