Q:

Please do not break IE8 unless it is really for good

I know IE8 is officially unsupported.
I keep that in mind and I accept that when new actual features are rolled out on Stack Overflow, IE8 might end up unable to use them. I'm happy with that. E.g. I can't search for Stack Exchange sites by typing into that "More Stack Exchange Communities" textbox in The Dropdown when I have to use IE8, it just doesn't work. That is fine and not a problem.
However, may I suggest please, that in cases when IE8 is severely broken simply because of one little (optionally stupid) bit of JavaScript that happens to use an unsupported property without really meaning it, a support request for fixing this could be allowed to exist?
There are many environments (companies) where people are stuck with IE8. According to Wikipedia, the IE8 market share is 21.25% as of June 2014, which is a lot.
Currently stub.js is broken for IE8 because of textContent property that does not exist (text property does). This means there is no editing toolbar, the editing hotkeys do not work, and the question/answer preview does not appear.

A:

I see three possible situations:

You're a developer and you need IE8 for testing. You should have another, more recent browser installed for all your other needs. Preferably you should be running that IE8 in a VM as to avoid polluting your environment.
You're a regular user, you need IE8 for an in-house application and you need access to the SE network for work related purposes. You should be able to convince your manager or system administrator to give you access to another, more recent browser for all your other needs.
You're a regular user, you need IE8 for an in-house application and you do not need access to the SE network for work related purposes. You probably have no business visiting the network during your working hours then.

Supporting IE8, a browser that was RTM more than 5 years ago, takes a lot of time (talking from experience) that often isn't worth it. The only legitimate reason I can see is when it is in the interest of your business to support it, for example if you'd miss out on a significant amount of revenue.

