Text-mode MeFi?

August 7, 2008 4:25 PM

Reading works just fine already, either via RSS or just a text-mode browser. Posting is a little harder. Links, Elinks, and w3m all seem baffled by the login---Elinks, for example, reloads the login page, while w3m gets back to the question but then asks me to log in again. Does anyone know why this is so? Is there some common unsupported standard that prevents these browsers from logging in? (Note: It happens with a lot of sites that need login, not just MeFi.)
posted by d. z. wang to MetaFilter-Related at 4:25 PM (13 comments total)

I'm using Links (X just fucking keeled over and died on me, again ... damn it) to post this and it seems to be working. I had no problems logging in.
posted by enn at 4:48 PM on August 7, 2008

Probably has to do with cookies. I bet most text browsers don't support them.
posted by empath at 4:49 PM on August 7, 2008

I've had issues logging in with w3m and lynx in the past, but it was usually resolvable by explicitly heading to the home page after logging in and getting a weird hang or redirect. Have you tried that?
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:53 PM on August 7, 2008

I was going to say that I was having a similar problem with my blackberry browser, but then it let me log in just now. Hmmm.
posted by gingerbeer at 6:07 PM on August 7, 2008

Just tried links. I had to reload the main page after logging in to get the expected links to my profile, etc.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:36 PM on August 7, 2008

I think links & elinks cache relatively aggressively, so, er, what chrisamiller said: reload.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:30 AM on August 8, 2008

"...cookies. I bet most text browsers don't support them."

That's crazy talk. I can't think of a character cell browser that doesn't support cookies in a current version. I'm pretty sure even www has cookie support these days.

In any case, w3m works fine for me once you reload.
posted by majick at 12:19 PM on August 8, 2008

Is it using text-mode browsers that give ppl the confusion over where ye goddamn title shows up, then?
posted by bonaldi at 2:32 PM on August 8, 2008

Yeah, this website's level of support of Cyberdog is pretty deplorable too.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:05 PM on August 8, 2008

That's because the unencrypted login page doesn't exist any more and Cyberdog can't do anything beyond SSL 2 (if it can even muster itself to do that). Cyberdog works if you're just reading and not logged in (I'm looking at it in my Chubby Bunny window right now), although it's mighty ugly. See the awesome screenshot?
posted by majick at 9:13 AM on August 9, 2008

Oh, how silly of me not to think of caching. Thanks!

@bonaldi: No, in my experience it's posting for the first time that gives ppl that confusion. I'll know better next time.
posted by d. z. wang at 12:01 PM on August 12, 2008

Man, you cannot make a joke about obsolete software on MetaFilter without getting burned. Thanks majick. I guess now I have to resort to snide comments about how the page is too wide for my TI-82.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:41 PM on August 12, 2008

Lifehacker has a screen mod for that using parts from old gameboys, Deathalicious.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:36 AM on August 13, 2008