On Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:16:06 +0100, Aryeh Gregor <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 4:02 AM, GerardM <[email protected]> > wrote: >> Hoi, >> Would this be a model to follow ? >> Thanks, >> GerardM >> >> Aan u verzonden door GerardM via Google Reader: Norwegian Websites >> Declare War on Internet Explorer 6 via Wired Top Stories door Michael >> Calore op 19-2-09 Several prominent websites in Norway are refusing to >> support the antiquated IE6 browser any longer, and have posted messages >> to IE6 users urging them to upgrade. The campaign has caught on, and is >> beginning to spread to other countries. > > No. Many users are forced to use IE6 because their workplace relies > on it for intranet applications, for instance. These users will > eventually be forced to upgrade as time moves on, but it's not > appropriate for Wikipedia to go out of its way to make their lives any > more difficult than they already are. IE6 support is not a major > barrier to new features at this point that I'm aware of, so the gain > to us would be marginal. The Norwegian sites in question still "work" in IE6, they just urge users to upgrade and have stopped "wasting time" implementing hacks to make new features still work in IE6. The argument is that the people who still use IE6 now are not likely to ever change on their own because "it still works". It is fairly trivial to make most Intranet applications work in at least IE7, most IT departments are just plain lazy when it comes to implementing new technology as long as the old stuff "works" (and I can understand that to some extent, if the old stuff does what it's supposed to why waste time and money to upgrade just for the sake of upgrading, but at some point you have to bite the bullet or be left in the stoneage). So the point of the campaign is to show people that IE6 doesn't "just work" anymore, thus creating an actual reason to upgrade. If enough sites follow that model I'm pretty sure you'll see the market share of IE6 start droppign faily fast as people call computer savy friends to help them finaly upgrade or IT departments are presured into upgrading to IE7 or allow FireFox, Opera or other alternate browsers to be installed (for example I do have to use IE6 for some ancient Intranet stuff at work, but I use Opera for everyting else). I do believe that once IE6 (not to mention IE5) is dead and burried the web will be a better place, so IMHO we should not ask "what do we gain from this", but instead "do it for the betterment of humanity" (pompous enough for you ;P). I'm not saying we should stop making the site work for IE6 users, but I don't think a browser spesific "site notice" urging them to upgrade would be such a bad thing. -- [[:en:User:Sherool]] _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
