This is an edited letter I submitted to Seibertron via their feedback form.

As a software engineer whose job includes maintaining web applications, it's really disappointing when someone decides to throw in the towel as you have. You see, the HTML 4.01 standard is nearly 10 years old and CSS, in its current ambigous and incomplete form is similarly aged. IE6 is newer than the both of them and recieved updates into 2005 and the same goes for a number of its competitiors.

Now, what I would really like to know is what, specifically, is so difficult to implement in a way that works for everybody. You run a forum and picture gallery comprised of tables, text, and images, with a tiny little bit of JavaScript. All four of those features have existed since HTML 3.2.

To demand the latest version of a web browser really throws a fundamental principle of the internet back in its face. It's supposed to be a platform agnostic exchange of ideas. Why anyone should have to keep piling on bloated browser update after bloated browser update to view images and text is beyond me.

I really could see if we were all desktop application developers here. More powerful graphics libraries, different file system layouts, threading/multicore changes, all of that makes perfect sense. However, when was the last time HTTP, SSL, TCP/IP, MIME, or JavaScript, really changed in a fundamental way? Are you going to take advantage of ANY of the features in HTML 5? What about AJAX, the solution in search of a problem that it is?

Forgive me, I just don't see how divs became the world's 6th largest religion or why embedding Youtube's Flash player suddenly requires Firefox 3.59xq RC2++.

Next time you send a message, please feel free to include your username and email address so that we can discuss your concerns about IE6, the security flaws that it has, the standards that it ignores and the fact that it is at least 8 years old - probably older than your car. Check out Google Chrome if you want a really slick application that is most definitely not "bloated". I'm tired of making exceptions for IE6. The browsers are free ... it's time to upgrade. Thanks.

You know, it's ironic that your little nagging screen covered and deactivated the last third of your response. It's really neat that you were actually able to put that through though.

I actually started off with a general curiousity as to why I've been hit with so many of these over the last year and your site was where I happened to be at the time that I'd finally had enough.

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll ever adequately explain why I must replace my fully functioning browser. I've been through your site (and lots of others) with Firefox, Safari, and Opera, and the experience isn't exactly in another class.

One quirk that really irritates me is that, for the longest time, nobody but Microsoft bothered to include modal dialog functionality. In fact, even though some eventually added support, we are still assaulted by div floating tricks that are slow and fragile. I can't take anyone's concerns about usability seriously when I am knowingly subjected to that.

The simple fact is, for all the crying about Microsoft dragging its feet, the others have done their fair share too. Safari for Windows didn't work right until version 4 (and version 2 sure took up enough memory on OSX). Firefox didn't stop leaking memory like a sieve until late in version 2 (or Netscape 8). I thought Opera 8 was fairly polished but it's still got a few corner case rendering holes (does it still strip line feeds out of textareas on postback?).

I've downloaded Chrome too and I can't believe anyone would suggest it as a serious alternative. I have crashed Chrome more in 6 weeks than IE in 6 years. It hasn't brought anything new to the table either, unless you have to have a Google logo on all your software. Oh and it'd be nice if it looked like my OS, instead of a pretend Linux/iPhone app.

Not one of them beats, or even approaches, IE6 for speed, from my Atom at home to the dual cores at work. In fact I am positively dreading the foisting of IE7, as it spends nearly 2 minutes getting its act together every time I open a new window. And the broken UI conventions are a nice touch too.

At the end of the day, though, my point is that your site, along with thousands of others, is comprised of little more than tables, text, and images. We had those when Netscape 3 and IE 4 roamed the land too. How do you propose to offer security without https being enabled for your domain? And how's an outdated browser trigger PHP exceptions in your gallery/database code? Is Flash still priced out of even being an option for some upcoming killer feature?

If I were to venture a guess, I would suggest that some site administrators like to change their style sheets more than anything. I'll give you that, I can't redesign _my_ site every quarter. I would think that's a net zero benefit for the effort spent though.

I don't mean this as a threat or sour grapes, but your site isn't the only game in town. If you soft block me with a nagging div or hard block me by IP, it won't be the end of the world. I just really wanted to give somebody a piece of my mind.