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Dump IE 6 campaign runs afoul of dump IE 6 campaign

Accusations, denials, tee-shirts

The anger and frustration normally associated with Internet Explorer tends to focus on specific areas: security, stability, and standards. But those feelings have now spilled over into efforts dedicated to "saving" developers from the aging IE version 6.

Veteran developer Michael Hudin has accused a group calling itself Savethedevelopers.org of hijacking his idea for a campaign to rid the web of IE 6, which he says makes life hard for web developers. The catalyst for Hudin's anger was a TechCrunch article promoting Savethedevelopers.org without referencing him or his campaign.

While Hudin acknowledged that two people can have the same idea, he noted that he kicked off his campaign - End 6! - last year and registered the domain name in October 2007.

The Savethedevelopers group registered its domain in February 2008. Hudin also pointed out that the Savethedevelopers campaign uses similar language and his idea of a Javascript "pseudo" pop up window to warn IE 6 users that their browser is obsolete.

Hudin is explicit about the motives of his original campaign - he is a developer and wants an easier life building web applications. According to Hudin, Savethedevelopers stole his idea and are trying to make money from related merchandise - teeshirts sold via Cafepress.com.

"I could have tossed some AdWords up there or a tacky t-shirt, but I didn't. Why? I was much more interested in making the campaign work and making the net better," Hudin blogged.

Ron Goff, technology director at web developer Conveyor Group, which set up the Savethedevelopers, denied prior knowledge of Hudin's campaign. The Savethedevelopers site, meanwhile, said there's no mark-up on the merchandise its selling, and tee-shirts help show support.

Goff told Reg Dev: "We got an email from him [Hudin] and let him know there was no intention to steal his idea. The point of Savethedevelopers is that it is not just a single campaign. Urging people to get rid of IE 6 is just the first of many campaigns to help developers."

Both campaigns argue that web developers face significant extra work because they must cater to the idiosyncrasies of several versions of the main browser. IE 6 is claimed to be especially difficult to support because of its age and its inability to cope with many of the requirements of advanced Web 2.0 applications. Despite being superseded by IE 7 in late 2006, IE 6 is still in wide use at between 30 and 40 per cent

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