[thelist] Browser Stats

[the head lemur]

> If the difference between my site looking attractive to 95%
> of visitors (tens of millions of people) vs being 'compliant'
> to reach 4% of people (who have already demonstrated an aversion
> to keeping up with technology) and the compliancy causes
> things to look/appear worse to the 95% majority, you'd
> be stupid to blindly push everyone into catering to the 4%.  Most
> businesses can't afford to alienate the majority to service
> an extremely small minority.

I really love these kind of things.

"who have already demonstrated an aversion to keeping up with technology"

Show me your numbers.
Rather than pulling things out of thin air or darker places, show me your
mission to third world countries, second world countries, and even in the G7
countries where You Personally have offered to upgrade not only the
browsers, but the hardware(which is the box attached to the screen and
keyboard), the phone lines, infrastructure, laid cable or fiber, and taught
folks to understand that compliancy is just a matter of overcoming their
'aversion'.

Show me where you have eliminated access by metering, where you have
personally stepped up to pay by the minute access charges so that your toys
can be seen, where you have installed broadband, where you have gotten
corporations to overcome their 'aversion' to undertake a major upgrade in
equipment and infrastructure, where you have translated this information
into just the major foreign languages so that the great unwashed masses can
understand what a wonderful  opportunity you are offering them.

"the compliancy causes things to look/appear worse to the 95% majority"

I am glad that an authority has stepped up to assume the mantle as THE pixel
critic and we can all use the same central authority for taste and style. It
will certainly cut down on the number of colors, positioning, styles, and
those damn folks who browse without images turned on as their cost of living
prohibits them from being online 24/7.

"you'd be stupid to blindly push everyone into catering to the 4%."

Oh Yeah! Right on! We will finally be able to overturn all those pesky
accessibility laws and take back the good parking spots. After all, the
prevailing wisdom is that we are all white males between 26 and 45 with
college edumications making over 50 thousand bucks a year.

The fact that folks who through no fault of their own have a disability of
some sort,(in my case I am a cripple because I am red/green and blue green
color blind, have a bad attitude and do not suffer fools at all) should be
told to go somewhere else and play in traffic with what seems to be the hope
that the final solution will take them, knocking down the 4% figure that you
seem to hold so dear.

The fact that the Internet is probably the most democratic communication
medium invented in history must really frost you, let alone according to
ComScore Media Metrix who spends a lot of money to find out what is really
happening on the web:
"overall Internet usage, where 48 percent are men and 52 percent are women,
according to comScore's studies of adult Internet use."
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=582&e=3&cid=582&u
=/nm/20020828/wr_nm/telecoms_wireless_dc_3>

"Most businesses can't afford to alienate the majority to service an
extremely small minority."

I'm not sure if we are on the same planet here, but it has been my
experience not only as a pixel mechanic, but also as a construction foreman,
commercial drywaller, project manager on new and existing construction
projects, such as life safety renovations, Accessibility construction and as
a salesman, that the whole point of business is to sell stuff for money and
using that as a rationale, the Internet gives them a much larger reach for
their goods and services than any other communication medium, that servicing
as you so elegantly put it, that extremely small minority that has had its
tiny voice heard in the Americans with Disabilities Act, The Section 508
Regulations, the various Laws in countries around the world regarding the
fair and equitable treatment of all it's citizens regardless of disability,
race, creed, color, preferences both religious and personal, and sex. This
treatment extends to businesses that sell to the public, and a lot of these
laws were on the books before the first browser was ever built or the
internet had images.

That it offends your sense of style/design or prejudices is too bad.

But I wouldn't try to sell it to a client who actually would like to make
money using the Internet, because their great aunt will be calling them up
and asking them why they can't see their nephew's website.

You are entitled to your opinion, and may continue as you are. You are not
alone but that is not a reason I would particularly care to defend.

the head lemur
News: http://www.lemurzone.com/news/
Interviews: http://www.lemurzone.com/pixelview/
Standards: http://webstandards.org
Community: http://www.evolt.org