Ah yeah .. I want a modern forum solution, and that means I am looking forward, not backwards.
I don't mind to implement legacy support for IE8/IE9, but only if it affects core functionality.
I rather use the extra hours it costs to fix things for IE over and over and over again, to test and play with new functionality and features. I am sure in another 6 years IE15 has caught up to most of the CSS3 stuff - but at that time we're all at CSS9 .. (so to speak).
It's so easy to install a free alternative browser to get modern sites to actually look 'modern' .. that it's not worth the web designer/developers frustration to deal with it - unless they're getting paid specifically for it. That's just how I feel about it.
Today I've had time to work on the userbar, the background stretchy issue, and the footer.
I expect IE to not even bother loading the site and just show a white page, but ok
I've also fixed the few pixels off search bar, so it's part of the 'white background' again, additionally I've played with @font-face to get prettier titleBars.
footer
And the guest_Bar with gradient (draft1)