This is a long post, but it covers a lot of ground as there are many reasons someone may have trouble using an interactive website such as CelticsBlog. Here are the most common reasons people won't be able to use this site:
1) You have an America Online connection and you are using AOL's proprietary web browser.
2) Cookies are disabled in your web browser.
3) Javascript is disabled in your web browser.
4) You are behind a firewall or what is essentially a firewall proxy that is blocking/disrupting cookie and php sessions.
Check #1 first. If you are on AOL and using the default AOL web browser, dump it and get a different web browser (Firefox, MS Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, etc.). Then check number #2 and #3 listed above. Aside from the AOL browser being a problem, AOL itself is often a problem on many interactive websites because the AOL server setup operates like a firewall proxy. This can disrupt participation on any website that uses cookie and php sessions as are used in the CelticsBlog site, as well as other interactive sites. If you have an AOL account and find you have a lot of problems using interactive sites (forums, blogs, ecommerce, etc.), you may want to consider getting a different internet service provider.
For #2 and #3 above, check your settings for cookies and javascript in your web browser's options or preferences (depending upon what they are called in your web browser). The settings will be in two different places in there. Make sure both cookies and javascript are enabled. I've posted basic instructions for several of the more popular web browsers around these days here:
http://www.simplyadvanced.info/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=64&topic=12.0The usability problems created by #4 above may either be caused by a personal firewall on your own Mac or PC, or it may be (and most usually is) caused by a company firewall you use at work. If it is your personal computer, check your firewall settings, or get someone to help you check them, and make sure nothing there is disrupting or otherwise limiting normal interactive services (cookies, sessions). If you are having problems with a work computer on a company intranet, check with your companies network administrator about the issue.
Related to firewalls and proxy setups are DMZ setups (for the uninitiated -- using two routers, or one and an emulator or second PC for security purposes to essentially add an extra firewall layer) can sometimes be tricky to get/keep working well.
If you have a DMZ setup and are having problems with it, or if you need to reconfigure out of the DMZ and still keep your computer "quiet" by silencing ports and such, let me know via PM or email and we'll wade through it together the best I can from my end of things. I'm sure we can come up with something workable.
One another note, a while back someone mentioned possibly having a problem with Firefox. Actually, one Firefox upgrade quite a while back did have a bug in it that reeked havoc with cookie sessions. The bug was found and fixed very quickly (within around 24 hours), but not everyone may have upgraded. I recommend that everyone make sure you are using the latest release version of whatever browser you are using. Doing so and keeping it upgraded is a good practice, most especially for security reasons.
Along those lines, what web browser you use will affect your user experience here. If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, use the latest version you can install on your PC. If you are running Windows XP, upgrade IE6 to IE7 if Windows auto-update hasn't already done that for you.
Better yet, I recommend that you upgrade your browser from IE altogether and start using Firefox v.2.0. It is simply the hands down best web browser on the planet and will work very well with the CeltcisBlog website. You can get it here:
IE 5x, 6x and version 7 on the other hand cannot properly display modern websites built to W3C compliant standards. They cannot render CSS styling properly, they cannot render PNG formatted images properly or properly handle much of any of a multitude of non-proprietary (read: non-Microsoft),standard web services well. This website already has a ton of hacking applied to it just so people using some version of IE can halfway enjoy this site. I don't intend to do any more of it. Oh, and no matter what you've heard about Explorer version 7 being more secure than v.6, it is still the least secure, popular web browser you can use. So consider doing yourself a favor and get into a good web browser.
As for connectivity and usability issues being caused by this site somehow, it can happen and no doubt will happen from time to time, but only in rare instances. The technologies we use are W3C compliant and standard around the web. and the core software we use here is used by millions daily around the web on at least many tens of thousands of sites. The site configurations at CelticsBlog are quite proper and standardized worldwide.
However, we deal routinely with the sort of issues we are discussing here. I (the CB Webmaster) am a web developer, and I build and manage quite a number of php-based websites. All of them are interactive and allow registered users to do a great variety of things on those sites.
Occasionally, a site member will find they have problems using one of the sites. In every single instance of that so far, the problem has been on the user's end of things somewhere, and not with the website. Every time. Of course, the initial email I get from them about the problem always says in one way or another that there is a problem with the website. Wink Of course, I don't fault them for saying such because they simply don't have enough knowledge at the time to understand the nature of the problems they are having.
What we do instead is start examining those problems using the criteria above. In every instance, we've been able to resolve their usability issues. There are other reasons someone will have trouble using a site such as this one, but in my experience, probably better than 99% of the solutions will be found in one or more of the areas I've discussed here.
I apologize for the long post, but I do hope some of you find this info useful. I will no doubt amend this information from time to time and I may even split the post up into smaller posts if it becomes too large.