419907 - www.glorecords.blm.gov - errors and dies immediately with non-Firefox Gecko UAs

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[Stuart Morgan]

The US Government's Bureau of Land Management records page completely chokes on non-Firefox UAs. Instead of content, it's nothing but the following error:

----------
Microsoft VBScript runtime  error '800a000d'

Type mismatch: 'CDbl'

/Frameworks\Classes\Browser.cls, line 134
----------

I've emailed them about it, and got a response from the webmasters that they are aware of the issue, but that the BLM itself is not interested in fixing any browser compatibility issues (unless they get "a lot of e-mail" about it) no matter how trivial the change, so their hands are tied.

Government bureaucracy for the win!

Comment 1

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Did they say how much "a lot" was? I'm all about a campaign to annoy bureaucrats.

Comment 2

[RNicoletto]

Cannot reproduce using Firefox 3.5.x.

FYI, the Browser Support page (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/BrowserSupport.asp) do mention Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Opera and Safari.

To me it looks like a FIXED problem.

Comment 3

[Stuart Morgan]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Cannot reproduce using Firefox 3.5.x.

Firefox doesn't use a non-Firefox UA, since it is in fact Firefox.

> FYI, the Browser Support page
> (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/BrowserSupport.asp) do mention Mozilla Firefox,
> Netscape, Opera and Safari.

But not Camino, SeaMonkey, Flock, or other non-Firefox Gecko-based browsers, which is what this bug is about.

Comment 4

[David E. Ross]

This remains a bug.  The cited page cannot be viewed by SeaMonkey 2.0 without spoofing Firefox.  

Today, I sent the following message to <[e-mail]>:  

>Your Web server for www.glorecords.blm.gov is obviously sniffing for
>"Firefox" and not "Gecko".  This is invalid.  There are a number of
>Mozilla-based browsers that use the Gecko core, which interfaces
>with the Internet, negotiates SSL security, and renders Web pages. 
>These browsers differ only in the menus, toolbars, and other user
>interfaces but not in how they display Web pages.  For details, see
><http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Sardisson/Gecko_is_Gecko>.  
>
>Your "Browser Support" page at
><http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/BrowserSupport.asp> indicates support
>for Netscape, which currently has less than 1% of the browser
>market.  It does not indicate support for Chrome, which has 3%-8% of
>the market.  Perhaps, you need to make your site viewable by any
>browser, conforming to the W3C standards.  
>
>All this raises the important question whether you site is in
>compliance with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1986
>(as amended in 1998), which mandates government Web sites to be
>accessible by the handicapped.  Can your site be appropriately
>handled by audio browsers used by the blind?

Comment 5

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

INCOMPLETE due to lack of activity since the end of 2009.

If someone is willing to investigate the issues raised in this bug to determine whether they still exist, *and* work with the site in question to fix any existing issues, please feel free to re-open and assign to yourself.

Sorry for the bugspam; filter on "NO MORE PRE-2010 TE BUGS" to remove.

Comment 6

[David E. Ross]

The cited Web site has been fixed.  I can view the site with SeaMonkey 2.0.11 without spoofing Firefox.