Helping to Build a better Internet....

[davidkozat]

So What do you guys think of this?

An Australian consumer electronics e-retailer, Kogan.com, has some strong ideas about socially acceptable web browser use. So strong, in fact, that customers who use Internet Explorer 7 to navigate the page are charged a tax of 6.8% of their total order—that's 0.1% for each month since the browser was first released—because the think it sucks and they're sick of your outmoded web use.

The e-commerce site suggests that anyone using IE7 has likely "been in a coma for over 5 years," and recommends that its customers switch to a "better browser" in order to avoid the so-called IE7 Tax:

Visitors to the site who use IE7 will see a pop-up message suggesting that they install a "better browser", with links to Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera (though not to IE9). In a blog post announcing the change, founder Ruslan Kogan says that the cost of making the site render properly on IE7 isn't worth the hassle.

People's stubborn web-browsing habits—and there are many—can be pretty irritating, when you, enlightened computer geek that you are, know that they are resisting change to something so much better. But actually levying a significant tax is some serious browser-shaming.



So my initial question on this Forum would be:

Do you agree with the E-Commerce decision?

Do you think other should follow their example?

Or is this wrong, and a way of taxing you for ignorance?



I personally I agree with the decision of the E-Com but that's just me...



Source:

http://gizmodo.com/5918599/australia...d?tag=shopping

[CrazyNutz]

Sounds incredibly arrogant to me.

As a company it is their job to cater to customers. Some, perhaps most customers may/will be technically challenged, that's reality, accommodate them, or loose money. Big ego's and arrogance is bad mojo for any company.

[davidkozat]

I understand your point, but I do agree that maintaining backward support for older browsers might be expensive and as they provide information regarding browser choice, they is really no excuse to use IE7, I believe ignorance isnt justification to use older habits of not learning or catching up with updates.... technology changes happen continuously and I think forcing people out of bad habits, that can potentially help the Internet, Security and Knowledge, is a great thing even is it will cost people a tiny fee....

So... you dont wanna get charge with this "maintenance fee" upgrade your $hity browser.... I mean who still uses IE7???

[Generic user #2]

are you guys talking about the concept or this specific example? cause this specific example doesn't actually charge the tax apparently

[davidkozat]

I suppose am using this article as an example. I thought they did end up implementing the charge...

[JaD]

ROTFL. Are you really that naive? It's a marketing move.

[Conumdrum]

It's not buildling a better net. Thats done by infrastructure and laws to open the pipe to everyone. What they are doing is getting folks to try to improve their 'personal experiance', like buying better speakers etc.

It's just a way to recoup maintanance costs on building/maintaing pages. Paying for a guy to recode stuff is another position better used somewhere else. So hopefully they get enough to pay for the second web developer.

[JackNSally]

Seems okay. And upgrading doesn't take very long and is not complicated. They can charge all they want. I would think instead of spending money on compatibility, standardize your code and put in a message/pop-up basically saying "Upgrade or our site may not work right" and for some extra customer brownie points links to newest versions of IE/Chrome/FF/Opera.

[paulbagz]

Its IE7 ffs and people are up in arms over it

Who even uses IE7?

Battlelog forces you to upgrade your browser as well.

-PB

[BeepBeep2]

Some work PCs with XP, actually a lot of PCs with XP on them...
IE8 was never something for me. I stayed with IE7, waited for IE9, then jumped on the Firefox bandwagon.

[Spectrobozo]

if you are using Win XP, you can use newer browsers without any problem (Chrome, Firefox, Opera...), they all work great and with new features, just not the newest IE.

I even think win update will install IE8 for you on XP,
so I think it would be more productive to just give a warning about their old IE7 and give them the choice to install Chrome, Firefox or something else,

[davidkozat]

Apparently IE6 users are not effected.... but that might be because of the popularity of win XP and as it comes as a standard, it might be a marketing strategy still.. I dont think is a bad one.... they dont force the tax, and they keep asking you to upgrade all the way until the final purchase so.... I cant think is bad....

[Krazeyivan]

At my job they still use IE6 as the web driven front end package only works with IE6 ....... its soooooo bad

[cobra_kai]

At my work we're still stuck on Win XP and IE7

[K404]

I don't see the problem

"We want you to make a free. Note: FREE upgrade that will improve your security and browsing experience. If you don't do this after repeated polite requests, we will charge you some money. Did we mention that it's FREE and you have choices from MULTIPLE PROVIDERS?"

Money is a MUCh better motivator than just advising that XYZ is better. We all know there are a stunning number of people who do not take internet security seriously.

[El Mano]

I approve of it, in fact I wish more sites took this action.
Developing for IE 6 and 7 is a nightmare, there are so many different things. You need to write code for "normal" browsers, and then code for IE.
I have neutral feelings for Microsoft when it comes to Windows and some other products, but boy I would kill them all for the mess they created with IE.