The NYT's OS-Restrictive Video Policies

ro1 writes to mention a story on Linux.com about the NYT's confusing video policies. Essentially, if you're running Linux you can only see videos running on the front page of the site; videos elsewhere on the site require Windows or OSX. Roblimo has a video tour of the NYT site to explain the issue in detail. (Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.)

A big, fat, so what.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well considering slashdot's attitude towards NYT concerning their registration policy.* Why should we concern ourselves with their video policies?

*BugMeNot for example.

Re:Alternatives

[pembo13]

That's how things used to be, with webmasters making use of the NOEMBED tag. I personally do not understand the benifit of this screening process.

Re:Wow.

[X43B]

The NYT is not alone. I was signing up for a UFB Direct online bank account and the application froze. I called the 800 number and they immediately said, "you used Firefox, didn't you?". Yes I did and they only support IE. For goodness sake they are a ONLINE BANK and they don't support a browser with 10%+ market share? Can you imagine if they had someone at a brick and mortar store and they threw out every 10th person who walked through?

I call shenanigans!

Re:Funny!

[Anonymous Coward]

A linux user should not have to change their UA string (illegal in some jurisdictions)

O really? Where?

I Kid You Not

[CheeseburgerBrown]

I had a similar experience with a bank some years ago. When I came in to explain to my personal banking unit that my browser kept crashing when I tried to access their online offerings, she immediately said, "You're using an Apple PC, right?"

"Yes," I admit quietly, just in case some hicks are listening and might want to drag me behind their pick-up truck or otherwise hassle me for my alternative lifestyle choice.

"The thing is," the personal banking unit explained, "the Apple computers have such a small share of the market that it costs too much for us to develop a secure website in parallel."

"That's too bad," I sigh.

"Yeah," she agrees, "it seems like every third person who wants to do online banking has an Apple."

I pause and scratch my head. "I thought you said there weren't enough of us to make it worth your while."

"Well yeah," she nods, "but I think it must be easier to get on the Internet with Apple or something, because it seems like almost everybody who's comfortable doing online banking wants to use an Apple for it."

"So doesn't that mean there's a demand for a Mac-compatible service?"

"Well no," she shakes her head, "you see Apple has less than a billionth of percent of marketshare. So...you know -- that's that. Sorry!"

So, to make a long story short, that's when I entered a special Scientology-run programme designed to cure me using non-psychiatric means of my penchant for using the wrong computer. And I feel much better now.

Why do they do this...

[linebackn]

The question in TFA is why do they do this?

The answer is: They are assholes, idiots, lazy, in bed with Microsoft, or some combination thereof.
Personally I get left out of video sites all the time because I choose to use an older version of Windows (because I can). These sites will kindly tell me that they only "support" running on a PC with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Yet sites like Google Video work perfectly for me.

What really blows my mind are old sites that check your UA to make sure you are running "Netscape", although spoofing the UA in Firefox usually lets it work fine.

I follow the Firefox bad site reporter data at http://reporter.mozilla.org/app/ [mozilla.org] and it boggles my mind how many sites are like this.

Re:Wow.

[Lumpy]

State farm used to have a completely borked payment website that blew up on Firefox. I simply tried it, failed and sent the webmaster a complaint every month. thne paid by check with a note that said "I would pay via the website but it is broken for firefox users" it took only 3 months for them to fix it... It also helped that I turned my local agent on to firefox and then demonstrated how their website was incompatable and he immediately got on the phone to complain.

Most service websites that are not firefox compatable are only because of the WEB/IT departments fault as they push it out as fast as possible. The upper managers do not make the decision to ignore a customer base and complaining to a sales upper manager will force IT/WEB to fix it. Get more than 3 people to complain regularly and even make calls and it certianly will get fixed as they assume it's many more people that are having the problem.

I even fixed my bank's website that way. They "upgraded" and lost a couple of features so I complained to upper managers in the bank and within 60 days the features were back.

call, email and write your complaints!