My Site + Internet Explorer = Crap on December 18th, 2007
I had a problem with my computer, forcing me to send it into the shop for repair. Before packaging my computer up, I restored Windows Vista (that’s what came on it) so that the repair people could be comfortable. Wow, did that take forever, compared to the installation of Ubuntu. Since I use Ubuntu Linux as my primary and only operating system, I decided to find out what my website looks like in Internet Explorer.
To my non-surprise, it looked terrible. So I browsed around, and there where quite a few parts to the site that rendered horribly in Internet Explorer, yet in Firefox and Opera, everything was fine.
Now here’s the simple question I’m sure you’re asking: Why don’t you fix it?
Because you (well maybe not you, but a lot of people) voted that all IE hacks should be done away with. Nick La, a very talented web designer, wrote about this issue on his website, Web Designer Wall.
Nick La wrote:
Yes, I know the PNGs don’t display [properly] in IE6. But guess what, I’m not going to bother to fix it. I’m sick of hacking IE6 bugs. You should upgrade your browser anyway. Why are you still using the outdated browser?
I agree with Nick on this issue. I thought the exact same thing when I was designing this website using Linux. There are a lot more hacks besides the PNG hack that are needed to make most websites render correctly in Internet Explorer. Why should I have to make up for Microsoft’s shortcomings when it comes to their product? I feel like it is their job to make their product better, and your job to use a better browser.
So, I’m not going to do anything about this “problem”. I’m not going to worry about those who use Internet Explorer to visit my website. I’m just going to leave it alone. Maybe those Internet Explorer users will finally change their IE using ways, and maybe one day, if enough people stop using IE hacks, Microsoft will improve their product.
Here here man. My websites design more or less runs almost completely from PNG images and I have found that my website looks well… shit house in IE6 due to. But I, like you, refuse to fix it.
Its the way it should be. If you use IE6, odds are your not the audience I’m targeting anyway, and I can only assume your the same, Nick.
I support your decision completely. Keep up the good work.
That’s exactly how I feel. Glad you refuse to fix it as well. Maybe if enough people refuse, it will show Microsoft, but I think the chances are slim…
I agree that we shouldn’t have to try to compensate for IE’s mistakes. I’ve taken it one step further. I used some browser detection code to display a big “Get Firefox” if the browser detected is IE. For everyone else, it doesn’t show up, as I figured it was silly to annoy Firefox or Opera users with it.
Maybe if enough web designers didn’t correct for IE bugs and instead just recommend Firefox to users that have issues with the site, we could get more people to switch. Its a nice thought at least.
On the other hand, any site that blocks content due to browser detection is just dumb. And those “OMG your browser isn’t compatible” pages are almost as bad. That is one practice that should just go away.