440269 - KB article: Web sites or add-ons incorrectly report incompatible browser

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Articles, task)

Description

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=72638#threadId72730
http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=67062#threadId67071
http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=67725#threadId67759
http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=72132#threadId72200

Comment 1

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

It's gonna be tough finding a good name for this one.

Comment 2

[Bo]

Article is up. Title is debatable, but I think that's the gist of what we want.

Marking fixed... review?

Comment 3

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

I don't like the title. :-)
It could easily be interpreted as version of web site, or version of add-on.
Plus, what is the error Java gives, when the UA is spoofed as IE?
How about: Web sites or add-ons think you are using a different browser or Firefox version than hat you have.

Little long though. :-(

Comment 4

[Bo]

How about: "Web sites or add-ons say you have a different version of Firefox" ?

Kind of like our ((Web sites say cookies are blocked)), and the "than what you have" is implied.

Comment 5

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Don't we have cases of this happening when the browser is spoofed, not the version? In other words, if the UA indicates IE.

Comment 6

[Bo]

I don't think I've seen that on the forum, but it's certainly possible, and probably should incorporate it into the title...

If I recall correctly, the most common cause is the MegaUpload Toolbar extension, which changes the UA to MEGAUPLOADsomething with the version you had when you installed it. The next most common is a Creative Zen thing, which changes the UA to a CreativeSomethingAndADate.

The User Agent Switcher extension resets the UA on restart, so if you're intentionally faking your UA with that, you won't be hit by this. There are other extenions that might not do that, though.

So... "Web sites say you are using a different browser or version of Firefox" ?

Could another option be to set up redirects with different titles?

Comment 7

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

Can you include these common causes for good searchiness?

Comment 8

[Bo]

OK.

Also renamed; feel free to change to something less cumbersome.

Comment 9

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

How about original title but s/version/browser ?

Comment 10

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

(In reply to comment #9)
> How about original title but s/version/browser ?

I like that title: "Web sites or add-ons report incompatible browser"

Comment 11

[Bo]

Sounds good to me!

Comment 12

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

This may need an adjustment. "Web sites or add-ons report incompatible browser" is overlapping with <http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Add-ons+are+incompatible+with+Firefox+3>. How about we add "incorrectly: in the title:
"Web sites or add-ons incorrectly report incompatible browser"

Comment 13

[Bo]

The name definitely is the hard part of this. :)

Comment 14

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

I did some reworking of the intro, because it's not good to state the cause before the problem, and I want to help users who don't know if incompatibility report is incorrect.
So rather than move it to the KB quite yet, I want someone to have a look at my changes.

Comment 15

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

I think the "If you have not verified that the web site or add-on is compatible with your version of Firefox, see: " part needs work. There's nothing that would give instructions on how to verify in those articles. What if you removed that part and specified in the first bullet point of the article "even though you are using a version of Firefox the site claims to support". Then include links to the articles that describe legitimate incompatible situations somewhere else.

Comment 16

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Moved to KB at:
Wed 02 of Jul, 2008 22:46 EST

Any further discussion should take place on the staging copy: <http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/*Web+sites+or+add-ons+incorrectly+report+incompatible+browser>.