It's just occurred to me that since the redesign of Fast Company (April) and Inc.com (July), we've received zero complaints from Netscape 4.x users (or any other non-standards-compliant browser user). This could mean several things:

• They like reading the un-styled version of the sites.
• After being startled and disgusted by the undesign of it all, they can't be bothered to find a feedback link.
• There are very few users of Netscape 4.x that come to Inc. and Fast Company, and of those, none are the type to send feedback.
• They hate it, yet don't care to tell us.

Now, I'd like to think it's the top reason :). Regardless of why, I'm extremely happy that we've received not even one email scourning the move to standards-based design. It's brings a sense of relief and reinforces the reasons to build web sites this way -- showing that there are real world benefits that are being proved everyday.

The way I like to view it is that using web standards is not a religion whereby there is one golden set of "rules" to live and die by. They are guidelines to building better, more accessible sites -- and the sooner that companies start understanding that by using even some of these methods, business can be improved and information can be more widely be distributed, the better.

I am also excited that I used the word "whereby" in a sentence.