Let me start off by yelling from the rooftop, “I hate IE6!”

How many times have you heard that around the web development community? I have to be honest. I’m really tired of hearing everyone’s bitching. If you’re really making a cutting edge website, then don’t bother with supporting IE6. I think your website’s users can appreciate a simple upgrade notification or something similar.

Okay. So here’s my answer on the subject as a web developer at an advertising agency:

I do support IE6. I have to. I live in the real world where not everyone is a web developer. A world where people don’t all have new computers. A world where not all people upgrade their computers. A world where many people don’t even know what a web browser is. The point is, in most cases, you’re going to have clients that have all kinds of Internet users. Whether you like it or not, you have to support them.

Did I mention I live in Anchorage, Alaska? Yeah! Needless to say not all clients have Windows 7 installed with the latest version of IE. Not to mention we have tons of clients that serve smaller, remote parts of Alaska.

It seems that any time I make a site that doesn’t work in IE6, I hear about it. I generally have an account manager come to me, and say, “The client says the site doesn’t work. Can you fix it?” This is code for “it doesn’t work in IE6.” If you think supporting IE6 is ridiculous, try explaining to your account manager when they tell you “it doesn’t work” what this mystical IE6 thing all the web developers are bitching about is. Prepare yourself for a nice, “Can you fix it anyway?”

For me, telling an account manager that I’m not going to fix a website because we shouldn’t be supporting IE6 is like telling a child that Santa isn’t coming this Christmas. They don’t understand, they don’t like it, and they want it anyway.

Now here’s my answer as a Theme Forest newbie:

Basically, I support IE6 if it’s convenient for me. I try to abide my simple CSS methods that generally make my sites look similar in all browsers. However, in the end if it doesn’t look perfect in IE6, I really don’t sweat it. If something looks really screwy and I don’t have to spend much time fixing it, sure, I’ll do it.

There are definitely a lot of times that when I’m making sites at home that are more “out of the box” I run into a complete mess in IE6 at the end, and you know what? I say screw it. Believe me, I’ve never seen a drop in sales on a template for it not working in IE6; that’s for sure.