Taking a sec to check comments, I found a good tip from Barb about checking my browser stats.
“…you might want to check your Sitemeter stats on Browser share. Since mine shows 70% of my visitors are using IE, I could give a hoot what my blog looks like in anything *but* IE.”
That’s certainly valid viewpoint. But (and, if you’ve read here much, you knew there would be a “but”) I take a rather contrarian view. I checked my stats-in Statcounter, though. Sure enough, 38% of those who’ve visited my site in the last month or so (didn’t check back further) use browsers other than Internet Exploder. That pretty well agrees with my 40+% “returning visitors” stats. Yeh, I know it’s only a correlation, and I’d have to dig deeper to see how much that really affects returns, but it does match up with a “gut feel” I had.
You see, I really don’t care what Internet Exploder users see, or at least, not that much. And I’m not at all concerned that I might be filtering out Internet Exploder users with my new template that Internet Exploder’s non-standards-compliant engine doesn’t render properly. Folks who insist on continuing to use the worst browser available-when there are far, far superior, free, options available-are probably not on the upper end of the bell curve, anyway.
Of course, I have had a note from the one Safari user who’s a regular visitor. Yeh, the Safari browser he’s using uses the same old Mozilla code Internet Exploder 5 uses, so CSS of darned near any kind is a foreign language to it. S’OK. Most Safari users (all Macusers) are probably liberalists, anyway. (This guy’s a NOTABLE exception-heh.) Had another I think (IIRC) was Safari user who used to visit, but I had to ban him from commenting because of abusive stupidity. He went away. No loss. Coulda been an IE user; still no loss.
So, where does this thing stand?
As time (and my limited, but slowly geowing, understanding of CSS optimization) permits, I’ll continue to hunt down lil tweaks or non-standard bits in my blog template to make it load and display better in modern, real browsers, but I’ll also continue to consider as a plus the fact that users of the seriously insecure, bloated, non-standards-compliant, sllowwwww Internet Exploder may self-filter out of my readership.
Viewing this in Internet Exploder? You have three options:
- Put up with the fact that it looks like crap to you because you’re using a crappy browser. No skin offa my nose.
- Get a better browser. Firefox is good, and only a 4.7MB download (although to make it FULLY functional, you’ll need to download a buncha plugins that the Mozilla folks call extensions-heh). Or try a fully functional browser in a 3.8MB download and get Opera. Either way, you’ll have a more secure, faster, altogether better browsing experience. Everyone (except for Micro$oft) wins.
- The third option is to have a hissy fit and go away in a huff. No problem for me. Have a nice trip. Don’t let the door hit ya where the Lord split ya, as they say here in America’s Third World Countyâ„¢.
Please note: If you fit into category #1 because you have an idiosyncratic liking for I.E., fine. Everyone’s entitled to their lil eccentricities.
heh