State of Florida job portal shuts out alternative browsers
Update: I wrote a post about an email I sent to the State of Florida and the response I received. This was suggested by Sillywampa on Digg. Thanks Sillywampa for the email address.
The State of Florida’s People First job portal is still running an outdated script that locks out users of alternative browsers from applying to state jobs. The only supported browsers are Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
This is very disconcerting for the Mac user, as none of the popular Mac browsers can be used. When attempting to view the site from Firefox or Safari you are taken to this error page:
I first noticed this more than 6 months ago. Trying to be a good citizen, I called the number on the bottom of the page and reported the problem. It seems that the complaint was ignored or not forwarded to the right people. In this day and age it is unacceptable to block the second-most popular browser on the web.
If the site loads properly in Netscape Navigator 6.2, then it will almost certainly load perfectly in Firefox. These browsers both use the Gecko / NGLayout rendering engine.
Update: If you live in the State of Florida and are bothered by this issue, please call 866 ONE-HRFL (866-663-4735). Politely let them know that you cannot access their site, and that there may be an error in the programming. Maybe with enough complaints we can get this issue resolved.