Catch My Fame

Internet Explorer 6 is the bane of a web developer’s existence. Released in 2001 (decades ago in internet time) it still composes somewhere between 20% and 30% of the browser market. While there are several other, more capable browsers out there for users to choose from, including Microsoft’s own IE7, and its successor in beta IE8, people still use IE6 at an alarming rate. Over the years Microsoft released updates and patches for IE6, yet it is still stands as one of the worst browsers to have ever existed, so why are people still using it?

“I’m used to it, so why should I change?” is just one of a variety of reasons people give for continuing to beat this dead horse. Other popular reasons IE6 users give for not updating to IE7 are because they’re prohibited from changing their system (i.e. a work pc combined with corporate sloth or ignorance), they visit a web site that (supposedly) works best in IE6, or they just don’t know any better. As designers it’s our jobs to design beautiful, accessible web sites, not worry about why our margins look weird in IE6. For years we’ve devoted countless hours of work finagling our designs and code to accommodate this scourge of a browser.

What to Do?

As a designer it’s time to stop catering to sloth and ignorance and take a stand. For years we’ve bent over backwards to try and compensate for IE6’s massive shortcoming with hacks and tricks like conditional CSS comments and browser detection so that we can deliver IE6-specific workarounds. We’ve used GIFs and JPGs instead of PNGs or used hacks to get IE6 to render them properly. This needs to stop now. By continuing along this path, we’re simply enabling people to continue to use IE6 and give them no compelling reason to upgrade or switch browsers. IE6 is Swiss cheese in terms of security, doesn’t adhere to modern CSS standards, or support PNG images just to name some of its bigger problems. From now on, don’t waste time worrying whether or not to use PNG files – use them. Don’t bother checking browser versions and providing alternate, IE6-specific code. Design once.

But what about for testing purposes?

Nope, not even for testing purposes. What are you hoping to accomplish by testing a site in IE6? If you discover a problem, why bother fixing it? Pages need only adhere to W3C standards and pass the usual array of validators. If IE6 can’t render them properly, then that’s IE6’s problem.

The Good News

The good news is that the number of people using IE6 is steadily dwindling. Firefox, Chrome, Opera, IE7 & 8 are all better browsers and are gaining market share while IE6 loses it. While it’s just a matter of time before IE6 disappears, let’s help accelerate that demise by taking a stand and turning our backs on it. Stop Supporting IE6. Now.

OK, you borked it up for the longest time and released a new version of your comment system that was supposed to address all the harsh criticisms against the epic fail your had previously created. Well, while you made a handful of minor improvements, it still sucks.

Why? A)  Check any DOM inspector and you’ll see that your comment system makes a BAJILLION individual AJAX  calls to load each and every user icon. I mean c’mon, is it really that hard to display user comments? Bulletin boards and forums have been able to do this for years without nearly as much trouble as you’ve had. If slashdot can do it right all these years, maybe you can learn too.

Second, why on God’s green Earth did you decide to hide all the replies to any comment I Digg down? What logic did you apply in thinking that whenever I think comment X sucks, that you must then hide all the replies to comment X? In fact, many replies to comment X are often exactly what I thought in the first place and should be displayed! Perhaps its time you stopped thinking that Digg was the shit, and started realizing that ever since you expanded Digg’s reach to try and attract potential suitors to buy your site, that in reality you made it an ever increasing honeypot for spammers and advertisers to post completely worthless and intelligence insulting drivel that no one with half a brain reads. I used to Digg and submit stores all the time, now I visit weekly to see on the off chance if anything interesting has popped up. Sadly, this is becoming less and less frequent. Your core users are what made Digg great and you’ve decided to turned a deaf ear toward them. Maybe you’ll  realize one day that they once made Digg the enjoyable site that it once was.