Discourse says browser is unsupported and locks out almost all features

Bug reports Forum Bugs
1

the thing that isn't supported here (after a lot of annoying fiddling with devtools to find out where it even checks this stuff) is the "aspect-ratio" css property, which as far as i can tell is only used for a tiny tweak during page loading.

since my browser doesn't support this tiny page loading tweak, it doesn't allow signing in or viewing recent posts, so the forum is basically unusable unless i fiddle around with the devtools on every single page

considering what i've heard from jens about all the hacks that have been done to support more browsers, i find it odd that the forums would have artificially limited browser support. it probably also results in a lot less people using the forums.

could the forums be patched to remove or change this browser check? the file is in assets/scripts/browser-detect.js

no, i'm not going to "just update the browser". i'm not in the mood to explain why because it'll almost certainly go down some rabbit hole about the "best" browser.

2

I get that you're upset. But Jens was talking about Snap! itself, a program that's under our control. You are talking about Discourse, a third party program that we just use.

Although I personally use Firefox and Chrome, I do read my email in an obscure client (Thunderbird), so I sympathize about things not working, I really do. Still, we are unlikely to have the time to dig into this and also into what other thing might break if we fix it.

Could I suggest that you file this bug report at discourse.org?

3

You may try to override CSS.supports(), with user script, to report "aspect-ratio" compliance.

4

i can't figure out how to contact them. the only thing i can find is meta.discourse.org, but i don't see any way to post, i can only view threads.

5

You have to log in or create an account

6

still, i don't see a way to do that. i also don't like making accounts for random websites, and i'm not interested in doing it for one post.

7

there u go

8

Ah, I see what you mean now. I created a new account and I can understand why you can't post. Here's how to get to trust level 1

And then you can create a new topic.

Also, https://meta.discourse.org isn't just a random website, it's the official forum for discourse. It's nice to just have an account there, just in case you encounter another bug in the forum software.

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10

i never said it was a random website?
anyways, now that the log in button actually appears (there was absolutely no error message when it didn't), i can see the privacy policy and terms of service, where in the privacy policy it mentions google analytics.
i don't want to make an account for this website and i get from the general attitude that they don't care about supporting "weird and old" browsers, and i don't want to make an account to likely find out later about issues with deleting it (which i find very common in throwaway places like this)
the really big thing that annoys me here is that the only way to report issues with the forum requires using the forum, something that can't be done when you're having issues with the forum.

i would much prefer an irc or old style web forum, something ancient enough to work everywhere and doesn't require an account.

11

which kind of implies that you're saying https://meta.discourse.org/ is a random website.

I was able to delete my test account extremely easy, like I had no problem whatsoever.

I thought that they were pretty clear when they said

Also, here's a post that you might want to read

12

i already read the whole thread on there, you don't need to copy it around. the browser is qutebrowser, which uses qtwebengine. it's basically an older version of chromium with newer bugfixes put in it, and probably a lot of google stuff and unneccecary internal features removed.

i call it a "random website" because it's a website i don't actually want to participate in often. i'm not going to have any actual presence there, and all i get from it is possible spam email and data collection (and the privacy policy mentions both happening to an extent i don't like for such a small use). it's not the kind of website where i get any benefit from having an account.

what i mean by the "general attitude" is that everything mentions supporting the "next 10 years" of browsers (we live in the present, and i get the feeling that as time passes, the "next 10 years" will keep shifting to the next 10 years THEN, not now)
they've already mentioned without anyone else that they're dropping support right now for operating systems, and therefore actual hardware (old iphones don't get infinite updates, and can't get custom browsers without a jailbreak)
they're doing browser sniffing for features to try and get other unrelated features (meaning that the tests won't work for any browser that supports what discourse needs, but not that, and vice versa)

overall it looks like they really don't care about anything except the latest and completely mainstream browsers. they say it outright and demonstrate it in many ways. why would they try to support qutebrowser or anything else?

normally i wouldn't be this dismissive, i like to ask people about things in all sorts of cases, and i feel that not doing that would be rude, but again, they're forcing an account and to use their service for the exact kinds of people that might not be able to use it or dislike it. i'd rather make the assumption than deal with suspicious accounts when i've had so many bad experiences and hassle dealing with accounts in all sorts of places.

13

I have a question, why do you stay on a browser tat isn't very well known (or at least, I've never heard of), and that is very outdated? The web will use modern features whether you like it or not, so sometimes staying on an old version isn't the best idea.

Now, I do have a few tips for some of the struggles you mentioned, keep in mind, I'm assuming you don't know about any of these.

About account management, you can use a password manager. I prefer to use KeePassXC, all becase it's open source and is not cloud based (like 1pass). All you need is a master password, and then you can store thousands of randomly generated passwords. As for using it on multiple devices, you can keep your passwords database on a usb drive, or an sd card, that you can use on multiple devices. For reading the database, there are multiple apps. KeePassXC is for windows, mac and linux, StrongBox and KeePassium is for ios, and Keepass2Android and KeePassDX is for android.

When it comes to browser security, there are also multiple options. There's ublock origin as a browser extension. If you want a better way, you can try firefox, with all the privacy stuff that you can set up (don't ask me what, I don't use firefox). Probably the best option, which is the one I use, is Brave. It's a chrome based browser that is very secure. It has nogoogle stuff in it, and the best part is, it has a built in ad an tracker blocker. It does indeed block google analytics, so you should be good for that. Brave even has mobile apps, so you can still use it everywhere. Of course if you're really techsavy, you can use tor.

Now, if I knew the reason you're even using qutebrowser, then I might not be suggesting these.

14

it isn't outdated. it certainly isn't very outdated. it isn't insecure. and it has PLENTY of advantages over every other available browser, especially on a laptop where i was using it. many of the reasons i use the browser should be very obvious if you read the website. if you read the original post this kind of questioning is exactly why i didn't bother to mention the browser, i was expecting a lot worse questioning from a lot worse people, and i'm already annoyed about this.

i already use keepassxc. it's for remembering passwords, not preventing the vast majority of issues with having accounts on various websites (possibly not being able to delete, email on their servers, possible spam, them pairing up a username, email, and ip). i use it for accounts that i actually want to keep.

firefox is filled with ads (librewolf is better), both brave and firefox are filled with telemetry (librewolf has very little, qutebrowser has absolutely none), tor is ridiculous to use on a regular basis or on any website with accounts, and doesn't require being techsavvy. all you do is download it.

not every computer can run these massive piles of junk either. qutebrowser is the fastest usable browser i know. i prefer to not drain my battery.

absolutely no browser is a solution to data collection on bad websites (i'm not calling discourse bad, i'm calling this particular part of it bad)
browsers can't do anything when javascript is forced, they can't do anything about user input, and they can't take back data already put onto the server. i much prefer to just avoid websites i don't trust or don't care about.

15

its not?
I use chrome.it is reliable

16

firefox has that news reader thing put in it by default, and defaults to google because mozilla needs the money from them. chrome is so well known to be spyware and all sorts of other issues that i can't be bothered to explain why, you can look anywhere, and again, i was very clear that i did not want some stupid browser debate. i do not want to constantly explain issues with every single browser and copy around very easily available information

17

Sorry, I just assumed it was when you said

18

Then why am I not receiving ads about lambda calculus?

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google is blocked for me i guess