IE is a terrible browser on any operating system. Try Netscape 7, available here. It renders this site just fine.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/macgarden/Netscape-mac-full.sit

Did you try Netscape 6.x? It might be more compatible with OS 8.6. I've never had trouble with this site in any browser, except for Safari Mac not being able to upload files to it. It displays decently in modern and classic browsers for me.

Macs all around; 9.2.2 and 10.5.8 on a G4 tower, and 10.6.2 on a MacBook. In a few minutes I'll have Netscape 4.08 installed on my Quadra 950 running 7.6.1, so we'll see how well that works...

The site seems to usable in Classilla, though there are a few rough spots:

http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/

I'm posting this message using Classilla in Mac OS 9.0.4

(Classilla is a new Mozilla based browser for old Macs)

Then do it,
if you want a site like this that fits your personal taste,
then less whining and just do it,

I´m a Musician and the very first thing I learned as a Composer is that
you can´t please or make everybody happy...

I think same thing applies with WebSites..

(BTW i'm using NETSCAPE and the site Works GREAT!
'for me IE sucks! big time)

If the problem isn't in the browsers, then it must be in your system. Got restore disks? Conflict Catcher? They're all available here.

I think this site works great, though it could use a more advanced forum system.

I think you DID mention the browser. The reality is you are using a really old browser. Seriously, think about upgrading to a newer browser like Classilla. The latest release was just a few months ago. When was IE 5 released? A decade ago? Maybe the browser is the problem.

You said...

"but i can't access this site from any browser on the mac..."

"on the macintosh i am using ie5 since i found out that ie5 is the most efficent and can still work on todays most websites..."

"it either crashes the browser"

_--

nothing,
It means that I erased my comment.

I think the first question should be; What environment do most People(users)
use or prefer to access this site?,
correct me if I'm wrong but for what I've noticed,
I think most People use newer Mac OS X and then Windows,
from there You get an approximate Estimate as to how many users would actually be using "the other site" if you think that, that's enough people for your work and time invested then it's up to you to do it, also you have to think about site maintenance,

Personally for me,
it's just easier to navigate MacGarden and download using my Windows XP machine,
and transfer the games and programs with a Floppy, USB or RW-CDR,
after I test them in the Emulators.

I didn't say that, I said that first, it's better to get an estimate of possible users willing to
use that site on a regular basis, and then YOU decide whether you do it or not,

I have no idea how many Mac users actually use their older systems to navigate this site.

I tried out Clasilla, and it rendered this site and others exactly like Netscape 7 does.

You can install Flash 7 and use it with Classilla. Here's a link:

http://emaculation.com/classilla/flashplayer7_macppc.hqx

Click to install Flash for Mozilla, and the installer will detect Classilla and it should work right away.

But Flash 7 doesn't work all that great in the modern world. You can play YouTube videos, but not very well. It works a bit better for older flash stuff, obviously.

nice thread, I'll try Classilla

Now, when Firefox 3.7 drops Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (which I'm currently using),
Classila for Mac OS X up to Tiger, please!

Sure, I could run it in Classic Environment, but if I'm able to prevent that...

Switch over to Camino 2.x - it's Mozilla based and still works with 10.4 on pimpmycamino.org you may even find specialized version for your CPU. I use Camino 1.6 with my iBook G3 (which I use for surfing Mac Garden) and the special G3 CPU version and it works much faster than all the other browsers. Give it a try

Oh, yes I'll do!

IE 5 on OS8 for me works fine for the garden. It crashes occasionally, but it then again it IS Intenet Explorer .

What would really help to make this website easier and faster to use is to restore the game and application numbering which makes it convenient to notice new uploads. Now, one has to surf the entire website entry by entry to find out what's new!

Now, one has to surf the entire website entry by entry to find out what's new!

Thanks a lot!

Wait a minute! I have a feeling that the Tracker does not track new uploads but only new comments to uploads. Many uploads, however, come without a commment.

I use WamCom Mozilla on Mac OS 8.6 and Mac OS 9.2.2 I don't have problems accessing this site with Moz. Reading and posting to forum not a problem - But I have had problems uploading with it tho', period. Had to go to a Win box for that

Did you try the Classilla Browser Mike Garden? It works fine with Mac Garden for me. Check out the website: http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/

No I haven't tried Classilla before, Bolkonskij I had heard of it before but forgotten about its development somehow. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll DL it after posting this off. Like it says on their web site "Exciting, right? Yes. And quite possibly unstable. Know what you're getting into. Using Classilla is at your own risk. There are still many bugs!"

Say! That sounds like just the software for me

hahaha well that really is an understatement. I'm using it on a daily basis and it renders almost all pages fast and reliable. Great piece of software if you ask me. And if Cameron Kaiser finds time to continue working on the 9.2 update, we'll get a much improved Java support for OS 9 as well. If you see what he can achieve as one single person (though incredibly dedicated, no question) it makes you think what a dozen of good programmers could still get out of Mac OS 9 today. Which reminds me of picking up C again...

Hi again Bolkonskij. I now run Classilla. Its nice but I am still having no luck with uploading a screenshot to Macintosh Garden

No matter what I try the screenshot just does not "take". I have also used the latest Firefox on Windows with the same non-result. It seems to upload, I see a progress bar as it goes up. What happens to it after that I have no idea. I wish there was some feedback from the server to let me know what is or is not happening so I can try to correct the situation. The screenshots are in .jpg and under 130kb, I also tried .png but no go.

I was able to upload a utility program "Creator Changer 2.8.4" and it was good to see that it got accepted but this screenshot problem has me beat, sad to say.

I think I now have it "sorted" Re: uploading screenshots and editing my own comments after I've initially uploaded an archive. There is a Revision field on the edit page for making a note of what you've altered or changed. Adding a comment into the Revision comment field and clicking the "Save" button directly below this field seems to make the changes take place. I think this is what was needed as my uploads and screenshots are now taking place successfully

I (i think i went by maddmaxx) use to frequent the old Mac garden allot with my old Performa 475 running OS 7 (best way to get the software if you ask me), the old site loaded fast and didnt choke the browser. none of my systems (that run) have a 3.5" drive other then my Apple IIgs and my Performa 475. i do have a LaCie SCSI CD drive, but burning a 1mb game onto a CD is a waste of a disk.

but going on this site with a old 68k is worse then getting your legs cut off and joining a marathon. there is no real other option with a system this old. There needs to be a way for this site to detect the browser and OS and use a lower quality version.

i do enjoy that the Mac gardens is alive once again. but i do wish that this site did have a lower impact on older (68k) systems and older browsers.

and i do hope that MG is alive for years to come.

Some web sites offers an additional text-only version, for example.

I believe http://www.bernie.gs/ was one, but can't find the link to its text-only version again.

If an owner of this site would ever need assistance creating a low-tech version of the site.. I develop websites as a fulltime job, particularly coding CSS. So, hit me up if needed. I even have old Macs that I could test on , if needed. However such a thing would have to be a while in the future since I'm pretty busy most of the time

After the Garden moves out to another server which is gonna take about another year...maybe more.

Muahahaha

... but fight against that damn spammers.

ISSUES - Website is near totally broken when actually viewed with a low end mac:

The BULK OF OLD Macs run System 7 or older and some version of Netscape):
I happen to be using Netscape Communicator 4.76 on a System 7 Mac - the latest greatest browser and OS available for orginal PPC/68K macs.

(1) No where on the site does it say what version of Stuffit the files were compressed with, nor provide any direct link to a version of Stuffit Expander to uncompress files. (ie, not to the smithmicro website which displays nothing but a sun and nothing more in Netscape 4.76 -ie, broken). I have tried Stuffit Expander 4.5 and 3.5 and both fail to uncompress files.

(2) No captcha is displayed at all when viewed on a low end Mac webbrowser, so there is no possible way to create an account or log in.

(3) Way too many graphics screen snapshots in the lists of software, mac loading painfully slow. Netscape Communicator 4.76, which is the latest greatest webbrowser available that can run on System 7 or Earlier macs, is buggy at best and crashes often. Icab is just as bad if not worse, and ditto for Mosaic, MacWeb, and older stuff. In other words, KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID applies when designing a site for older Mac software. Text only, with a few banner graphics. Links to any screensnapshots you want to have, but not direct on main page so 30 of them load at once.

In the end, I had to go to a Windows XP machine to register and post this.

You need to complete toss the website, which I'm sure looks pretty on a Mac OS 8, 9, or X machine, which is NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE, and redesign it, using a really old Mac to actually view it while you are writing the HTML and see how it is actually viewed in Netscape X on a 68K/PPC Mac.

CHOPPERGIRL
http://choppergirl.air-war.org

p.s. I had to go to http://www.pure-mac.com/olden.html to actually find a copy of Stuffit Expander 4.5 that wasn't just a !@#$%^ hyperlink to the SmithMicro download page for Stuffit Expander, which totally does not display at all on an old version of Netscape, and worse, they don't even offer old versions that run on anything less than System 8 on the original manufactuerers website. So whatever you do, you must make a PROMINENT link on your website to whatever standard version of Stuffit Expander is needed to uncompress the software listed. Because there are half a dozen different versions, and they switched up and some versions won't uncompress others, etc. In particular version 4 wouldn't do 5, and vice versa, and it was a total disaster and really sent Stuffit down the toilet back then.

The prominent direct Stuffit link(s, to different versions even) would be a good idea,
but you can't tell which version has been used for particular files, because
other peoples will vandalize a page sometimes, and the info given previously would be wrong, if unchanged.

I'm not sure the HTML we would need to use for the few users to use some awful early version of Netscape or iCab or IE is even HTML4 or W3C compliant. I don't believe that we should cripple the site just for those that, perhaps naively, expect the site to be fully functional on a 20 year old computer. The site is here and now, and all the pre-made site templates that allow the functionality we want from the site, will require a computer that can reliably render HTML4.

The site is not here to support old Macs. It's not here to provide a large quantity of old Mac software to those lookign for freebies. The site is here to preserve Macintosh software that can be considered abandonware.
If all people want to do is play old games, they should set up a couple of Saved Searches on eBay and run through them once or twice a week - how do you think most of the stuff on the site gets here ?

Good point about Stuffit though, although you should have Stuffit Expander permanently installed on your Mac - whatever version is suitable for your OS, the later the better. All my uploads come with a complete description of how they are packaged, ie. Toast image compressed with Stuffit v5.5, Disk Copy v4.2 floppy image compressed with Stuffit v1.5.1. This holds true for even the downloads where they are not in a preferred format, ie. the update for Age of Empires for Mac was released as a .zip file.
I would have hoped that the various Stuffit Expander versions were available on this site. Oh yeah, they are,

By all means, use your Windows XP machine to register, post and download software from here. We won't deride you. All the downloads should be safe for you to download on Windows and then transfer to the Mac.

It's kinda insane that this website has trouble uploading files in the latest version of Safari, particularly when the Mac garden caters to Mac users! I have to use Firefox now!