Posted Monday, 16 August:
We have removed the glow and shadow effects from the Neoboards as these only worked for people using Internet Explorer. People using other browsers such as Mozilla or Netscape were unable to read anything written using those effects.
I beg to differ. I stopped using Internet Explorer due to the major security flaw. Instead, I downloaded and began using Mozilla Firefox 0.9.2 (I have since obtained the newest build, 0.9.3). There were very few situations in which I could not read a font. There was never a single situation where highlighting did not fix that problem. Despite Firefox's inability to render the shadow/glow effect, I continued using it because the technical support and customizability make it a preferable browser to Microsoft's IE.
Mozilla/Netscape occupy less than five percent of the browser market. Disabling a feature 95% of users can utilize because of the complaints of a few does not make sense. It would seem that in order to attract new members, one would want features that are fun to customize and use. Removing features without so much as a "by-your-leave" or considering the number of users who took pride in their multicolored fonts is a direct slap in the face to Neopets users.
Claiming that Mozilla and Netscape users were unable to read anything using shadow/glow fonts is incorrect. My younger siblings, <name witheld> and <name witheld>, use Netscape on their computer because IE is unsafe. Again, they have not found a post illegible that could be made legible by highlighting. (Incidentally, I am using Firefox on XP Pro; they are using Netscape 7.1 on Win98)
Denying users access to this function because of a supposed error is an inconvenience. Giving an incorrect reasoning is worse. Netscape/Mozilla browsers will render the fonts, minus glow and shadow effects. Some fonts whose primary color is white would appear invisible, true enough. But claiming that users were "unable to read anything" is wrong. Period. Tell us what you want, but don't feed us an incorrect line of reasoning.
If you will pardon my rant...TNT has played this one the wrong way...It's one thing to say that the shadow/glow function isn't supported by Mozilla and Netscape (which it isn't), but it's another thing entirely to say that users can't read anything at all.