Digital Home Thoughts: Windows Live Spaces - Does Not Play Nice with Others

Normally I use Firefox, except for the few sites that require it, like Netflix for "Watch It Now". Although I'm always a little irked to be forced to use IE, usually the sites are pretty straightforward about the requirement. However, recently, I've come across what appears to be a little more subversive behavior on the part of Microsoft. The Women's group that is part of my neighborhood association set up a website a few months back on Windows Live Spaces. I've been regularly checking it for news about the neighborhood. A few weeks ago, instead of the normal page, I started getting a log in screen. At first I thought they had messed something up when doing an update to the site, but after asking them about it, we figured out that the log in screen only appeared in Firefox and that the site worked just fine in IE.

Screen captures after the break.

Figure 1: Site in IE

Figure 2: Site in Firefox

If Windows Live Spaces only supports IE, that is their decision, and I would expect to get a page just telling me to use IE to access the content. However, in this case, if you use IE they are asking you to Sign In or Sign-up. Requiring registration to view content solely based on what browser you are using seems somehow wrong to me. This is of course all supposition on my part, anyone have an alternate explanation?