Post textboxs very narrow in Firefox
 

For some reason the textbox (like the one I am typing this message into) is only 40 columns wide, where as under IE it is 70 colums wide. I checked the page source and it is not a rendering problem, for Firefox you get:but IE gets:for the same page. (I replaced the <>'s with []'s so it doesn't mess up the page.)

Edit to say: I also had this problem under Firebird. I searched and found a post about pages not displaying correctly in Mozilla, but it was 2 years old and assumed it was a rendering error.

I posted about this a long time ago. Basically, the gist of that thread was that everyone uses IE and Geoff was too busy to fix it for those few of us that don't.

The problem stems from the fact that vbulletin is assuming that FireFox and any other Gecko based browser is like Navigator 4.7. So it's serving up special code for the textarea that works well for Navigator 4.7 but is ridiculously narrow on any modern browser.

As a Mozilla user, I've found that a workaround is to use Prefbar to spoof your user-agent. Go to mozdev.org, install prefbar. It's actually quite a handy little tool. It'll tell servers that you're running XP/IE6 even when you're running 2K/Mozilla like I am.

Doing so sort of sucks in that it continues to perpetuate the assumption that IE is the dominant browser, but it does cut down on these types of incompatiblities.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

From this site:

<table width=400 border=1><tr><tdwidth="20%"><td><b>2004</b></td><td><b>IE6</b></td><td><b>IE5</b></td><td><b>O7</b></td><td><b>Moz</b></td><td><b>NN3</b></td><td><b>NN4</b></td><td><b>NN7</b></td></tr><tr><td>April</td><td>72.4%</td><td>10.4%</td><td>2.1%</td><td>10.1%</td><td>0.3%</td><td>0.3%</td><td>1.4%</td></tr><tr><td>March</td><td>72.1%</td><td>10.7%</td><td>2.1%</td><td>9.6%</td><td>0.4%</td><td>0.4%</td><td>1.4%</td></tr><tr><td>February</td><td>71.5%</td><td>11.5%</td><td>2.2%</td><td>9.0%</td><td>0.4%</td><td>0.4%</td><td>1.5%</td></tr><tr><td>January</td><td>71.3%</td><td>12.8%</td><td>2.1%</td><td>8.2%</td><td>0.4%</td><td>0.5%</td><td>1.5%</td></tr></table>

So it looks like 10% of us are just screwed...the small text box really does piss me off at times. I'm going to look into that prefbar.

I say 75% of those reported as IE6 are really Mozilla users spoofing IE6. Prove me wrong. :banana:

The narrow text box looks odd, but doesn't really bother me. I loves me some Firefox.

prefbar fixes the problem, it causes smaller problems with the build I'm using. First, the "Customize" button doesn't work, so I can't customize the bar, not that I really want it anyway. However, I can set the browser ID and then disable the prefbar extension and the setting sticks.

However, if I set my browser to ID as IE6, when I start FireFox JavaVM pops up an error box saying I shouldn't use the navigator version of Java with IE. But Java still works, so it's more annoying than anything.

Actually, what works better for me is the User Agent Widget

http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/#uawidget

It adds a new button (actually dropdown box) to change your browser ID, that you can place where you want. So you don't need the overhead of prefbar if that is all the functionality you want.

The only problem is it is quite large, about twice the size of the search box. Personally, I have plenty of room, so I don't mind. And it's a heck of a lot smaller than a whole toolbar.

EDIT: Of course the java error message still occurs if I don't change the ID back before closing.

it's actually a very simple setting in the vBulletin options, which i pointed out in a recent Firefox thread over in Tech Talk.

If you don't think the vast majority of web browsers surfing the net are IE, you're more deluded than the voters for "American Idol."

<marquee>:lol:rotfl:lol:</marquee>

If you think that IE offers the best browsing experience, you're more deluded than the voters for "American Idol." But let's not make this a "which browser is better" thread. ;)

Stats show that at least 10% of surfers are using Firefox, and to ignore them is ridiculous. Granted, 75% of IE users are not spoofing IE, but I'm sure there's a good number of them that are, thus raising that 10% a bit more.

I wonder if Geoff's stats can tell us what percentage of page views are being viewed under Firefox, et al.

Another problem that I sometimes get when I use Firefox is that the "Forum Jump" drop down boxes (both the one at the top and the bottom) sometimes do not work. I can drop down and choose a different forum, but I won't get directed to that forum. The drop down box at the bottom has a "go" button so I can click on that and it'll work, but I'm shit out of luck with the drop down box at the top.

This only happens sometimes. Like once per 30 minutes.

Hey, get your own webspace to host pics :grunt:




j/k ;)

What can I say, when I see something I like, I take it. I'm a criminal, there's no reasoning with me -biggrin-.