Re[2]: Lynx and log files

Hello,


Get me off this list, I didn't subscribe to it and I don't want it. I
don't care what the normal unsubscribe routine is, I don't intend on
finding out. Get me off this list, and start running a list server
that doesn't allow people to subscribe others.


Sunday, Sunday, July 25, 1999, you wrote:

CM> [Gregory J. Rosmaita]
>> that's a good question, and one for which i don't have a definitive
>> answer, as i've never succumbed to the urge to sniff a browser...  i
>> suppose that they are simply looking for the string (or, rather,
>> prefix) "Mozilla" in the user-agent header, before issuing an
>> accept, as i doubt that anyone has the energy or inclination to
>> maintain a list of excluded browsers and their user-agent header
>> prefixes...

CM> The one negative filter of which I'm aware is at
CM> <URL:http://www.movielink.com/>.  If the string "Lynx" appears
CM> anywhere in the user agent field, the Web server will serve out null
CM> content.  The interface of the site has gotten better, and is now
CM> quite accessible (at least, it seemed it, today), but I have to alter
CM> the user agent field to "Netscape/3.0 (compatible; L_y_n_x 2.8rel.2
CM> libwww-FM/2.14)" to get in.  Frustrating, to put it mildly.

>> 3) if it identifies the browser requesting the document as a
>> "Mozilla" compliant browser, it sends the request on to the
>> "high-bandwidth" version of the site; and, if it fails to find the
>> "Mozilla" prefix, it assumes that the browser isn't capable of
>> handling graphically oriented content, and shunts it off either to
>> the low bandwidth version of the site, or to a page that advises the
>> user to join the twentieth century before it ends...
>> 
>> all of which is a pretty un-discriminating way to discriminate on
>> the basis of browser!

CM> This is pretty common.  Once upon a time, there were only Mozilla,
CM> Lynx, and Mosaic.  When browser sniffing started, it was pretty much
CM> just Mozilla and Lynx.  When IE came out, it had to declare as Mozilla
CM> to avoid crappy versions of Web sites, which started a whole trademark
CM> problem.  Now, things seem to have evened out a bit, except for that
CM> one movielink.com site.  I suppose that they're afraid Lynx users
CM> won't see their ads, and are too lazy to put any effort into putting
CM> something informative in alt text.

CM> -Chris



Best regards,
 Jake                            mailto:jake@jellinek.com

Received on Sunday, 25 July 1999 06:43:38 UTC