Bear, thanks for the input. I'm glad to hear that the new IE browsers are getting more inline with everyone else.
I've posted this on several web development forums to try to get as much input as possible and I'm surprised at how little response the post generated. More surprised that most of the responses were of a hostile nature. I just don't get it. Every web development message board contains posts for help in getting things to work on IE that work without problems on other browsers and how everyone despises IE, yet suggest an organized effort to try to make things better for us and you get hostility. It's just bizarre.
It just seems to me that an organized effort to inform the less tech-savvy general public on the benefits of not using non-compliant browsers would be a good thing. I sort of envisioned a single notification that participating websites would display upon detection of a non-compliant browser (mostly older versions of IE I imagine) informing the user of the situation, explaining the benefits to everyone by upgrading, and providing detailed instructions for the options available and how to install a new browser if they choose. I'm not suggesting insulting users or denying them access to a site because of the browser they are using. I would imagine that users would buy into or be less suspicious of the recommendation if a lot of websites displayed the exact same message, branded with a single organizations icon. It just seems like a simple solution to what's been a big problem for some time.
So you say that companies you do work for aren't supporting versions of IE before 8. Do they notify users of older browsers of this or do those users just see screwed up or non-functioning features?
Screw it. I'm still going to put something together. It won't take much effort and it could prove to be beneficial. If no one buys in, oh well, not much invested. That's the great thing about the web. You can implement any crazy idea you want and costs you almost nothing, unless you try to get it to work on all those non-compliant browsers.