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Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

lifehacker.com.au

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Re: Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

#21

Post by g4 »

cdeonier wrote: post #7

I can't help but feel there's a better way to "make the Internet a better place". While it's not ideal customers are using IE7, belittling them and taxing because they might not know better seems a little extreme. The message reads more like developers venting their frustration supporting IE7 rather than trying to make things better.

There might be nicer ways (for the user) to do it, but each of these ways requires a lot of time and money. IE should really be picking up after itself and assisting users on the legacy systems to update their browsers. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it's Government and Corporate organizations that use old legacy systems from the fear of what might happen if they tried to upgrade and migrate their legacy computer networks.

Re: Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

#22

Post by zem »

marshray wrote: post #19
zem wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

now that the world has moved on from the two-browser days, and we actually have some standards in place, there's a huge difference between "only this idiosyncratic browser" and "anything but this noncompliant browser".

So then just design and test with the compliant browsers and let IE users figure it out for themselves. If just a fraction of the sites had done that back during the browser wars then IE would have become a compliant browser.

not really - during the browser wars, ie had such a large share of the market that if you didn't support it, your site was considered broken, not the browser.

Re: Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

#23

Post by overgard »

An interesting idea, but I can't help but think there's a better way to phrase it.

For instance, they could automatically impose the tax but then offer a discount for switching browsers. That's more of a win for everyone involved. For the shopper, they aren't treated poorly, but they're moved towards a better browsing experience and they stop being a burden on the internet. For Kogan they can still impose their "tax" without alienating customers.

As it reads right now, it's rather condescending. I do get that they're probably being intentionally provocative to impress an entirely separate audience, but if you were to take the idea seriously I think there would be better ways to pull it off.

Re: Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

#24

Post by marshray »

mindstab wrote: post #18
marshray wrote: post #14

I think it's cute but it's hard to get over the sense that it's the moral equivalent of "This site best viewed with frames at 1024x768 screen resolution with Netscape Navigator 2.0."

I think asking the user to use tech that is less than 5 years old is more reasonable then specifying 1 version and resolution. And in those days there barely was a browser that was over 5 years old.

Back when websites were specifying frames and Netscape versions it was an attempt to preempt problems users with old and decrepit browsers too.

It didn't take 5 years, a lot would change in just 2 or 3 and there were still many users running old junk (or AOL).

Re: Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

#25

Post by phoboslab »

planetguy wrote: post #9
litek wrote: post #3

This is terrific link bait. They've probably checked their stats and figured the exposure is well worth the few missed sales they might encounter.

Yeah, it's a way to flatter the rest of your customer base, who now get to feel superior for using a different browser. "Hey everybody, I use Chrome, aren't I wonderful?" Further suggestions to let us elite middle-class types feel superior to others: 1. Extra 25% surcharge for anyone who shows up at your cafe wearing Crocs 2. Anyone driving up to your hotel in a Pontiac Aztek has to pay a fifty-dollar uglification fe…

Bad analogies.

It would be reasonable to charge extra for anyone who enters a shop with a beautiful wooden floor wearing spikes on their shoes. Spikes induce extra maintenance costs - so does IE7.

Re: Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

#26

Post by marshray »

zem wrote: post #22
marshray wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So then just design and test with the compliant browsers and let IE users figure it out for themselves. If just a fraction of the sites had done that back during the browser wars then IE would have become a compliant browser.

not really - during the browser wars, ie had such a large share of the market that if you didn't support it, your site was considered broken, not the browser.

Yes, everybody used that logic back then and it became self-fulfilling.

There were a few Mac users back then too. At one time they were influential enough that Microsoft had developed a port of IE to Mac.

Re: Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

#28

Post by mparlane »

overgard wrote: post #23

An interesting idea, but I can't help but think there's a better way to phrase it. For instance, they could automatically impose the tax but then offer a discount for switching browsers. That's more of a win for everyone involved. For the shopper, they aren't treated poorly, but they're moved towards a better browsing experience and they stop being a burden on the internet. For Kogan they can still impose their "tax"…

My co-worker mentioned that they may need to change the word from tax to fee. Something to do with tax being a legal definition...

Re: Kogan imposes a tax on IE7 shoppers

#29

Post by larrik »

overgard wrote: post #23

An interesting idea, but I can't help but think there's a better way to phrase it. For instance, they could automatically impose the tax but then offer a discount for switching browsers. That's more of a win for everyone involved. For the shopper, they aren't treated poorly, but they're moved towards a better browsing experience and they stop being a burden on the internet. For Kogan they can still impose their "tax"…

Adding it in ahead of time would destroy them in comparison shopping. That's a HUGE deal.
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