Out of sight, out of mind
Look, I admit it. I'm behind the technology curve. I make no effort to keep up with the latest and greatest advances in software. (In fact, believe it or not, I'm still running Netscape Communicator 4.7 under Windows 95B with only 32MB RAM -- and I'm an analyst/programmer for local government!)
Although I am willing to take my share of the blame for the situation I'm about to complain about, I wish more people were sensitive to the situation: retailers are inadvertently distancing themselves from part of their customer base by 'upgrading' their company websites to the point of incompatibility with some browsers.
Within the past few days -- just yesterday, I think -- I was able to visit the Thunderhead Games website and read about upcoming products. Today, the site is invisible to me. The "new and improved" website appears in my browser as an empty black page with the new THG logo at the top; this is true for the Home, Products and other pages on the site. I have the same problem with the "new 2d0 reviews" pages at ENWorld, though I was always able to read the old reviews.
Publishers/webmasters, be aware that you risk losing customers when you "improve" your websites to the point where it can no longer be seen my people like myself who are using older browsers.
"Just get a new browser" you may say. I'm considering it. But the latest Netscape (I prefer using Netscape, my wife prefers MSIE) version requires more RAM than I have, and I don't think the type of SIMMs in my PC are being made any more. So before I go buy a new motherboard just to increase the RAM so I can upgrade a browser, I need a better reason than one or two commercial websites no longer being visible to me.
Of course, I don't take any of this personally. Thunderhead didn't do anything to intentionally exclude me. But the bottom line is: I can't buy what I can't see, and if I can get no information from the website, I won't know to keep an eye out for a product in the store. Thunderhead products (and those of any publisher with similar online practices) may now fall below my radar; out of sight, out of mind.