Seriously doubt this is an API issue. The error itself would make it seem like it’s a problem with your browser, but unless you have some overzealous privacy extensions installed that are hiding your user agent, it’s more likely to be a temporary problem on their side.
If you encountered it without a VPN, it would appear to not be based purely on VPN usage - which at the very least is good news for the privacy oriented.
If they want to block any mildly odd user agents, it’s probably to prevent webscrapers so they can force AI companies to pay for their ridiculous API prices
It looks like most of you had difficulty reaching the site for about 5 minutes, but those issues should have subsided.
During that time, you may have been shown an incorrect error message that read:
Whoa there, pardner! reddit's awesome and all, but you may have a bit of a problem.
Make sure your User-Agent is not empty, is something unique and descriptive and try again. if you're supplying an alternate User-Agent string, try changing back to default as that can sometimes result in a block.
To share some additional context on what happened - we pushed a bad code change in our tooling that resulted in a significant amount of users getting blocked without doing anything wrong. So if you happened to see that error message within the last hour, don’t fret! We’ve reverted the code change that caused this error and things should be back to normal very soon if they aren’t already.
It’s not a bug. It’s them running A/B tests to completely block mobile users that aren’t on the app. They’ve been implementing different versions of this for over a year now. They always lie about what it was. Actually they pretty much habitually lie about all of their tests and changes.
I got this bug on desktop, running chrome, with no VPN.
This was, as most things like this are, just a pure dumb fuck-up by some guy putting things on prod without properly testing and staging. No need to put on any more tin foil hats than we already have, the incompetence is plenty reason enough to point and laugh.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@beehaw.org
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
I had it earlier as well, no VPN at the time, went away after VPN was connected
“whoa there, pardner! reddit’s awesome and all, but you may have a bit of a problem.”
----------------V---------------
Not sure if I should upvote for accuracy or downvote out of disgust.
Just another reason to not be on reddit
fuck reddit
deleted by creator
LMFAO!
Also started seeing this today while browsing on my work computer, which I believe utilizes a VPN.
Looks like I can get to reddit pages via Libreddit with Mullvad up and running, if that helps at all.
EDIT: And reddit via reddit too!
I had this when using my corporate VPN. Disconnected and still got it. I thought maybe it was a bug that had to do with Firefox.
A few minutes later I refreshed and it was all fine.
Seriously doubt this is an API issue. The error itself would make it seem like it’s a problem with your browser, but unless you have some overzealous privacy extensions installed that are hiding your user agent, it’s more likely to be a temporary problem on their side.
Nah, this is an anti scraper mechanism.
They’ve lost this fight before it’s even begun lol.
deleted by creator
If you encountered it without a VPN, it would appear to not be based purely on VPN usage - which at the very least is good news for the privacy oriented.
If they want to block any mildly odd user agents, it’s probably to prevent webscrapers so they can force AI companies to pay for their ridiculous API prices
Your VPN doesn’t have the ability to strip user agent strings on HTTPS requests, this doesn’t seem VPN related imo.
Assuming the error message is accurate.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/17vbyr8/whoa_there_pardner_error_message/
Text:
Apparently it was a bug:
https://reddit.com/r/help/comments/17vbxz8/whoa_there_pardner_error_message/
Thank you for sharing some clarification.
It’s not a bug. It’s them running A/B tests to completely block mobile users that aren’t on the app. They’ve been implementing different versions of this for over a year now. They always lie about what it was. Actually they pretty much habitually lie about all of their tests and changes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
I got this bug on desktop, running chrome, with no VPN.
This was, as most things like this are, just a pure dumb fuck-up by some guy putting things on prod without properly testing and staging. No need to put on any more tin foil hats than we already have, the incompetence is plenty reason enough to point and laugh.
Both can be true. The incompetence could have happened while trying to block mobile use.
The amount of dark patterns pushing users onto the app has already established the malice.
Oh no! Anyway…. -Lemmy User
https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/watch?v=6pc0u-iqIDw
thanks!
it’s a bug, i got the same ban screen without a vpn
I don’t have a VPN and I got this error too. It resolved itself after about an hour
Which site again?