re: #167 TedStriker

Sounds like they’re using a script to pin down the user agent; no script, no block.

Got it in one. A comment from one of the Red State mods:

Let me explain something, because there are a number of folks who don’t understand this: Every browser request passes a little identifier with it that tells what browser is being used to access the page. It is very simple to code a snippet of Javascript that detects the “USER_AGENT” string and then put up a special page, message, etc. based on the content of that string. If you want to see what your USER_AGENT string looks like, go here:

whatsmyuseragent.com

This is how we conducted our little experiment. When we saw a Firefox user, we passed them to our very rudimentary “Error” page, which was easily bypassed by just clicking the page.

So … it’s nothing fancy. Most web sites use the USER_AGENT string in some way, such as putting up a mobile-friendly version of a page when the browser is on an iPhone, for example.

And it’s worked so well for them. Their own comments section is filled with people saying they use FF and aren’t seeing the message. Oops.