Please get rid of your browser evangelism, no matter how clever it might be. I know very well that I shouldn't be using Internet Explorer. If I had any choice in the matter, I wouldn't
I live in Peru, most people still use IE out of ignorance here, not because they can't. Browser evangelism is sure useless to an HN reader but it's very needed for common users and I encourage it very much.
I don't think I'd even mind so much if it weren't transparent, but it's pretty repulsive.
As some other commenters noted, the site tries really hard as well but 1300-px-wide content is awful in any light. It's just form, not function, but the irony from a site that pushes the uniform display of email and uses (web and email) resolutions that most users can't see without scrollbars isn't helping the message any.
I sympathize with you -- and agree that there are better ways to communicate this to the user -- but there's good reason for some kind of "browser evangelism".
I used to spend half of my time when building a new site on its structure, content, layout, etc., and then the other half on trying to get it to work with the various Explorers. IE 8 did not improve that situation, and neither has IE 9. Unlike this website developer, I just gave up on website development for people altogether -- it just wasn't worth it anymore.
I know a lot of people are restricted to IE for one reason or another, but at this point, the only way the situation will improve is if developers start doing some effective "evangelism".
