5 ms·

The latest craziness is "news" websites that have an autoplay video + an autoplay ad, and their actual content is just another video, because apparently reading

The latest craziness is "news" websites that have an autoplay video + an autoplay ad, and their actual content is just another video, because apparently reading 10 lines of text is harder than sitting through a two minute slideshow with the same ten lines of text and some pretty pictures. It's getting ridiculous.

ehsankia 9y ago
I don't think it's a simple problem though. I want my videos on Youtube, Twitch and other similar sites to auto play, without having to click it manually every single time. We get into a whitelist/blacklist situation. The best way is to stick to one way, and allow users to fully unblock a site. Right now, it auto plays but you can fully blacklist a whole domain. I could also see it as everything is blocked and you whitelist Youtube. Maybe even automatically does it if you click play on a few videos.
- jessriedel 9y ago
  It could be a permission (like sharing location) or maybe a permission that can only be requested after the user clicks play on a few videos. (That would prevent me having to select "no" to every trash website that requests permissions, like Chrome allowed with pushed content permissions in the past.
- Ajedi32 9y ago
  > everything is blocked and you whitelist Youtube. Maybe even automatically does it if you click play on a few videos That's basically what they're doing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_278v_plodvgtXSgnEJ0yjZJLg14Ogf-ekAFNymAJoU/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_278v_plodvgtXSgnEJ0yjZJ...
  - fish_fan 9y ago
    Is there anyway to wipe the whitelist?
- fish_fan 9y ago
  If only you could somehow enable users to make decisions for themselves we could solve this....
  - sirclueless 9y ago
    Not really a solution. It works for repeat visits to sites users visit often, it doesn't really work at scale. Users want sane defaults; most of them will never change them. A world where sites are by default as malicious as users allow them to be is not a world where the internet is a friendly and powerful resource for everyone.
    - fish_fan 9y ago
      Making this a setting doesn't preclude sane defaults, like disabling autoplay everywhere except youtube.
- daveFNbuck 9y ago
  It's even more complicated because I only want YouTube to autoplay when I open it in a foreground tab.
  - callumlocke 9y ago
    That is how YouTube behaves today. It doesn't play until you foreground the tab. I don't see why that would change.
    - daveFNbuck 9y ago
      It might if you implement a new system for how autoplay is decided. Not every browser avoids autoplaying YouTube in background tabs.
kevinstubbs 9y ago
They do it because video preroll CPM is waayyy higher than display advertising. Like up to $15/cpm.. Multiples of that if you can get the right deals in place (not remnant).
- dguaraglia 9y ago
  Ohhhh, I see. I always wondered what the point was. Thanks for the clarification!
bartread 9y ago
And this is why we can't have nice things. FWIW I agree with the decision to stop autoplaying, but it's worth pointing out that it does have negative consequences: - Stops YouTube (et al) videos autoplaying (whitelist to fix?) - Probably stops games playing music when first opened (e.g., https://arcade.ly/games/asteroids/ https://arcade.ly/games/asteroids/, although note I have settings to disable music and SFX) God forbid we get to a point where automatic execution of JavaScript is disabled by default but I can see it going that way. Like I say, I agree with the decision, but sadly all these fixes for reigning in the excesses of the worst scumbag websites make the web overall just a little bit worse for everybody. :/
- dguaraglia 9y ago
  We've had plugins to stop automatic execution of JS for a while. I used one for about 6 months, then one day I got a new computer and didn't bother to install it... it's only when I find pages like the one I described above that I think (for like two seconds) "oh, NoScript would've stopped that." So it's only a few bad players ruining it for most of us, as you say.

ehsankia 9y ago

I don't think it's a simple problem though. I want my videos on Youtube, Twitch and other similar sites to auto play, without having to click it manually every single time. We get into a whitelist/blacklist situation. The best way is to stick to one way, and allow users to fully unblock a site. Right now, it auto plays but you can fully blacklist a whole domain. I could also see it as everything is blocked and you whitelist Youtube. Maybe even automatically does it if you click play on a few videos.

jessriedel 9y ago
It could be a permission (like sharing location) or maybe a permission that can only be requested after the user clicks play on a few videos. (That would prevent me having to select "no" to every trash website that requests permissions, like Chrome allowed with pushed content permissions in the past.
Ajedi32 9y ago
> everything is blocked and you whitelist Youtube. Maybe even automatically does it if you click play on a few videos That's basically what they're doing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_278v_plodvgtXSgnEJ0yjZJLg14Ogf-ekAFNymAJoU/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_278v_plodvgtXSgnEJ0yjZJ...
- fish_fan 9y ago
  Is there anyway to wipe the whitelist?
fish_fan 9y ago
If only you could somehow enable users to make decisions for themselves we could solve this....
- sirclueless 9y ago
  Not really a solution. It works for repeat visits to sites users visit often, it doesn't really work at scale. Users want sane defaults; most of them will never change them. A world where sites are by default as malicious as users allow them to be is not a world where the internet is a friendly and powerful resource for everyone.
  - fish_fan 9y ago
    Making this a setting doesn't preclude sane defaults, like disabling autoplay everywhere except youtube.
daveFNbuck 9y ago
It's even more complicated because I only want YouTube to autoplay when I open it in a foreground tab.
- callumlocke 9y ago
  That is how YouTube behaves today. It doesn't play until you foreground the tab. I don't see why that would change.
  - daveFNbuck 9y ago
    It might if you implement a new system for how autoplay is decided. Not every browser avoids autoplaying YouTube in background tabs.

kevinstubbs 9y ago

They do it because video preroll CPM is waayyy higher than display advertising. Like up to $15/cpm.. Multiples of that if you can get the right deals in place (not remnant).

dguaraglia 9y ago
Ohhhh, I see. I always wondered what the point was. Thanks for the clarification!

bartread 9y ago

And this is why we can't have nice things. FWIW I agree with the decision to stop autoplaying, but it's worth pointing out that it does have negative consequences: - Stops YouTube (et al) videos autoplaying (whitelist to fix?) - Probably stops games playing music when first opened (e.g., https://arcade.ly/games/asteroids/ https://arcade.ly/games/asteroids/, although note I have settings to disable music and SFX) God forbid we get to a point where automatic execution of JavaScript is disabled by default but I can see it going that way. Like I say, I agree with the decision, but sadly all these fixes for reigning in the excesses of the worst scumbag websites make the web overall just a little bit worse for everybody. :/

dguaraglia 9y ago
We've had plugins to stop automatic execution of JS for a while. I used one for about 6 months, then one day I got a new computer and didn't bother to install it... it's only when I find pages like the one I described above that I think (for like two seconds) "oh, NoScript would've stopped that." So it's only a few bad players ruining it for most of us, as you say.