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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

You *Will* Fill In The Form...

Now, I can't say I've ever seen this before, maybe my years with Mozilla/Firefox have protected me from this in the past. I followed a link in a promotional email to this place called Etribes. So far so good, it took me to a generic landing page that essentially was a 'sign-up' for an account page.

Intrigued, I decided I wanted to find out more. So, with out further a do I clicked the head image to visit the homepage. It took me back to where I was, so instead I went to edit the URL in the address bar (Firefox 2) and take a look what happens yourself.

If you have Java completely off, nothing. However, if you have it turned on, you are unable to select the URL in the address bar, edit it, or indeed, copy it. Instead, you get an angry little jump to the Username box. Username glows red and your expected to fill in the form before you get to see the rest of the site.

Eeek, crimes against user alert! I was outraged! I tend to have minimum java settings on as, well, I enjoy surfing the web. But that made me fell violated. You don't mess with my address bar goddamn it. That's not on. There's persuasive marketing, then there's this. Seriously etribes - you expect me to hand over all my personal details, without letting me see the site? Hmmm. No thanks.

UPDATE: Check the comments - this is a Firefox specific bug and they're working to fix it. Let's hope their promotion email didn't go out to too many Firefox users. ;)

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Posted by Dio Bach at 12:01 AM  

3 Comments:

Luke Brynley-Jones (etribes) said...

Thanks for highlighting this issue. I can assure you this is a bug, not some cynical marketing ploy :)

We recently added a javascript username check to the registration form. This is causing the problem you describe in Firefox (not other browsers) and we're working to fix it right now.

More feedback is most welcome!

12:29 PM  
Anonymous said...

Well, it must be hard to fix, because still there...
On another hand, on IE, looks like there is no script at all...

8:30 AM  
Anonymous said...

Really interesting bug - btw the problem is present in opera 9 also.

3:18 AM  

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