Jordan Gets Snarky

I recently came across a site that yelled at me for using "Netscape."  What bothers me is not that I wasn't using Netscape (seriously, who does?).  What really bothers me was that the site said I should use Internet Explorer.  Here's my rant to the site owner:

Dear Mr. Green:

I came across your site while looking for some html tricks on collapsing text.  But before the page even loaded, a js alert box warned me that I was using Netscape, and that your page would look better in Internet Explorer.  First of all, I was using Chrome.  If you're going to put a browser detection script on your page, don't make it a bad one.  (Netscape?  Seriously?)  Second, you ask your visitors to use Internet Explorer?  Never mind the fact that IE is the least secure browser on the market today and shouldn't be actively recommended to anyone, or the fact that IE excludes everyone running a non-Windows operating system.  The bigger issue here is that in this day and age, people should feel free to use any browser they way.  IE 7 and IE 8 have made great strides toward cross-browser compatibility.  Even if you're using a proprietary Microsoft design layer like Silverlight (which you're not), there are always third-party alternatives for compatibility.  I won't even get into your choice to design your entire site in Frontpage, and then brag about it.  We each choose our own poison.

My point: you shouldn't yell at anyone for using any browser.  The web is only as friendly as the people who inhabit it.

Sincerely,

--Jordan Koplowicz

What really bothered me about this whole thing is not his fanboy devotion or the fact that he worshiped a flawed product that deserves no praise.  What bothers me was that he would practice this level of in-your-face evangalism in the first place.  I've often referred to myself as a "Linux evangalist," and I trumpet my love of Android and everything else Google has ever produced.  But I never tell anyone "you know, you really should use the same browser as me."  I make security-related recommendations (because no one should have viruses) and I stop there.  Beyond that, it's user preference, and no one is "wrong."

Harumph.