Things I hate about IE6? everything... for one it renders like a Picasso painting compared to compliant browsers. This is mainly because of the way IE6 translates the box model. For example If I declare my CSS like so:

Div#menubox {
Border: 1px solid red
Padding: 5 px
Width: 50px;
}

Modern browsers will see that as a box with a total calculated width of 62px, that makes sense to me, because I told the box to be 50px wide, then added padding on all sides, which does the math 5px (R side) + 5px (L side) = 10px. Then I added a 1px border which would be the same; 1px on each side. So the total should be 62px right?

IE6 tried to make it easier, but actually made it less intuitive in my opinion. And calculates the entire width as 50px, sticking the border and padding inside the box I believe. Another problem is margins, if you set up a margin-right: 10px; it will actually give you 20px! I don’t get this, and leave it for smarter people to figure out the reasoning.

There are many reasons it is the Picasso of browsers and I won’t go into them all here is a good site that delves a little deeper into the whole IE6 bug thing.

...I think of PNG... I touch myself

I will point out the one thing that really holds us back. That is the lack of support for 24bit PNGs. It does support 8bit, but if you could use a GIF why bother.

24bit PNGs are wondrous creatures great and small. With a PNG you can do Photoshop like transparencies with really smooth graduation. They really open up the box of the net, and allow for much more dynamic and interesting designs.

There is a great fix I use for PNGs in my other designs. But! It has to be loaded under the same domain, so no-go on socialgo. So what do we do if we want to use modern CSS and images in our Socaigo Designs? One thing that I often do is declaring a style sheet only IE6 can see. You can do this with other IE browsers too.

<!--[if IE 6]>
<link rel="stylesheet" 
type="text/css" 
href="IE-6-SPECIFIC.css" />
<![endif]-->

Here is the rule of thumb I went buy: Majority rules – Comply or get used to ugly.

Analytics – Show me the way!

Google Analytics has a feature that will show you what browsers your members and visitors are using. You can find it under visitors section in the left sidebar. You way you make decisions on IE6 is much like a Politian makes decisions when running for office. A Politian would not waste his or her or it’s resources on a minority UNLESS that minority was large enough to swing a vote.

Much like the Hispanics of America. At one time they were not considered in a campaign because their numbers were not great enough to impact the bottom line, plus, minorities of small numbers or less likely to vote. So when I decide whether to or not to support my friendly IE6 users, I use the political minority factor and I do so specifically as a CSS Republican because CSS Democrats still design for IE5 for Buda’s sake.

I use the political minority factor and I do so specifically as a CSS Republican because CSS Democrats still design for IE5 for Buda’s sake.

After tracking my hits for a few months in beta version I can get a good feel for how many users of my product, in our case “Social Networks” still rely on older browsers. With some of my sites, such as my Network Logic site, I see a good 20% still using IE6, and 2% using IE5. 20% is a big minority! They have the swing vote because they could bring significant amount of business.

So I go to their IE6 local donut shop and pinch their little baby’s faces because they could swing my vote easily. What I’ve found with my social networks is a consistent 1% usage of IE6, which to me is a minority not worth my time. I believe it is such a small number because those that Social Network are mostly younger users who are a little more savvy. But, if you run a geriatric dating site, you might find in your own statistics a larger number of IE6 users. In that case, if it hovers around 12%-20%, defiantly support their browser and declare an IE6 style sheet.

IE6 and especially IE5 users are used to ugly by now. They must think designers have gone to pot in the last few years. So don’t worry too much if a few people hit your site driving their classic browser they are not worth your time, and need to be forced into compliance, much like the people in the US that were still using rabbit ear antenna to watch TV. This year all of their stations shut down, and they were forced to face the future the live in.