[thelist] MSN locks out non IE browsers

[.jeff]

matt,

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> From: Matt
>
> It's different in the same way that if a Soho Club
> chooses to exclude certain people that's their
> prerogative, but if Walmart has a door policy, that's
> another thing altogether.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

it is?  maybe you should talk to bi-mart or costco then?  both of these
stores require a paid membership to enter.  bi-mart will allow anybody that
wants a membership to have one and it's only like $3 or so to join (pays for
the cost of the membership cards).  costco, on the other hand, charges like
$40 to join and will only allow certain people to join based on their
employer, who they have a bank account with, and other possible affiliations
that could qualify the potential member for membership.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> MSN is a whole lot closer to a Walmart of the web than
> an exclusive club or gallery.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

how?  it's private property -- just like costco or walmart.  if they don't
like the shoes you're wearing, they have the right to ask you to leave (or
not let you in to begin with).  it's no different here.

why is it that because msn has a huge marketshare of web users that people
start thinking msn is bound by some sort of service level agreement which
includes being accessible to any browser anybody wants to use to view it?
that's a big, fat stinking pile of horse biscuits.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> I hear where you're coming from, but I honestly don't
> believe that they're doing this to force users to
> upgrade to standards compliant browsers.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

Perhaps they're not.  Perhaps they are.  We can only assume.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> MS also has announced a policy of no longer supporting
> 3rd party plugins unless they're developed for ActiveX,
> But I don't recall ever seeing any announcement by the
> W3C that ActiveX was  the standard of the future.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

you won't find *any* announcement by the w3c regarding plug-ins.  as of yet
there is no standard for them.  that means that it's up to the plug-in
vendors to support whatever technology the browser vendors choose to offer.
when netscape held the marketshare that meant plug-in vendors bowed to
netscape's implementation.  now that the marketshare has swung to microsoft,
that means plug-in vendors have to go with the flow if they want to be up to
date.

.jeff

http://evolt.org/
jeff at members.evolt.org
http://members.evolt.org/jeff/