[freenet-chat] (amended) HOWTO: firefox 'freenet:' protocol handling

[Ian Clarke]

On 7 May 2006, at 18:04, David McNab wrote:
> Ian Clarke wrote:
>> So websites that use this will only work with users that have Firefox
>> and have installed the plugin?
> ...
>>  Isn't it preferable to encourage people
>> to use the normal http://127.0.0.1:8888/ prefix?
>
> Seems we've got two imperfect options:
>
> 1) Dump user into a sea of broken links if they choose not to have  
> their
> fproxy at 127.0.0.1:8888

In which case the user will have some idea of why they are getting  
broken links, as they will have made a conscious decision to change  
their fproxy address.

> versus
>
> 2) Dump user into a sea of broken links if they choose not to use an
> extensible open-source browser

Its not our job to punish the 90% of web users that don't agree with  
your preferred choice of web browser.  Worse, we would also be  
punishing those people that do agree with your choice of web browser,  
but who don't have the appropriate plugin.

> Both scenarios suck, but IMHO the latter sucks a lot less.

Both scenarios are similar in terms of the poor user experience, the  
differentiator is which is more likely.  Going with freenet:-style  
urls is much more likely to lead to scenario 2 than sticking with our  
current approach is to lead to scenario 1.

Ian.