Browser snobs
 

WTF is with webmasters blocking people using a browser other than the one they like?

Yesterday I went to a site that had an unclosable overlay saying that I couldn't use their site unless I got a "modern" browser with links to ones they would accept. I could see the site properly loaded behind it. Other sites will completely redirect you if you are using a browser the site owner personally dislikes. I've had sites block me because they detected I was using Android (in desktop mode).

I can see not optimizing for a browser and letting the surfer know why the site may not function properly and let load what will load, but where is the logic in barring a browser that over half of the people online use? While it may be L337 to hate on IE I certainly can't imagine turning away over half of my potential customers.:eek2

normally id agree, but this feature is SO annoying..

'your mobile page is broken'

'no, no it's not'

Drives me wild when a page is auto redirected purely because you are using a mobile device. So many adult sites do it, cannot tell you how many sites i've tried browsing on my tablet from gfy and they simply redirect.

What really sucks is when they do that although your browser is in desktop mode, then you click the "view full site" link that they actually put on their own page and it brings up the mobile version again.:Oh crap

crappy web designers. probably couldn't figure out how to get a feature to work on all platforms so they just block the ones that don't work

Yes, that is a pet hate of mine too. Local news site I visit doesn't even give you the choice and you are automatically forced onto their horribly shitty mobile version of their site. :mad:

I have a local news site that does that too. It wouldn't be so bad if the mobile site had access to all or even most of the site's content, but they don't have access to video nor to all of the articles/sections, and the articles that they do have don't display the comments. Total crap.:disgust

Yeah, probably true for many, but there are many that are just being browser nazis:upsidedow

It's one thing for "fanboy" or personal sites but I can't fathom doing it on a commercial site.

Active X those mother fuckers

stop using ie 6.;)

LOL... that site blocked all IE.

Yikes. That's kind of a dick move. :2 cents:

Bingo.

I only block IE7 and lower... Nobody should be using a browser older than IE8... Preferably they should be using IE9+

because a large % of surfers don't own gigantic iphones and ipads to view desktop domains properly. Why would someone who is interested in sales ever take the chance of a potential customer not being able to use the features on your site?

Yes, peoples mobile devices are getting better on average and this may be outdated in the future, but not yet.

So you would turn away all of the potential customers who can use all of the features on your site?

If a site owner wants to have that much control why not narrow the redirects to browsers that actually don't work on the site? I've seen NO this or that browser more often than I see NO this or that browser below version x, then again I'm always using the latest version of whatever browser I'm on.

Because some of us care about furthering the web and using a 12 year old browser, or a browser that likes to render things how it wants and not to the standards, is detrimental to the furthering of the web.

Telling people to upgrade to newer browsers hasn't been very successful, resorting to blocking them has... Can't view the site, what do you do? Upgrade your old system.

You mean developers, not designers. And why block it, just give notice that "this site may/will not load correctly with your browser"

ps: I believe google analytics or webmaster tools became unavailable to opera browser few months ago. If I remember correctly.

LOL, I remember back in the day when we would put links up to our favorite browser and say "best viewed in...."

Fuck webdesigners who aren't able to create a design that doesn't work on all used browsers.

I hate when I'm on my ipad looking for trades (or just porn) and I get redirected from the site I want to the mobile site of a less good site.

or have my iphone slam into a badoink ad (no offense if anyone runs that here lol ).

Exactly.

Why worry how a site looks on their browser if they like it enough to sign up or buy something?

Ah a simpler time indeed:upsidedow

Or go on to one of the other billion pages that want your business:winkwink:

It's an extremely rare occasion that I actually switch browsers while surfing because the site owner said so.