Rakuten shows message: "Your browser is so archaic it needs to evolve."

[Sebatrox]

I don't know what to think about this
https://rakuten.tv

(rakuten currently operates in 11 countries around Europe):

[LonM]

Hi,

Some websites arbitrarily block vivaldi for no good reason.

You can get around this by installing a user agent extension such as https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/user-agent-switcher-for-c/djflhoibgkdhkhhcedjiklpkjnoahfmg and pretending to be one of the browsers they suggest.

You could also contact the rakuten support team to educate them about vivaldi and why it is an up to date valid browser - it is based on the latest version of chrome.

[Sebatrox]

@LonM Thanks for the help. I'll try the extension.

[Pesala]

I contacted the site's owner using Firefox. Let us see what excuse they come up with.

A lot of websites block browsers without good reason. However, I have never come across such an insulting message when visiting a web site. You may want to consider changing your message if your site's code is so archaic that it fails to detect a modern Chrome-based browser like Vivaldi 2.4.1488.26 (64-bit) Release Candidate, published 22/3/2019.

[greybeard]

I can't get there from here...
but browser seems to work OK. No "Archaic" message.

[lamarca]

@greybeard Hello, did you notice Vivaldi is redirected?
The user's screenshot displays "Beta", and I tried get some info, and no luck.

[Catweazle]

What is archaic is this Rakuten TV with this insulting message. Use a UA switcher and they may find another webmaster.
Not enough that they use a discriminating outdated browser sniffing, they insult the user, it is reportable
Apart nano Adblocker blocked me access to the page 'about Rakuten TV' for not reliable, so perhaps it is even better to forget this page.

[Pesala]

Wonder Woman replied:

Thank you for your interest and for sending us your comments.
From Rakuten TV we work every day to improve our service, we will take in consideration your request.
We group suggestions like yours in lists that we share with the corresponding department to take them into account for future updates of the service.

[Sebatrox]

@greybeard If you go to Wikipedia, it says:
"The company is headquartered in Barcelona and currently operates in eleven countries around Europe; Spain, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland."
Maybe that's the reason.

Are you able to check Rakuten TV with this proxy (with EU server)?
hidester.com/proxy/

[greybeard]

@Sebatrox Will try that. We have Rakuten here but it does other things... promotions, rebate plans, etc. Mostly retail stuff.
[EDIT] Tried your suggestion and got the "Archaic" message in French from an EU server.

[zendar]

• go to Vivaldi -> Help -> About
• Copy the user-agent: In my case Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/73.0.3683.88 Safari/537.36 Vivaldi/2.4.1488.35
• Remove Vivaldi/2.4.1488.35
• Find vivaldi shortcut
• Change it to C:\Users****\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\Application\vivaldi.exe --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/73.0.3683.88 Safari/537.36"
• Profit
• Btw you are extremly easy to spy on because only few users use vivaldi

You will appear as a regular chrome user on the Internet

[Catweazle]

@zendar said in Rakuten shows message: "Your browser is so archaic it needs to evolve.":

• go to Vivaldi -> Help -> About
• Copy the user-agent: In my case Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/73.0.3683.88 Safari/537.36 Vivaldi/2.4.1488.35
• Remove Vivaldi/2.4.1488.35
• Find vivaldi shortcut
• Change it to C:\Users****\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\Application\vivaldi.exe --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/73.0.3683.88 Safari/537.36"
• Profit
• Btw you are extremly easy to spy on because only few users use vivaldi

You will appear as a regular chrome user on the Internet

No problem doing so, but it is preferable to use a UA switcher as an extension, which allows me to use it only if necessary with a click.
It is not desirable that Vivaldi does not appear as UA, since this does not help in spreading its use, making it known. Almost all pages use browser sniffing correctly for statistical purposes, which is desirable. With this there will be fewer and fewer pages that discriminate against it. If this is hidden permanently, it will not disappear.

[Pathduck]

@Pesala said in Rakuten shows message: "Your browser is so archaic it needs to evolve.":

Wonder Woman replied:

Thank you for your interest and for sending us your comments.
From Rakuten TV we work every day to improve our service, we will take in consideration your request.
We group suggestions like yours in lists that we share with the corresponding department to take them into account for future updates of the service.

Typical corporate mumbo-jumbo boilerplate response. No surprises there... Well at least I have no need to use this site for watching shit Hollywood movies. I have 1337x for that

[lamarca]

LonM found the fix and posted it here, I can confirm it's one more case of browser sniff.
Plus, @Pesala sent a note to the website.
We did our job.

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@Sebatrox said in Rakuten shows message: "Your browser is so archaic it needs to evolve.":

Are you able to check Rakuten TV with this proxy (with EU server)?

No need to proxy, just changing Vivaldi UA works. Have a look:

Edited: the thumbnail will always open in a new tab.

[Pesala]

Their support is a joke.

They asked if I was satisfied with the support received, so I replied that I was not satisfied because the issue was not fixed. I still see the "Your browser is archaic" message.

This is their reply to my submission

Hi Pesala,
We'd love to get your thoughts on the help you received from the Rakuten.TV customer support team.
If you have a minute, would you be kind enough to share your opinion with us?
If you are happy with the help you received from our customer service agent, click here: ...
If you aren't happy with the help you received from our customer service agent, click here: ...
Remember that if you are still experiencing problems with Rakuten TV, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us and we will do our best to help you!
Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
The Rakuten TV team

[Pesala]

I replied to their message. I wonder if they will ever listen.

The issue has not be solved. Your site still blocks Vivaldi with an offensive message: "Your browser is so archaic it needs to evolve."
Vivaldi is evolving weekly, but your website is still blocking it with stupid user-agent sniffing.
Vivaldi uses the latest Chrome 73 engine, so what is your problem?

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Specs: Vivaldi Snapshot 2.5.1504.6 (64-bit)

[luetage]

@Pesala These are likely automated replies. Chances are high no human ever read your messages.

[Ayespy]

@luetage Chances are high there is no one who can read English at the receiving end of that email.

[luetage]

@Ayespy I don't think that's the problem and if it was they could just run google translate.

Anyway, other than most in this thread I don't feel offended by the message. I think it's rather funny. The situation is simple, they want their users to use the most popular browser(s), so they don't have to do as much testing. This is a calculated choice, supporting more browsers wouldn't increase their user base by much, but the workload and complaints would. There's nothing more to do than letting them know, it's for them to decide wether it's worth it. Given that Vivaldi is a Chromium browser you could say there shouldn't be a problem, but then again Vivaldi had countless video issues in the past, hopefully they don't know that ^^