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Circumvented browser features to force autoplay on videos with high volume on our websites. While not a morally bankrupt thing to do especially compared to some

Circumvented browser features to force autoplay on videos with high volume on our websites. While not a morally bankrupt thing to do especially compared to some of the other examples, we all felt dirty doing it.

j88439h84 8y ago
> While not a morally bankrupt thing to do Could you explain this position? (Honestly asking.)
- diminoten 8y ago
  From my perspective, at least you could stop going to the website if they did stuff like this, and TBH anyone's free to do whatever they want on their website. A lot of these other stories are doing things without informing customers, or using customer data illegally, and stuff like that. It's sure not great if you want people to come back to your site, but it's not morally bankrupt.
  - NullPrefix 8y ago
    >TBH anyone's free to do whatever they want on their website That's where you're wrong, kiddo. There's laws now.
    - diminoten 8y ago
      No there aren't, none relevant to this conversation at least.
      - hluska 8y ago
        Check out the Americans with Disabilities Act.
        pc86 8y ago
        ADA applies to companies with 15 or more employees. Nobody is under any obligation to make their blog ADA compliant.
        hluska 8y ago
        I think we're talking about different comments. I'm certainly not talking about a blog. Instead, I was referring to the parent's application. The parent wrote: Circumvented browser features to force autoplay on videos with high volume on our websites. While not a morally bankrupt thing to do especially compared to some of the other examples, we all felt dirty doing it. There's no information about the size of the company there. I replied to a comment that said there are no relevant laws and suggested that that person check out the ADA. The ADA might be relevant.
        pc86 8y ago
        The ADA isn't relevant with respect to auto-playing videos, but is it relevant with respect to forcing a volume increase? I think that's a hard sell.
    - pc86 8y ago
      Insultingly diminutive language aside, you're just wrong. Assuming you're referring to the ADA, "there's [been] laws now" since the 90s. The line you quoted is clearly referencing personal websites, which are not bound by ADA.
- iammiles 8y ago
  Aside from the accessibility issues pointed out by another comment, this was mostly an annoyance upon our users that the higher-ups decided converted well. FWIW we did try to argue against it but profits dictate behavior in a large corporation. :-/ Either way, it doesn't exist any more and if you were ever bothered by it (I apologize), there are no over-arching effects that you have to worry about.
  - Nasrudith 8y ago
    I doubt it leads to actual profits but the morons at the top think it will for some reason.
    - user5994461 8y ago
      Most of the dark patterns lead to more profits, or sign ups, or something measurable. That's why they are everywhere, they really have a purpose.
      - Nasrudith 8y ago
        I believe the key word is 'something measurable'. People remember their obtrusive ads more so they think mission accomplished even though they now try to avoid them as 'the guys with the obnoxious advertisements'. It might be ultimately detrimental to the company but their bosses think it is a good thing and they get rewarded for it. Metricitisis is a major management disease of our times and neither corporate, nor government nor nonprofits are safe from missing the point completely in the quest for meeting irrelevant metrics so they can say they are a good manager.
        TeMPOraL 8y ago
        Also, the question is, who did the measuring? I worked once for a small company that had a social media marketing side (separate from what I did for them, but we sat in the same open space). From what I've observed, the social media marketing business mostly boiled down to our people writing reports which shown nicely growing metrics to customers who then happily paid. The metrics might or might not have been correlated with any real-world increase in profits, and really neither side understood any of that. But it looked believable, so customers paid. I suspect a lot of that is happening in adtech these days - people with no understanding of statistics bullshitting each other with pretty charts.
jscholes 8y ago
From an accessibility point of view this can be more than an annoyance. If your video means I can't hear my screen reader, and I'm the sort of user not to plan for this inevitable sort of event, my computer is unusable until it finishes or until I recover sufficiently from being disoriented to remember the hotkeys to get out of there. So please never do this again. Thx.
- somedangedname 8y ago
  So what you're saying is that loud ads are grounds for an ADA suit? Color me interested.
linkmotif 8y ago
Your superiors thought this was a good thing? Funny how people do t realize that makes your product insta-toxic. Or am I naive?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
rezashirazian 8y ago
You monster!
tedeh 8y ago
Sites like that is why I have the Chrome plugin "Quick JavaScript Switcher" that instantly disables JavaScript and reloads the page. As soon as noise starts blasting when it's uncalled for, I just hit the panic button next to the address field!
GuB-42 8y ago
Did your company made any money off that? It sounds like a great way to make sure people don't stay there and to get downranked by Google.
scott-smith_us 8y ago
As a frequent victim of this, perhaps you can satisfy my curiosity: What is the logic behind auto-starting videos at MAX VOLUME? That just sends me stampeding for the [X] on the tab button all the faster.
paultopia 8y ago
What's it like to work for CNN? Did you ever get to meet Wolf Blitzer?
gworley3 8y ago
Let ye who hasn't exploited a web browser for commercial gain cast the first stone.

j88439h84 8y ago

> While not a morally bankrupt thing to do Could you explain this position? (Honestly asking.)

diminoten 8y ago
From my perspective, at least you could stop going to the website if they did stuff like this, and TBH anyone's free to do whatever they want on their website. A lot of these other stories are doing things without informing customers, or using customer data illegally, and stuff like that. It's sure not great if you want people to come back to your site, but it's not morally bankrupt.
- NullPrefix 8y ago
  >TBH anyone's free to do whatever they want on their website That's where you're wrong, kiddo. There's laws now.
  - diminoten 8y ago
    No there aren't, none relevant to this conversation at least.
    - hluska 8y ago
      Check out the Americans with Disabilities Act.
      - pc86 8y ago
        ADA applies to companies with 15 or more employees. Nobody is under any obligation to make their blog ADA compliant.
        hluska 8y ago
        I think we're talking about different comments. I'm certainly not talking about a blog. Instead, I was referring to the parent's application. The parent wrote: Circumvented browser features to force autoplay on videos with high volume on our websites. While not a morally bankrupt thing to do especially compared to some of the other examples, we all felt dirty doing it. There's no information about the size of the company there. I replied to a comment that said there are no relevant laws and suggested that that person check out the ADA. The ADA might be relevant.
        pc86 8y ago
        The ADA isn't relevant with respect to auto-playing videos, but is it relevant with respect to forcing a volume increase? I think that's a hard sell.
  - pc86 8y ago
    Insultingly diminutive language aside, you're just wrong. Assuming you're referring to the ADA, "there's [been] laws now" since the 90s. The line you quoted is clearly referencing personal websites, which are not bound by ADA.
iammiles 8y ago
Aside from the accessibility issues pointed out by another comment, this was mostly an annoyance upon our users that the higher-ups decided converted well. FWIW we did try to argue against it but profits dictate behavior in a large corporation. :-/ Either way, it doesn't exist any more and if you were ever bothered by it (I apologize), there are no over-arching effects that you have to worry about.
- Nasrudith 8y ago
  I doubt it leads to actual profits but the morons at the top think it will for some reason.
  - user5994461 8y ago
    Most of the dark patterns lead to more profits, or sign ups, or something measurable. That's why they are everywhere, they really have a purpose.
    - Nasrudith 8y ago
      I believe the key word is 'something measurable'. People remember their obtrusive ads more so they think mission accomplished even though they now try to avoid them as 'the guys with the obnoxious advertisements'. It might be ultimately detrimental to the company but their bosses think it is a good thing and they get rewarded for it. Metricitisis is a major management disease of our times and neither corporate, nor government nor nonprofits are safe from missing the point completely in the quest for meeting irrelevant metrics so they can say they are a good manager.
      - TeMPOraL 8y ago
        Also, the question is, who did the measuring? I worked once for a small company that had a social media marketing side (separate from what I did for them, but we sat in the same open space). From what I've observed, the social media marketing business mostly boiled down to our people writing reports which shown nicely growing metrics to customers who then happily paid. The metrics might or might not have been correlated with any real-world increase in profits, and really neither side understood any of that. But it looked believable, so customers paid. I suspect a lot of that is happening in adtech these days - people with no understanding of statistics bullshitting each other with pretty charts.

jscholes 8y ago

From an accessibility point of view this can be more than an annoyance. If your video means I can't hear my screen reader, and I'm the sort of user not to plan for this inevitable sort of event, my computer is unusable until it finishes or until I recover sufficiently from being disoriented to remember the hotkeys to get out of there. So please never do this again. Thx.

somedangedname 8y ago
So what you're saying is that loud ads are grounds for an ADA suit? Color me interested.

linkmotif 8y ago

Your superiors thought this was a good thing? Funny how people do t realize that makes your product insta-toxic. Or am I naive?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

rezashirazian 8y ago

You monster!

tedeh 8y ago

Sites like that is why I have the Chrome plugin "Quick JavaScript Switcher" that instantly disables JavaScript and reloads the page. As soon as noise starts blasting when it's uncalled for, I just hit the panic button next to the address field!

GuB-42 8y ago

Did your company made any money off that? It sounds like a great way to make sure people don't stay there and to get downranked by Google.

scott-smith_us 8y ago

As a frequent victim of this, perhaps you can satisfy my curiosity: What is the logic behind auto-starting videos at MAX VOLUME? That just sends me stampeding for the [X] on the tab button all the faster.

paultopia 8y ago

What's it like to work for CNN? Did you ever get to meet Wolf Blitzer?

gworley3 8y ago

Let ye who hasn't exploited a web browser for commercial gain cast the first stone.