The web sites listed here are run by lusers so clueless that they have not worked out how to get their pages to work in most browsers, despite the world wide web being built on open standards. Examples of completely dumb ways to build a site include:
Below is the list of sites that would benefit from cluebat addition. If you find more, let me know by e-mailing graham.lee _AT_ wadh.ox.ac.uk and they will be put here. Conversely, if a site listed here has been improved then drop me a line and I'll update its status.
Each of these websites contravenes British law by being unaccessible to people who lack access to certain technologies. If you represent one of the companies listed here, and are unhappy at being listed, get your web site sorted out and tough luck until then. Note that URLs are not included, as I should imagine that most people probably can't access these sites anyway.
2003-11-24
Lloyds TSB Insurance - thanks to PeterD for noticing this. This website relies on a specific browser and Operating System combination, and will refuse to display any useful information if this combination is not found. Hmmm, an insurance company screwing people over; why does this not surprise me?
Nick Junior - PeterD noticed that the kids section on this site needs a specific Operating System to be able to enter. When I tried to verify this, the site caused my browser to die. It takes real skill to screw up a web site to that extent...
ODEON Cinemas - This site only works with one browser/Operating System combination. The completely losing thing about this site is that any other browser/OS combination will cause the site to send a different, non-working version of their JavaScript. Also, this script is so obfuscated it's impossible to tell why it should fail. HELLO? MR ODEON GUY??? Why the hell would anyone want to pinch JavaScript that doesn't work? Maybe the company should be renamed to "Oh Dear! Exiting On Netscape" or possibly just "Oswald Moseley Entertains Our Nazis", in honour of the OS fascists running their web site.
2003-11-25
Travel Supermarket - thanks to Alan Gentle for this one. This site will not let you in if it decides that you are not using a particular Operating System (can we all guess which one?). I would have sent them an e-mail asking what the reason was, to see if I could suggest a resolution involving a change of their technology deployment strategy. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to view their contact details; guess why? That's right, my Operating System is incompatible with their e-mail addresses.
Natwest Online Banking - thankyou to Dominic Morris for directing me to this one. This website requires not only specific browser software but specific versions of said software; in one case the latest of those versions only just managed to squeeze into being released this millennium. You know, There Is Another Way....you could use standard-conforming technologies just like the rest of us. Or we could come around and turn your website into a trendy wine bar; that would annoy slightly less people.
2004-03-05
Co-operative Bank - noticed by D. M. Procida. And noticed quite speedily too - anyone who isn't using that most fabled (and indeed unsupported) OS/browser combination still potentially has a few days of business banking left. After that, you'll be restricted to everyone's "favourite" browser on everyone's "favourite" OS. Think how many virus writers you'll be able to share your bank details with then; there's nothing quite as refreshing as unintentional communism. That's what being Co-operative is all about, isn't it?
2004-03-07
Job Center Plus - sent in by Lyn David Thomas. Searching for a job? Well you'll need to buy a proprietary operating system before you can - oh, that's right, you can't. You're unemployed. Well, you'll just have to remain unemployed while your faithful government piss in your face. The reason they don't do standards compliance? It would cost too much. I think they need to contact me so that I can negotiate a reasonable fee.
2005-02-28
Sorry for not updating in a while...
Hargreaves Lansdown - sent in by Laurence Jacobs. This has to be the funniest of the failures; reasoning that some web browsers produced by monopolistic entities have broken HTML rendering, they do what *ought* to be the correct thing. They check to see if you've got IE, and they send one chunk of HTML. They check to see if you've got NutScrape, and they send another chunk of HTML. What they forgot was that a large number of web users have neither...blind users running lynx connected to a braille viewer, the 9M+ khtml users....