[Treehouse - Teacher Q & A]

[Question: Is it Ok for a web designer to redirect IE users and ask them to pick

another, more appropriate browser, such as Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc.?]

[Jim Hoskins] Is it okay? It's really annoying.

I guess it's all right, but I don't see a really good reason for that

unless there's a really extenuating circumstance.

I think it's just bad form.

Unless there's like a really good reason like this feature is so important,

and it's just impossible to make it work or anything in IE.

I just can't even think of a real example of that.

It's kind of just laziness, I think.

[Nick Pettit] I don't think you should redirect people to a separate webpage

and not allow them to see your page.

I think you should just give them some kind of gentle warning,

telling them that, hey, your browser's pretty out of date.

Maybe it's time to upgrade.

If they're just using Internet Explorer, that's not really reason enough

to present this kind of message.

But if they're using an out-of-date browser,

really from any browser vendor, then, yeah, I think it's sensible to present them

with a message that tells them they might have a better experience

if they upgrade to a better browser, and that should be the case.

You shouldn't just be telling people to upgrade their browser for your website

just because they need to upgrade their browser.

You should tell them that if it's legitimately going to give them a better experience

or especially if there's certain functionality that's not going to work at all

if they don't upgrade.

[Allison Grayce] No, I don't think so. At all.

Because it's kind of like saying you're too lazy or incompetent

to kind of like solve the problems with IE.

I think the happy middle ground is to just maybe provide them with a prompt that says, "

To get the full effect of our website, download the newest browser.

Otherwise, here is this version of your website."

It's kind of giving them that hint without preventing them from viewing the content.

[Amit Bijani] No, not if you just want to be lazy about it.

I mean, that's just really being lazy where you're saying,

"Hey, you know what? You are using this browser, and I'm going to penalize you for doing that."

I don't think you should be doing that.

Unless the person is using IE 6. You know who you are.

So, then you should probably do that. Yes. I agree.

[Jason Seifer] I don't see why not.

I mean, you're coming to my website. You've got to play by my rules.

My rules include using a real browser.

No, I don't think that's actually acceptable at all.

Unless there's a business use-case for not wanting

half a browser market to not be able to use your website,

I don't really think that's acceptable.

[treehouse]