Amazing Fact About The ANA Website

I'm not sure I share the same amount of grief you have with the ANA. First, I will note that I am a member. Overall, I'm satisfied with the membership and have used various benefits of the organization.

I agree that it is a bit dismaying that you have to log in to see a list of dealers. I think that's a mistake. I will try to mention that to the appropriate staff as soon as I have a chance. However, I can understand the organization's eagerness to give the appearance of giving greater value to its membership. They want to have their members feel that they're getting certain priveleges for they're monetary support. That said, the dealer listings should be available to all, but other sections perhaps not.

As to your other complaint about browser compatibility. I agree that it would be in the best interest for a worldwide organization to openly embrace all tools/browsers available to the Web audience this sometimes can be quite a hurdle. I work in the IT business and I have had first hand horrific experiences with trying to get a web site to work with multiple browsers and multiple versions of each browser. It can be a resource intensive effort. However, if the organization hears enough flack about it, they likely will find those resources to address the issue.

The ANA is overall a very good organization that has its heart in the right place. It doesn't always make the right decisions, though. Some of its benefits are second to none. Anyone who's used their library and had books lent for no fee, except shipping, should be able to attest to this. Direct NGC submittals are another plus. One of the latest things I used was the ability to get a decent discount off of collector's insurance from Hugh Wood. There's much more, too.

I don't think the current situation with their website deserves such a strong reaction. Try contacting them and see if they plan on working it out in the near future.

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I work in the IT business and I have had first hand horrific experiences with trying to get a web site to work with multiple browsers and multiple versions of each browser.

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Well, for even an average webmaster, being compatible with all but the most outdated versions of IE and FF is relatively easy and will cover 99% of surfers.

In my opinion, to not include FF (whose share is growing by the minute) as a sitewide compatible browser for a site of such magnitude is automatic grounds for a webmaster's dismissal. The ANA's website was just completely revamped the beginning of the year or so, so not supporting FF is horrendously unacceptable.

Just thought I'd share my stats on my website:

1. Internet Explorer - 17,963 users - 54.01%
2. Firefox - 13,638 users - 41.01%
3. Safari - 1,099 users - 3.30%
4. Opera - 240 users - 0.72%
5. Netscape - 126 users - 0.38%
6. Camino - 102 users - 0.31%
7. Mozilla - 74 users - 0.22%
8. Playstation Portable - 11 users - 0.03%
9. AvantGo - 3 users - 0.01%
10. Blazer - 1 users - > 0.00%

If I blocked out firefox, that would mean removing 41.01% of my traffic. The ANA really needs to kick out that web designer. It really isn't hard to make a ebsite compatible across all browsers. The ANA sure could be losing a lot of visitors due to this gimick of a webmaster they have.

Blazer

Oh and Netscape released a new version today. They sent out a mass e-mail to it's 5 users and they were ecstatic.

Have you considered that they may still be working to make all of the site compatible? If you wait until EVERYTHING is all working perfectly before you run it out, you will never run it out because there will always be some new problem cropping up or some new improvement you will want to make. An the fastest way to find out where the problems are is to put it out there, let people use it and report where the problems are. You note they did not say that the site would not work with Firefox just that there MAY be areas that won't work.

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Beta testing on the public, and giving them no choice to view the old site, is an extremely poor business practice.

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True but it happens very often.

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This new version has been out for around a year.

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That I did not know, that does make a difference because it would seem to indicate that they may not be trying to fix the problems. (I don't go to the website because I could never get in back when I was a member even with the password. I just gave up on the site.)

I think you guys are being overly harsh on the ANA given all the benefits they do offer. I don't think they're doing anything maliciously or deliberately to piss people off. Did any of you try contacting them rather than just give up on your membership or ever joining? Personally, I think the organization is much more important than what their web site is capable of. To be honest, I rarely if ever use their site. If I need to reserve a book or summer session, etc....I call them.