PR firm TOS: build site to IE6 specs

LotsOfZeros

LotsOfZeros

^^^ Bi-Winning ^^^
Feb 9, 2008
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We're currently doing business with a firm that has in their TOS and contract that they will build the website to specifications of IE6 and Firefox 3.

IE6 is practically obsolete so I got to thinking, is it too early to demand designers to author sites per HTML5 and CSS3? Would that be asking too much at this time?
 


I lol'd, how out of touch is this damn firm, maybe try to explain how ill relevant IE6 is.
 
Why hire a PR firm to do a website? If you are going to hire a firm, hire a web dev/design firm. Or, find a good developer and a good designer, manage the project yourself, and save some $.
 
Magic Hat said:
Why hire a PR firm to do a website? If you are going to hire a firm, hire a web dev/design firm. Or, find a good developer and a good designer, manage the project yourself, and save some $.
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I agree and have given similar input but I'm not the lead on this so the final call doesn't rest with me.

I'm actually wondering if it's too early in the specification(s) life cycle where it's unreasonable to demand adherence to HTML5 & CSS3.
 
LotsOfZeros said:
I agree and have given similar input but I'm not the lead on this so the final call doesn't rest with me.

I'm actually wondering if it's too early in the specification(s) life cycle where it's unreasonable to demand adherence to HTML5 & CSS3.
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I guess it depends on your role in the process/organization, the site requirements, and the audience. Your bigger concern IMO should be the backend of the site, make sure they are using a CMS that is scalable (like WP or Joomla), and make sure that the PR firm isn't trying to fleece you by charging an "installation fee" or "setup charge" for something simple like installing WP.

Your best chance at winning this type of argument isn't based on tech specs, but ease of use. You want to make sure that you have a website that is easy for your team to manage, easy for your site visitors to navigate, and easy for SE's to crawl. I would give the PR firm enough rope to hang themselves, and then provide an alternative solution that accomplishes your goals.
 
There's absolutely no reason why you can't author your site in HTML5 and CSS3 and still have it work in IE6. HTML5 Boilerplate - A rock-solid default template for HTML5 awesome. is a good example of a web standards based foundation for building cross browser compliant sites that work all the way back to IE6 and on mobile devices. It's made by some of the brightest people in the business who believe making your sites work in all browsers is the responsible thing to do.

A site utilizing all the various cosmetic features of CSS3 may not look exactly the same in IE6, but it should still function as expected.
 
LotsOfZeros said:
We're currently doing business with a firm that has in their TOS and contract that they will build the website to specifications of IE6 and Firefox 3.

IE6 is practically obsolete so I got to thinking, is it too early to demand designers to author sites per HTML5 and CSS3? Would that be asking too much at this time?
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No it's not and honestly if you're paying them they should do what you want. If you want it to only work in Chrome and dick roll everyone else they should do it for you.
 
LotsOfZeros said:
IE6 is practically obsolete so I got to thinking, is it too early to demand designers to author sites per HTML5 and CSS3? Would that be asking too much at this time?
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Nah, I don't think so. For the last two sites I had coded, I asked that they did the gradient background using CSS3, and neither of them had any problems with doing that.

CSS3 & HTML5 doesn't have that many updates anyways.
 
LotsOfZeros said:
IE6 is barely 4%, most of which are not in the U.S.
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Yes, it's 4% if you're taking all the other browsers into account. But what I'm saying is, out of all the people who're using IE, 17.7% of them are still using IE6.

I don't know.. but 4% is not really obsolete isn't it?
 
prince said:
Yes, it's 4% if you're taking all the other browsers into account. But what I'm saying is, out of all the people who're using IE, 17.7% of them are still using IE6.

I don't know.. but 4% is not really obsolete isn't it?
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no they are not...
 
That's just your assumption. 17.7% of Ie users are still on ie6 as of last year. - Internet Explorer (even IE6!) gains market share

Makes a lot of difference if you're buying traffic and sending to a page that doesn't support ie6..
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It's probably less than 3% US. Especially if you remove apps faking user agents. For every 1 person who hasn't updated from IE6 there's probably 5 who haven't updated from a version of AVG that spoofs IE6. Don't refute this point please, though, because...

I'm not even going to post statistics here (I cant find them) but always make sure your browser market share stats are segmented geographically... That's huge. In some countries Opera is the majority, in others IE6, etc.

Also, make sure they're up to date.
 
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Fuck IE 6. Web sites need to be built with the future in mind, not the past. In a few years only a tiny percentage of laggards will still be using it.
 
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