[Web4lib] Getting Rid of IE 6

Andrew Hankinson andrew.hankinson at gmail.com
Fri Apr 10 17:38:00 EDT 2009 

While I agree with Lisa in principle, in practice it's a much  
different story.

IE6 was introduced in 2001 and was not enhanced significantly until  
2007, when IE7 appeared.  In contrast, every other browser out there  
has add significant improvements in security, stability, standards  
compliance and functionality. Maintaining backwards compatibility with  
IE6 is becoming increasingly expensive, not to mention frustrating for  
the developers and maintainers of websites who have to devote more  
effort to debugging its quirks than to improving the experience for  
those users on modern, standards-compliant browsers.

If, like David suggests, the typical website design lasts for ~3  
years, you will be supporting an 11 year old browser into 2012. Even  
Netscape 4 didn't manage to hang on that long; I don't think we should  
expect the same for IE6.

As for the users, I do sympathize but the web is still more like the  
wild west in that regard - rapid and ever-changing rules meets  
survival of the fittest. It's not a very PC position, but the energy  
and momentum behind the web is too strong to wait for them to catch  
up.  The best thing we can do is help them along the way.

-Andrew


On 10-Apr-09, at 5:13 PM, L Cohn wrote:

>
>
>
> 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.
>
> 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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>>>>
>>>>
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