Is incompatibility with IE6 going to be fixed?

[BamaStangGuy]

Originally Posted by Mark.B

I don't personally use IE6 but I do keep a machine running with it on.

If you don't want people on your site on IE6 then that's fine for you - that's your business decision and you can always block them by useragent anyhow.

For the vast majority though, I suspect that's not the case. I don't fully support IE6 however I do ensure my site is accessible and fully usable in IE6.

I'm not saying I block them. I just don't care what it looks like in a 9 year old browser some computer illiterate person is using because they don't know any better. Using IE6 for anything on a personal computer is ridiculous.

[Tech]

Originally Posted by Ramya108

As far as I know, right now Vbulletin 4.0 is not compatible with IE6.
Are they going to fix it, or will it remain this way?

Why would anyone even use IE6? Or any Internet Explorer for that matter.

[Mark.B]

Originally Posted by BamaStangGuy

I'm not saying I block them. I just don't care what it looks like in a 9 year old browser some computer illiterate person is using because they don't know any better. Using IE6 for anything on a personal computer is ridiculous.

Some members have very old computers that won't run anything higher - my IE6 test machine is like that. Then you have employers like the one I mentioned above.

[gnatster]

Originally Posted by BamaStangGuy

I'm not saying I block them. I just don't care what it looks like in a 9 year old browser some computer illiterate person is using because they don't know any better. Using IE6 for anything on a personal computer is ridiculous.

Bolded for effect.

You are correct. However it is all the business applications that still require IE that is keeping alive still. Now if your forums was required reading for a business and it made sense to them on the ROI front to update they would. But in reality we are talking about people visiting hobby forums from work. The employer is not going to care if there is a conflict with their software and your forum in this case. I think a lot of people miss that fact.

[Brandon Sheley]

We "fixed the glitch" IE6 will no longer be supported

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Mark.B

I don't fully support IE6 however I do ensure my site is accessible and fully usable in IE6.

As should all good web developers.

My personal opinion - "its an old outdated browser", is another way of saying "I'am too lazy to make it work".

If your gonna do something, do it right. Make sure it works with all of the major browsers. IE 6 is the number 4th most used browser on the market.

[BamaStangGuy]

Originally Posted by Mark.B

Some members have very old computers that won't run anything higher - my IE6 test machine is like that. Then you have employers like the one I mentioned above.

I just fixed a computer for my uncle running Windows XP. It had 256MB of ram and a Pentium 4 processor. It runs IE7 if you check to install it in Windows Update.

[BamaStangGuy]

Originally Posted by kevin

As should all good web developers.

My personal opinion - "its an old outdated browser", is another way of saying "I'am too lazy".

If your gonna do something, do it right. Make sure it works with all of the major browsers. IE 6 is the number 4th most used browser on the market.

If you are going to own a computer, do it right. Don't use 9 year old software. It's laziness on the end users part.

Only exception is work.

[Rocket 442]

Originally Posted by kevin

As should all good web developers.

My personal opinion - "its an old outdated browser", is another way of saying "I'am too lazy to make it work".

If your gonna do something, do it right. Make sure it works with all of the major browsers. IE 6 is the number 4th most used browser on the market.

Its not laziness. It's a business decision that they don't want to double their man hours just to support an outdated browser (it is outdated, whether you want to admit it or not).

The guys at 37signals are not lazy developers, however they understand no one with much web-sense is going to be using IE6 unless their pigeonholed to do so at work. 37signals Product Blog: Phasing out support for IE 6 across all 37signals products on August 15, 2008

All my sites work with IE6, but I'm not going to continue to apply CSS hacks just for them to get a newer faster version like the rest of the internet who has moved on and realized the power of newer browsers.

[The Geek]

Switch to free solutions. They at least work (and also render the same) in these browsers or pay more and get less (visitor numbers and ad revenue) yes IE6 is a pita to style for but why is the most expensive forum in its category the one that does the least work? Because they don't feel they have to.

Show me a big board that won't at least try and not look like a bag o crap on IE6 and I'll eat my post.

[Abomination]

Good to see you here Geek!


As for me it is simple. If I use software that does not look and work well I will loose customers/$ to the competition. That includes IE6 support.

My competition made some changes similar to v3->v4, and we had a large increase in traffic.

[KW802]

I just find it ironic that at one time vB was touted as being a product ideal for corporate users and now we found ourselves in a situation where the current version will have it's biggest negative impact on.... corporate users.

With the latest price increases & license changes IB seems to be wanting to drive out the 'little guy' owners while the actual usability of vB4 makes it seem like IB is less concerned about corporate usage and more about catering to the whims of that demographic of the IT world that thinks everybody should be using what ever browser is the flavor-of-the-day.

[mrgtb]

I always did like IE6 compared to newer MS Browsers like IE7 and 8. While I agree that IE6 is well outdated now and doesn't even support PNG display. And many more modern sites "Do" look a mess in it. Plus MS have already said they are no longer supporting it. It is a better browser (garbage wise) than MS 7 and 8. I personally liked using IE6, wish I could say the same for IE8. Which I can't and use FireFox all the time now because I did choose to update my browser from MS 6 to 8.

So I really can see why so many people still refuse to jump too IE8 from IE6. Or do and go back again to IE6. Most likely only using sites out there that still look OK in it. Which to be honest most still do.

[Ramya108]

Originally Posted by Paul M

To say its not compatible is not true, there are quite a few display issues, which are slowly getting fixed, but its [mostly] usable.

Thank you, Paul! I am happy to hear that it is usable and getting fixed.

I don't care whether IE6 is outdated or not, my only concern is that I don't loose 11% of my visitors.

[Big Dan]

I think gnaster hit the nail on the head. Employers don't care if the browser used on the corporate network works with YouTube, Facebook, etc as most employers don't want their employees on these sites anyhow. I most employers would want their employees surfing forums either.

As for home users that use IE6, I see no logical reason that they cannot install Firefox or even Chrome which is pretty lightweight. Any of my friends computers that I maintain get educated that Firefox for the most part vastly better than IE and more secure to boot.

That being said I don't think it should be vBulletin's decision to decide for you the webmaster that your end users cannot functionally surf your site with IE 6 since it still has a nice chunk of market share.