We'd like to take a minute to respond to the comments posted in the last few days about the new Web site. Some of the comments were not sent to the ripe-list, only to one or two people here. First of all, we want to thank those of you who have sent in comments for your interest in the site. We are sorry for the teething troubles and appreciative of your patience. 1. Access Although we chose to use frames in the browsers that support them, the web site was designed from the outset to be accessible by simple browsers such as Lynx. Unfortunately, the automatic selection had a flaw that prevented access by browsers which did not allow one to load another page directly. For those of you who could not reach the site because there was no support for no-frame browsers during the weekend, you might like to know that immediately following the launch, we were fair and impartial :-). Our web site was inaccessible regardless of your browser. At this point, the web site should be accessible with whatever browser you are using. Certainly there was never an intention to prevent access to the site with non-Netscape browsers. If at any point, you find you can't access our web site with an arbitrary browser, please let us know. It is most definitely not by design. 2. Content We are glad to hear that most people find the information available on the web site to be of use. We hope to keep it that way and hope that you won't hesitate to inform us when new information would be useful. 2.1 List of documents We've been asked to put titles next to the list of ripe-xxx document names. We've also been asked to list the documents in a table, so the entire list can be viewed without scrolling. Both of these views will be supported in the near future. 2.2 RFC Access There's been a suggestion that the RFCs should be accessible from our web site. While the RFC's are still accessible via our ftp server, we've not put pointers to them on our web site. This should not be difficult and we will be happy to do so if there is sufficient interest. Please send a note to webmaster@ripe.net if this service would be of use to you. 3. Frames/No Frames Controversy That is the question. The decision to incorporate the use of frames in the design of the RIPE NCC web site was based on carefully weighted user interface design principles. It was influenced by the response to the survey posted on our old web site in which the vast majority of respondents indicated that they would happily wait a little longer if it would result in a more easily navigated web site. Except for the trouble with moving between frames which works differently than moving between pages, we believed that using frames would enable easy navigation. Another principle applied throughout the design of the site was "keep it simple". The graphics are minimal and consistent throughout. This was so the web page would load quickly. The graphics that appear beyond the home page are the same as those on the home page, and are therefore only loaded when the site is first accessed. We also consider it essential that important information stand out rather than that our site be "glossy". Because the discussions on the ripe list in the last couple of days indicate that a number of people who access the site would greatly appreciate a more minimal design (e.g. the text only version), we will take steps to ease access to the no-frames version. In addition to a (to-be-included) no-frames button on the menubar of the site, the no-frames version of the site is now also available in: http://www.ripe.net/noframes.html This is for those who want the no-frames version when the automatic selection process would give them the framed version by default. As stated by Daniel in an earlier message: There were basically three choices we could make: 1) Determine the browser's capabilities and choose a version accordingly. 2) Always show a selection page for the user before showing the home page. 3) Always show the non-fancy home page with a selection button to choose the fancy version. In the coming months we will examine access statistics to find out how much different pages are accessed. In general, the results will be used to determine what modifications might make the site more useful. If the no-frames version of the home page is sufficiently popular, we will make it the default, and make the framed version accessible via a button on the home page and another URL. Anyone with views on this subject is encouraged to send them to webmaster@ripe.net. They will be collected and considered together with the statistics in the next couple of months. 4. Navigating in Frames As noted in other mails, the right mouse button can be used to move back in frames. As also noted, this does not work 100% of the time. 5. The Documents Currently we are still smoothing out some minor formatting problems in the document pages. Moreover, it seems the Reference section has been stripped off ripe-136. Both problems are being pursued at this time. That's it for now. Please keep us informed of any problems you have. Kind regards, Carol Orange - RIPE NCC Web Site Coordinator Lee Wilmot - RIPE NCC Web Master