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  • prmph(4)

Tell HN: Lobste.rs blocking the Brave browser

15 points prmph | 16 comments | 14 Jul 25 08:36 UTC | HN request time: 1.986s | source | bottom

This is the message I got:

> Lobsters has blocked the Brave browser since a scam in 2019. We still block it because they lie about following standards to they scrape and sell copies of websites. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but they have previously targeted Lobsters by name and have a years-long pattern of bad behavior.

1. prmph ◴[14 Jul 25 08:56 UTC] No.44557809[source]▶
Apparently due to this:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999

replies(1): >>44560702 #
2. kesor ◴[14 Jul 25 09:00 UTC] No.44557832[source]▶
As the message says, this is not new.

When you want to open this website using Brave anyway, you have to change your User Agent. You can do that by opening "Network conditions" in the three-dotted menu in developer tools, and setting a different User Agent value.

replies(2): >>44558110 #>>44564194 #
3. prmph ◴[14 Jul 25 09:42 UTC] No.44558110[source]▶
I see. And I thought Brave was quite trustworthy, maybe not so much now. Firefox not working well for me: It is resource hog. Guess I'll need to keep looking.
replies(2): >>44560153 #>>44560583 #
4. al_borland ◴[14 Jul 25 13:24 UTC] No.44559927[source]▶
I never trusted Brave. This validates my skepticism.
5. kubanczyk ◴[14 Jul 25 13:42 UTC] No.44560153{3}[source]▶
> Firefox not working well for me: It is resource hog.

Anecdata to the contrary: on my Android devices I've switched from Brave to Firefox maybe a year ago (exactly because of the Lobste.rs story) and I found out performance to be completely acceptable for my needs.

And both solve youtube ads, which is how high I set the bar.

replies(1): >>44565096 #
6. massung ◴[14 Jul 25 14:16 UTC] No.44560583{3}[source]▶
I’m currently using Onion (https://onionbrowser.com/ - from the people who make Kagi search) and it’s been quite good. Not perfect, but it’s getting there. I recommend giving it a try.
replies(1): >>44561123 #
7. moralestapia ◴[14 Jul 25 14:29 UTC] No.44560702[source]▶
A tweet that was deleted? From someone with no connection to lobste.rs?
replies(1): >>44561683 #
8. cpach ◴[14 Jul 25 14:32 UTC] No.44560747[source]▶
Ok.
9. freediver ◴[14 Jul 25 15:09 UTC] No.44561123{4}[source]▶
Kagi’s browser is Orion https://kagi.com/orion not to be confused with Onion
10. KomoD ◴[14 Jul 25 15:57 UTC] No.44561683{3}[source]▶
https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters-ansible/issues/45#issue...
replies(1): >>44562844 #
11. moralestapia ◴[14 Jul 25 17:28 UTC] No.44562844{4}[source]▶
A GH comment that references the same tweet? The one that was deleted?
replies(1): >>44568749 #
12. runjake ◴[14 Jul 25 19:19 UTC] No.44564194[source]▶
Changing the user agent doesn't work for me. I remember pushcx saying (on one of his Twitch streams or something) that they do additional fingerprinting to block Brave.
13. prmph ◴[14 Jul 25 20:49 UTC] No.44565096{4}[source]▶
I see. Firefox is the only browser on my machine (Macbook Air M1) that regularly consumes massive amounts of RAM, typically like 4 GB or more.
14. KomoD ◴[15 Jul 25 07:16 UTC] No.44568749{5}[source]▶
A GH comment that explains why they blocked it, a deleted tweet does not matter.
15. curtisblaine ◴[15 Jul 25 12:32 UTC] No.44570475[source]▶
I have a proxy http script in val town that simply fetches lobsters with the right user agent and returns the response as is. I have a bookmark to scriptname-lobsters.web.val.run.

It works for now. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a cat-and-mouse game, but if it does I'm ready. I understand Lobsters' POV, but I also suspect they had an axe to grind with Brendan Eich back from the Proposition 8 donation.