Accusing me of using IE when I'm using Opera! Pff!

You should have read until the last paragraph - it is directly adressed to you.

I know, I know. I was just being asinine. You should talk to the Opera folks though, cause the default is to disguise as MSIE 6.0.

I am aware of that. And the default browser of Microsoft Windows is Internet Explorer. That is like saying I should talk to Bill Gates about the basic problem. Both have their reasons to act the way they do. Users blindly accepting that do their fair share, too, and those are the ones I'm trying to reach.

Nice concept, by the way. It should be interesting to see the response from it.

There will be none (apart from yours that is).

I'll give a response to the old browser-report-string-bullshit-issue.

I think HTML standards have reached a level where cross-browser compatability is not as big an issue as it was before version 4 came along, yes there are still a lot of issues, but generally, things have come a long way.

Also I think the days of major websites blocking users who are using anything other that IE or Nutscrape are absolutely dead and buried.

Therfore i think its high time browsers stopped lying about their identity.

Have you checked out the examples in my article? Or don't you consider those 'major'? Just one more example from myself: it's not possible to use my bank's site with anything else than Internet Explorer. That means I always have to boot into Windows just to check my account balance.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 22:18 on May, 01st 2003

I hadn't checked no.... errr, where is the article? . If I were you i'd move banks for that. Its a disgraceful attitude.

I'm surprised they dont allow Netscape/Moz?

...and what about the 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 pc-illiterate AOL users out there? The ones who think that they HAVE to use the AOL browser when using their service - are they going to deny all those the right to use internet banking

Perhaps, being a bank, they are really aware of security issues and like to use ActiveX

You still have a few hours to find it - but only if you're using a browser identifying itself as Microsoft Internet Explorer

They have one undeniable advantage: they are at every streetcorner...

Apparantely.

Erm... that doesn't quite make sense

Took me long enough to find out what the ???? you were all talking about.

Anyway I think it's a good initiative, I remember my first complaint when using a 'non-IE' browser (Opera 6.05 I think) was that it displayed lots of pages either with errors or not at all. Although that was less than a year ago, things have gotten better, maybe just by using Mozilla and now Phoenix ("Mozilla Firebird" ), I don't know. And the few sites that insist on not displaying correctly are easily ignored most of the time, too bad there are cases such as banks where you have no other choice than to live with it... or without home-banking of course.

It's sad to see that banks all over the world are 'discriminating' against other browsers than IE, I thought this was just the situation in Belgium because of blatant webmaster incompetence or something. I hope some visitors take the time to read this all the way through...

I must say Mr C. I'm so proud to be British when salt of the earth webmasters like you quote Timmy in the way you did, American military may have invented the internet, but it was a Brit who gave it to the masses!

Mole, My bank - HSBC, allow IE, AOL and Nutscrape. I havent tried any others because I'm a lazy bastard.

If HSBC ever kick out users other than IE, or move their telephone call centres to India for that matter (or any country other than in UK for UK accounts), I will move all my accounts from them to another bank.

Erm... For me, knowing that you use internet to know your bank balance or worse, do transactions make me think you are weird, not the bank.

Especialy if they are at every "street corner". Man, that's laziness if you can't simply get there...

Eagle: big deal if they (like every bank here) are only open 9-12 and then again 2.30-4 PM when every normal person has to work. 1. Switch on brain - 2. Think - 3. Post.

Duh. Just like it wasn't like this here either. It's only open later on pay day here.

Don't you have those nifty ATM machines where you live?

Edited by Eagle of Fire at 18:44 on May, 03rd 2003

I can get cash all the time (that wouldn't work through online banking anyway ), but that's it. I can't do anything which requires entering the actual offices, e.g. money orders (the usual way of sending money back and forth here) or anything which requires interaction with some clerk. Alternatives: not going to university or online banking.

Can you elaborate a little more on "money orders"? If I understood well what it mean, it is possible to automate it here by asking the clerk once. The sums are then automatically withdrawed from the account when needed, like for bills for electricity, cable tv, etc... Same thing that allow our employers to automatically send the money to our account every pay day, but reversed.

Yes, that's the same here, but don't you ever have any bills you only have to pay for once as opposed to regularly every month?

No