2010 / 2011
Season
Special Report :
Website Changes for 2010/2011
Notable changes to the site were made, affecting:
Most of these changes were also made to the 2009/2010 pages, at the end of that season.
Note : if your browser has a problem with any of the changes, you can contact the webmaster via his Contact Page.
Change to All Pages
Compatibility with Internet Explorer 5 can no longer be assured. Microsoft will stop issuing security updates for this browser before the new season starts. About 0.7% of visitors used Internet Explorer 5 in February 2010: they are strongly encouraged to upgrade to a safer, more modern browser.
Also, some font anomalies were corrected. For some people — especially people using Windows Vista or Windows 7 — this will result in larger text in sidebars.
Changes to Team Pages
The links to the monthly team calendars have been moved to the top right of the page, and now appear vertically instead of horizontally. This was done (a) to enable you to get to a calendar more quickly, and (b) to make team pages friendlier to mobile devices. Here is an example of the old and new team pages; red arrows mark the old and new locations of the calendar links:
In addition, the table with staff contact information is narrower to make the team pages friendlier to mobile devices.
Change to the Help Page
Information about document viewers and JavaScript has been moved from the Help page to new pages which are listed on the page ABOUT US : Documents.
In addition, a FAQ has been added with answers to common questions.
Change to the Links Page
Links to map sites, which were near the bottom of the Links page, have been moved to the top right of the page to make it easier to find maps more quickly.
Change to the “ABOUT US” Menu
A menu item going to the Links page has been added to the “ABOUT US” dropdown menu. This was done because, to fit the menus within the narrow confines of mobile devices, the LINKS menu item — which normally appears to the right of the Schedules menu item — doesn’t appear on mobile devices: the new menu item provides an alternate method of getting to the Links page.
Here is an example of the old and new ABOUT US menus:
Changes Affecting Mobile Devices
Newer parts of this site are friendlier to cellphones and other mobile devices, but only to devices which have sufficiently capable browsers, and there are some limitations.
Which Phones Work?
The site should work well with recent versions of:
It may work with other browsers too, but this has not been tested: it will work with more phones as browsers improve.
(In technical terms, the site needs a browser that supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, including either CSS 2.1 “media rules” for handheld media, or CSS 3 “media queries”.)
Opera Mini
Opera Mini, the world’s most popular mobile browser, can be installed on a vast number of phones, so many people can upgrade if their phone’s native browser is not good enough. See the list of supported phones for details.
Opera Mobile
Opera Mobile, more capable than Opera Mini, can be installed on many smartphones, so again many people can upgrade if their phone’s native browser is not good enough.
Gecko-Based
Some browsers use Firefox’s “Gecko engine”, including Firefox Mobile and Skyfire. More will use Gecko as phones improve. Information about the Firefox Mobile browser is available.
WebKit-Based
Many browsers use Apple’s “WebKit engine”, including the browsers for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and for many phones from Google, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. More — including BlackBerries — will use the WebKit as phones improve.
The site looks different on a mobile device. To fit in the space available, pages are simpler and more compact, with a simpler masthead, simpler menus, with some content reörganized, and with some content omitted which is of little use to someone on the go.
Here is an example of how a page might look:
You will, for example, notice the following when browsing the site using a mobile device:
- The masthead is much simpler, without the Predators logo.
- There are fewer top menu items, with the Schedules, Links, and Help top menu items omitted: however, schedules are still available, on the Team pages; the Links are still available, via the ABOUT US dropdown menu; and the Help menu item is hardly needed by someone already familiar with the site.
- Sidebars with essential content are merged with the normal content, and other sidebars are omitted.
- Some text on wider pages is reduced in size.
Note : some things are inherently incompatible with mobile devices, so may be hard or impossible to view. For example, schedules are in PDF files, formatted for PC displays: if your device can’t display PDF files, you can’t view schedules; but even if your device can display PDF files, you must scroll to view the entire schedule. Documents in Excel and PDF files create similar difficulties.
Note : the site assumes that a mobile device is used if the browser window is 480 pixels wide, or less. You can see how the site works with mobile devices, if you use a modern browser other than Internet Explorer, simply by narrowing the page on a PC.
