Buttons broken etc. - why not block IE?

[Carsten Schmitz]

Hi.

I was just re-testing some other problem and while it appears that (for good or bad) small changes are constantly being made to the code base of this forum, functionality IE11 is now broken beyond the point of being usable. As of today (and this is a moving target with this; tomorrow things may well be entirely different), the "save draft" button in IE doesn't work, and once pressed, causes any other button such as "cancel" or "submit" to be defunct as well.

So I propose this: instead of frustrating any prospective or existing customers using IE to no end, and merely declaring that IE is not the suggested browser, you should block it outright like many modern web things now do. Have a browser detection and then tell people to use a modern browser, which seems to work better (not great, but better). I have thought for a while about this, and while I usually really don't like the idea of outright refusing service to a browser, I think this has crossed the line now into territory where that would actually be the smaller caveat.

That way, many of us could at least argue with our companies against forcing us to use IE as the default browser that is irrefutably used to open all links by default.

Thanks.

[Jason McClellan]

I'm not sure what site anywhere has IE 11 as a suggested browser unless the application is internal facing.   We recommend Chrome, Firefox, or Edge as our browser of choice.   The reason we do not block it is there are many dot gov and banks who have no choice but to choose IE 11 while on their internal networks.    As I said before in many posts,  IE 11 is difficult based on the end-users external IE 11 settings, not the platform.   Any SaaS platform will design for the most used browsers and try to accommodate the rest.   

If you have a choice to use Chrome or another browser, I don't understand the thread's intended purpose.   

Since we launched last year here is the breakdown of users using IE and version.
IE 11 4.87%
IE 9.0 1.32%
IE 7.0 .72%
IE 8.0 .37%
IE 10.0 .19%
IE 5.0 .01%
IE 6.0 .01%

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Thank you
Jason
Broadcom Community Platform Admin, IT
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[Carsten Schmitz]

> I don't understand the thread's intended purpose.

"The threads intended purpose" is to tell you this forum software works so poorly in IE, you might as well disallow it and be better of with the user experience. I thought I made that abundantly clear.

I also don't know how you, frankly, can constantly wipe away the argument that while people do have access to other browsers, usability is still hampered when IE is the company-mandated default that opens every. single. link. one clicks on in the bare-bones emails that Higher Logic sends out. It's like usability doesn't matter with Higher Logic as long as there is a workaround for everything. And companies won't change their outright ridiculous "IE first" policies in 2020 when every website accommodates them, but merely on paper.

Usability is a measurable thing, and HL does not have it. Frankly, does Broadcom, as a whole, not get that when they save on product support by facilitating a community of free volunteer consultants who are often times providing better support than Broadcom support (the words of customers, not mine), they shouldn't also make the platform used for that as inconvenient for their volunteer force as possibly imaginable?

Sorry if that all sounds harsh but you know, CA "spoiled" us with Jive, because that was par for the course for 2018 - it was working. Jive was the decent, warm meal to the tiny, cold budget airline food that is HL.

> Any SaaS platform will design for the most used browsers

No they don't. Not in 2020. A bit to my own surprise I admit, in 2020 I see a lot of "please use another browser" messages even from big players when using IE.

But you are correct at the same time, though I am not sure if that's fully intentional:

As I once more re-type input in a form field subject due to a bug that another Broadcom employee replicated months ago and then was never heard from again, there's just no point for me pointing out any shortcomings with your systems anymore. Same as we have partially resigned to not reporting product bugs anymore (while still paying for that service), because there just isn't any meaningful support for certain classes of problems, the conclusion with Higher Logic also strongly suggests that there's no point. HL at Broadcom is just too broken and too slowly moving for any hope of input to make any meaningful difference.

Again, sorry to be blunt, don't take it personal. But you kinda asked for further clarification.

And cheers for the numbers.

[Michael A. Lowry]

> If you have a choice to use Chrome or another browser, I don't understand the thread's intended purpose.

We are actually trying to help you.

[Michael A. Lowry]

Here is an alternative proposal: display a banner for IE 11 users stating that the browser is strongly discouraged, that there are known incompatibilities in Higher Logic, and that these bugs will not be fixed. This addresses Carsten's concerns and Jason's.

[Carsten Schmitz]

This sounds like a good compromise, I agree.

[Carsten Schmitz]

> This sounds like a good compromise, I agree.

... a compromise proposal that does not get picked up by anyone at Broadcom. So sad. Feeling that any discussion is only to be had as long as it wholly aligns with the current hard business goals intensifies.

[Jason McClellan]

@Michael A. Lowry and @Carsten Schmitz   -  We have deployed all of the work arounds and fixes for IE 11 available at the vendor level.  We have many customers in banking and dot-gov that rely on IE 11.   It's not ideal but some features are diminished and some do not work at all based on client-side security controls. ​​​​ As always, I appreciate your feedback and discussion.  Many of these threads convert into a vendor ticket for review and possible bug fix.   We made a few changes for IE 11.   ~jm

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Thank you
Jason
Broadcom Community Platform Admin, IT
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[Carsten Schmitz]

I will let this thread rest now, but I wanted to deliver at least one example of a major service that does outright block any usage of IE11. I knew I had seen this a couple of times. Here's one.

Best regards,
Carsten