What the hell is wrong with people?   I've been seeing twitter-chatter all day long about a new jQuery plugin called 'IE6 Crash'.  It is described in the jQuery Plugin repository as:

A jQuery plugin for crashing IE6. That'll teach those motherf!%@*#s to upgrade their s#*t.

Seriously, is that necessary?  Now, I completely agree, IE6 is a huge pain in my tush on a nearly daily basis.  We still build sites that support IE6 at my work, despite my best efforts to discontinue that practice.

Nonetheless, as much as I loathe having to accomodate a p.o.s. browser that's a decade out-of-date, intentionally sabotaging the browser is not the answer.  It is irresponsible at best.

Much of the chatter has been around the 'a way to get rid of IE6' or 'a way to teach them to uprade'.  Sadly, that is not what is going to happen at all.  Those people aren't going to have a sudden epiphany when their browser keeps crashing when they visit your site, assuming that the problem must be their browser.  No, they are going to assume the problem is with your site (which it is).  They aren't returning with a better browser; they aren't returning at all.  You haven't taught them a lesson... at least not the one you intended.  Instead, you taught them that your site will break their browser.  They don't know why, and they probably don't care.  They'll go somewhere else for whatever product or service you're selling, because that company's webmaster isn't a vindictive tool.

Wanna convince people not to use IE6?  The first step is to make them aware of the problem.  There are plenty of excellent jQuery Plug-Ins that will detect an out-of date browser and will show an alert with links to better browser options in a lightbox.

You'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar.  (Write that down, son.)