Die, IE6, DIE will you?
by Stii
Lets face it, IE6 seems like it just won’t die. Unless we make the experience so shitty for it’s users that they have no choice but to use other browsers. Jayx has a series of statistics on browser usage which is quite interesting, but that may well differ from site to site.
On this blog, I have very few IE6 users visiting me. On Afrigator, it is an entirely different story altogether! The thing is that it would make sense for me to kill IE6. I don’t stand to lose much. It could be fatal for some bigger sites. Yet, what else can we do? If we want to make the web an easier place to design for, we have to bring IE6 down. Here is how:
If you have your own installation of WordPress, install this incredible plugin called Shockingly big IE6 warning. It gives you 3 options. Small, Big and Crash.
The small option simply shows a butt-ugly yellow bar at the top of your site if an IE6 user visits it which suggest they upgrade to a better browser. Elegant, yet undesirable. Consider the stubbornness of IE6 users, they will gladly ignore this. Not recommended.
The second option (a.k.a. the Big option) is quite acceptable. It blacks out the screen and suggest that the IE6 user upgrades or else. See, now they cannot use your site and if they really want to see your content, they need to upgrade to another browser. Highly recommended option.
The third option is the option I’m vying for. The Crash option. Without warning or explanation, IE6 will simply crash and die. Definitely highly recommended.
What is kind of ironic is that should mobile sites become remotely as popular as web sites, designers are going to have hissy fits like an epileptic Burmese snail. Notwithstanding, I think, IE6 has to go. It has successfully completed it’s life cycle about 8 years ago, but simply don’t want to die. Accept it now.
Correct! It has to go and as long as we keep supporting hacks for it, it just simply won’t.
Maybe it’s time to sacrifice the traffic to tell the world that we are serious about this. I like this plug-in option. IE6 users have their heads stuck so deep up their asses that they don’t realise that your site breaks in their browser because their browser is at fault; they assume that the designer is.
Vive La Massacre (or something to that effect) – drag it behind the shed and shoot it ;)
Viva!
Oh, for the record, the Crash option works wonders. So good, it even buggers up my theme in Firefox. :P Looking at it.
Stii,
Nice one. Thanks for the advice, I’m definitely installing the plugin. I’m also sick and tired of this websh*t ie6
Great Figo. The only way we can make a difference is if a lot of us do it! Spread the word. ;)
Ooh, I quite like #2 a lot.
Featured the petition for extermination on my blog too! IE6 is long past its sell-by-date!
If you were truly interested in making the Web an easier place to design for, rather than worrying about the number of visitors your site might lose, you’d declare war on IE7 as well as IE6.
You have a point Mike.
Couldn’t agree more! IE6 has been the bane of designers’ and developers’ existence for far too long!
I gave up supporting it a while ago…
This plugin is similar to the old SaveTheDevelopers.org one. Sadly I see that SaveTheDevelopers.org is no more, so let’s hope that you get a number of bloggers to use this plugin such that IE6 can die the death it deserves!
I couldnt agree more, I hate IE6, but the reality is that people still use it – normal, untech savvy, perople. What are you supposed to do when like 70% of your web stats are IE6? You cant just kill it because then you loose all those users. Unless there is a really good reason for updating people usually do not, remembering that most people use XP which came out with IE6 and also that most versions of XP used by visitors these days are pirated (meaning they cannot upgrade the normal way because of the microsoft genuinue crap).
theamoeba, Lazyant, why do I get this horrible feeling in ten years’ time this post will read Die, IE7, DIE will you?
@stii, yeah thinking about it it probably will. Lol, why cant we start a campaign that motivates Microsoft to just drop the browser completely or just create a nice skin and some plugins for Firefox, I think that will be a great idea – so they can make FF look just like IE and then everyone can be happy.
IE6 is my pet hate, I used to run something called MultiIE but since I have upgraded to a new Laptop I have dropped that application. I tend to agree with the Bring Down IE6 site where you fix the blazingly obvious issues and leave the stuff that is not too much of an issue.
I have probably just lost a customer to IE6 because I created a site, http://drumafricasafaris.com and I did not test it in IE6, but it looks absolute crap, the header is not where its supposed to be. Now the customer thinks that my design skills are shit. This is a little bit annoying.
Anyway, I tend to agree that IE6, 7 … have to die. IE8 seems relatively alright, but it is still crap.
Awesome plugin, great stuff! I have dropped support for IE6 about 5 years ago when I started blogging.