[Web4lib] Getting Rid of IE 6

[Tim Spalding]

Your sentiment is good, I think, but clearly there's a limit.
Supporting Netscape 2 would be so costly and useful to so few that no
web developer—government or not—would do it. In the business world,
it's a pretty clear-cut benefit/gain decision. What do you think the
rule should be for libraries?

Tim

On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 5:13 PM, L Cohn <lcohn at bplnj.org> wrote:
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> I'm sorry, perhaps I'm missing something here, but aren't we supposed to be making our websites accessible to people using a variety of browsers so that they can access our catalogs and find information on our sites?  This discussion sounds like we're turning up our noses at our own clientele.  Some people are so technophobic that we're lucky they're looking in the catalog at all, much less stopping what they're doing to download what we consider to be proper for them.  Make your website accessible to them, don't throw roadblocks in their way by throwing messages up on the screens.  If you work with the general public long enough, you notice that they aren't even reading the messages that pop up in front of them.  The ones who know computers, just click OK and ignore the message.  The ones who are technophobic see the word install and run screaming from the computer, afraid they broke something.
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> You're just scaring them off the world wide web. Stop throwing roadblocks at them.  It's your job to make your website accessible, not theirs.
>
> Lisa
>
> ------------------------------------
>>Lisa Cohn, ILL, WebMaster,  Reference
>>Bloomfield Public Library,  bplnj.org
>>90 Broad Street, Bloomfield, NJ 07003
>>  973-566-6200x217, lcohn at bplnj.org
>>------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
>>From: David Kane <dkane at wit.ie>
>>Date:  Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:02:46 +0100
>>
>>>Hi David,
>>>
>>>Run a Javascript browser detection script that advises them to update.
>>>If this update is a problem for them, - then they need more help that you
>>>could ever give..
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>
>>>David Kane
>>>Waterford Institute of Technology
>>>Ireland.
>>>
>>>2009/4/10 Cloutman, David <DCloutman at co.marin.ca.us>
>>>
>>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>>
>>>> My library is looking to launch our new Web site last month (hurray).
>>>> Early in the development process, about 6 months ago, I had to make a
>>>> decision about what browsers the new site would support in terms of HTML
>>>> / CSS. My goal was at least 95% support of what was being used. At that
>>>> time, I looked at the numbers, and decided that IE6 would be going away,
>>>> and that over the life of the site, it wouldn't be an issue. (I figure a
>>>> typical site keeps a template for about 3 years.) The problem is that
>>>> the IE 6 market share has only gone down marginally since I made that
>>>> decision, and I'm looking at about 90% - 93% browser support at launch
>>>> time. It's not the end of the world, but in order to mitigate the issue,
>>>> I have posted a browser detecting JavaScript routine that looks for
>>>> versions if IE <=6, and then displays a message telling them to upgrade.
>>>> The technology works great. I'm tracking all the IE 6 hits through
>>>> images that load in the message. I'm also tracking click-throughs to the
>>>> IE Upgrade page and the Firefox page. (I wanted to give people options.)
>>>> The problem is that after a week I'm still getting a lot of hits, but
>>>> diminishing numbers of click-throughs. Part of the problem may be that
>>>> the IE upgrade page on the Microsoft's site doesn't load flawlessly in
>>>> IE 6. (Oops.) The other problem may be that people saw the warning
>>>> regarding the pending non-support of their browser, and my rather
>>>> technical disclaimer urging them to upgrade, and are now ignoring it.
>>>>
>>>> So here's my question for the list. How do I communicate to users, who
>>>> for all I know may not even know the meaning of the word "upgrade", that
>>>> they need to visit the Microsoft site, work through the issues, and
>>>> install a new piece of software? Also, and this is more fun issue, for
>>>> the ones that are really just lazy or obstinate, how do I grab their
>>>> attention. I am not above using Lolcats or dancing hamsters. Creative
>>>> suggestions are welcome.
>>>>
>>>> Happy Friday,
>>>>
>>>> - David
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>> David Cloutman <dcloutman at co.marin.ca.us>
>>>> Electronic Services Librarian
>>>> Marin County Free Library
>>>>
>>>> Email Disclaimer: http://www.co.marin.ca.us/nav/misc/EmailDisclaimer.cfm
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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