New Status Code -- 2xx Greedy Hotel?

After being in hotels for a few weeks, I'm starting to wonder whether  
a new 2xx HTTP status code could be defined whose semantic is "This  
isn't what you asked for, but here's some information about how to  
get network access so you can eventually get it."

2xx so that browsers will display it. AFAICT, they do; or at least,  
Safari and Firefox do (see <http://www.mnot.net/test/222.asis>). IE?  
4xx might be more appropriate, but I despair of "friendly" error  
messages. (thought they could be padded, I suppose).

A new status code so that feed aggregators, automated clients, etc.  
can differentiate what they asked for from your hotel / conference  
centre / etc. asking for cash in order to get network access, and not  
get horribly messed up as a result.

It would also be useful in those cases where you get redirected  
somewhere to login and get a cookie for authentication; e.g., Yahoo!,  
Google, Amazon, etc. Same situation, but slightly different use case.

Thoughts?

--
Mark Nottingham     http://www.mnot.net/

Received on Thursday, 15 March 2007 13:49:23 UTC