Why There doesn't get it.

This is what I got poking around their main site using Firefox.

http://www.there.com/help/browser.html

yeah, i ran across that recently myself. all i could do was literally laugh out loud!

There.. it's like the AOL of the "metaverse".

Why are all of these people apparently wearing clothes in a hot tub?

That is priceless. Why should they get on board with Firefox just because it is very rapidly gaining users and has captured a significant share of users?

To be fair, one doesn't get that page when actually viewing the site with Firefox, as I did.

Ordinal, that's odd.. i get it with both Mozilla AND Firefox!

Oh, I see - it only comes into play when you actually try to register. I was just looking at the main site.

That's even worse, come to think of it. Your Firefox user browses the site, thinks "hmm, this looks interesting, maybe I'll sign up", clicks the link... and then is denied!

Really, there's absolutely no excuse for that sort of thing. In fact it's illegal in this country to have browser-specific commercial sites, under disabilities regulation.

Yeah. That kind of bias sucks. But it's okay, the average There user wouldn't be running anything besides The Blue E, that stands for Internet.

If they can't work out that they need to take their clothes off in the bath, I suspect they'd be pushed to do anything as complex as downloading another browser.

There has had a browser based interface from the very beginning - which I have to say is far more intuitive than SL's in many ways. I also have always liked how all kinds of functionality in There is handled in the browser - renting homes, buying items, inviting group members, finding things, etc. At the time There was created, Firefox was not even on the radar, and there was no component version of another browser they could use to integrate into their product quickly - many commerical products use IE internally as their browsing engine. Their use of Internet Explorer as the underpinings of their system doesn't mean "they don't get it". At least they have a browser - we are still waiting.

That's all well and good for the pages that are used in game, but it's inexcusable for the signup pages. I mean, it's not like it's hard to make pages that work across different browsers.

And here's a little Firefox extension I find handy in these situations: http://ietab.mozdev.org/

Heh. A year or two ago I tried out "There" since it allowed the import of 3DS models. Didnt like it. Seemed everything you bought or did was gonna be charged to your credit card, and WOW!! It's SO realistic to WALK across the water.

After looking at it again, I'm still not impressed.

So you would let users complete the registration process, reveal their credit card information on their way etc., only to then have them find out they will need to use IE in order to really run THERE? (which may have affected their decision to sign up in the first place)
I prefer to receive information like this beforehand.

How realistic is it to fly through the air in SL?

I tried both "worlds" out of curiosity after reading about them in Technology Review (I had never used online worlds or known about them until then).
THERE instantly appealed to me with it's easy-to-use interface and the beautiful animations. The AVs may look like a joke but movement was just really well done (e.g. hoverboarding tricks - so much fun!, the dogs, vehicle driving physics etc.).

At first (second, third,...) sight, the SL world seemed rather ugly in contrast (the default AV walk... please!) and the interface an impertinence.

However, There wore off very quickly. The animations, as nice as they may instantly be, get boring after seeing them for the umpteenth time, AVs just look the same whatever you do to customize them, and I do prefer conversations with substance. I gave SL another try and after discovering its many facets and beauties and seeing the vast creativity here, I got over the crappy interface and never looked back.

If the signup pages were coded to work in any browser one would assume that the rest would be too...

And the pages used internally have nothing to do with wich browser you choose to use since they're viewed in the embedded browser.

I keep internet explorer pinned to my start menu because of the volume of sites that don't like Firefox..

Easy answer, you can't take your clothes off in There, it's a PG13 world! The best you can get is skin coloured panties and t-shirts....no kidding!

You can't even get into swimwear? Wow, that's immersion for you right there.

There is swim wear.

SL and There both have their good points and bad points. I prefer There's housing and renting system to SL's land tier system. I thought it was great that There has always had P2P teleport (if you have the spot saved). I love the vehicles in There, SL's....not at all. I don't even bother with vehicles in SL.

I love SL's ability to customize Av's. I adore my yadni's skeleton avatar. The hair styles and lack of skirts/dresses in There sucks. Although I do have a cat costume in There and it's cute, but no SL furry AV.

I hate SL's avatar walking..corn cob up the ass. There's animations are much more fluid, but can't be changed.

The world is a fun place to explore and you don't typically run into the big red ban lines. The no-flying/no-driving zones that eject you from your vehicles when exploring in There completely suck.

The costs to submit items to be brought into There's world SUCK. The programs can be hard to learn for building. I like how you can build what you want in SL and only pay to upload textures you want.

No matter how you slice it, both have positives over the other world.

I can't even get rid of IE because there's always the smartarse program that goes to a help webpage using it, even after I physically uninstall it!

But I always make sure to tell those webpage administrators that require IE that it is an inferior browser and that THEY should update, not me. That usually gets them on the ball. (Except in There's case, which I think I shall leave alone.)

You can wear bathing suits. You just can't be naked. You also can't hug ppl, which is why I left. Glad I did.

You can be naked, you just need the patch for it. Of course if other people aren't using it, you look like an idiot running around in the default panties and a white t-shirt.

Oh, and the patch shows up as caramel skin color, so if you are another color, it looks weird.

PM me if you want the patch, I believe that I still have it somewhere.