fantomaster - 8:02 pm on Jun 15, 2000 (gmt 0)

While I agree with Brett that most internet stats are wildly inaccurate and vastly overrated by advertisers, media and clients alike, rc you have a point that the trade off "more control vs. less compatibility" will more often than not be the better approach. It may be a different story for a one-page site relying on heavy traffic alone, but once you are getting into hundreds if not thousands of static pages, I'd advise screw the browser technically challenged and play along with the bank. After all, reduced administrative hassle and overhead are important money making factors as well: consider MT/T (Maintenance Time/Traffic) and it becomes clear that you shouldn't flog the old compatibility horse to death. I mean, hell: who's optimizing for Lynx these days, except perhaps on a hobby horse or ideological mission basis?

Your target clientele may be just as important: no non-tech-savvy user will be able or willing to modify his or her UserAgent, whereas geeks and hackers may do little else if only for the heck of it. So if you're catering to those, it's another story again.