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Anecdote: For my programming classes, one example I use is a simple browser. It doesn't do CSS or Javacript, so display is primitive, but it works. On some sit
by bradley13 3y ago
Anecdote: For my programming classes, one example I use is a simple browser. It doesn't do CSS or Javacript, so display is primitive, but it works.
On some sites. Many sites, especially the big ones, see that it's an unknown browser, and refuse to send content. Probably they think it's a bot. But even if it were, what's wrong with bots, as long as they're well-behaved?
What kind of closed web have we let the megacorps build?
- unmole 3y agoPlaying the devil's advocate: Why shouldn't a server get to decide which clients it wants to talk to?
- userbinator 3y agoWhy shouldn't a store get to decide the $protected_class of which customers it will do business with?
- unmole 3y agoUser Agent is not a protected class. Neither is Intentionally Obtuse for that matter.
- 3LazTjBv-f 3y agoIn principle? Of course. I mean I remember blocking Yandex bots from hammering some e-commerce site on shoestring budget. But each person developing a web scrapping bot realizes at most after a week that being honest with User-agent has negative impact on how well it works, and changing it to existing browser takes literally seconds.
- doctor_radium 3y agoLong term, I can imagine this becoming a corollary to Net Neutrality. Whenever that finally becomes a thing, the next step could be a law/rule that "public web sites need to be accessible by the public". Not that developers need to test their work in dozens of different browsers, but that they can't actively choose their customers.
- acedTrex 3y agoI mean, the site gets to decide if it will service a request. theres no requirement for a service to respond to everyone.
- jojobas 3y agoThis is the tech equivalent of "we don't serve your kind here", and limits any attempt at competition.