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How about an extension that disables video elements until you click on them ... Like how Internet Explorer treated Java applets towards the end on their days.

How about an extension that disables video elements until you click on them ... Like how Internet Explorer treated Java applets towards the end on their days. You could add a whitelist feature to the extension for YouTube et al. Sure, it would be nice if websites didn't do shitty UX, but as others have said, don't visit those sites. The other extension idea I had was one which would reference a database of sites known to use dark UX, and warn you not to click thru. I myself run a userscript on Google that removes results from websites that I'd prefer to avoid.

wyager 5y ago
I swear Safari used to block autoplay-with-audio, and it recently stopped blocking it. I remember this because I specifically needed to set audio to disabled to get a video clip to autoplay on my blog (basically just a more efficient GIF).
dragontamer 5y ago
> How about an extension that disables video elements until you click on them ... Like how Internet Explorer treated Java applets towards the end on their days. No. Short MP4 files should replace GIFs. MP4 files are more efficient than the terrible compression GIF files have. I've made a few video game pages where auto-playing MP4s were essential at giving the right message... discussion of tactics and "movement" of dynamic video game stuff is pretty common. (Any game requires the player to gain instincts that "predict the future", and short GIFs and/or MP4 files really help show off key moments). Factorio thing I wrote a while back: https://factorioguide.nfshost.com/backpressure.html https://factorioguide.nfshost.com/backpressure.html
- sroussey 5y ago
  Not sure why you are downvoted. Animated gifs are huge in comparison. One thing to note, however, is that it must be without sound. Auto playing sound of any sort is complete garbage.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    > One thing to note, however, is that it must be without sound. Auto playing sound of any sort is complete garbage. Agreed. I don't think I've ever felt the need to have autoplaying sound, and I struggle to think of any benefit from it. I'm willing to keep my mind open, if anyone knows of a good website that effectively creates an experience using autoplay sound, please give me it.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - sli 5y ago
    All but demanding that the internet's users bend to the will of a single person's pet project is not likely to garner a positive response, if you must know.
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    > Not sure why you are downvoted. Because auto-playing motion is something I should be able to disable. It distracts me and I don’t want it. Ever.
    - dragontamer 5y ago
      There's the option of simply not visiting the webpages that offend you. I'm not going to change my writing / guide style just because some people outside of those gaming communities don't like the way they work. Its one thing if you were the target audience, its a totally different thing if you're just a meta-commentator talking about the internet in general.
      - midasuni 5y ago
        Maybe that explains your results. Have a behaviour someone dislikes, they don't revisit, and thus don’t answer your survey question
        dragontamer 5y ago
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  > auto-playing MP4s were essential I never want auto playing videos. Ever. It is my personal preference and i should be able to express that in my browser, overriding your preference, as the author of the web page.
  - nightpool 5y ago
    Do you have the same preference for auto-playing GIFs? If so then yes, we agree—users should be able to customize their user agent to serve their needs. If you don't, then I'd be interested to hear why. I don't believe any browser should treat GIFs and muted videos differently, and that was the crux of the GP's claim.
    - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
      Animated GIFs are videos. They may not require a video tag, but they are videos by definition of using multi-frame images that change to simulate motion.
- notfed 5y ago
  Great so the extension should disable gif animations as well, good point.
- Fnoord 5y ago
  Its too much abused. Just like gif was in 90s. The client has two important values: attention/time and battery. Your preference screws both. There's a couple of solutions to that (such as only looping once or for X seconds or not showing it). Either way, you think too much from content creator PoV, IMO. The web was made in such a way that clients are able to (massively) modify the content or the way it is shown. If you don't fancy that then you don't fancy one of the core foundations of the web. I use all kind of extensions to modify my web experience. If your PoV would become dominant, I simply would not use WWW anymore. Default experience matters because most people don't use extensions, or not the same ones (power users do) so you get your way anyway. And I don't get my way on Firefox Mobile because they decided to axe a lot of extensions, and I don't get my way on work Citrix because admins decided which extensions are worthwhile (they block all video stuff, btw).
- Supermancho 5y ago
  You mean "yes and..." not no. Your post has no content explaining why you wrote "No." This is a bad habit that makes your sentiment confusing.
- cabalamat 5y ago
  > I've made a few video game pages where auto-playing MP4s were essential at giving the right message No. What you say is simply factually inaccurate. I've looked at the web page in your URL and it would be much better without distracting auto-playing video. The video should play then the user wants it to play. Is that really so hard to understand?
  - pushrax 5y ago
    I agree completely. When there's a looping video below the fold, I'd rather start it with a click, instead of having to watch it up to twice just to see the clip from beginning to end.
    - dragontamer 5y ago
      Then click the button to replay the clip from the beginning if that really is your problem. But you won't. Because the clips are 5 to 20 seconds long. So its faster to just wait for the loop than even to move your hand to the mouse.
      - danachow 5y ago
        Seriously? It takes you 5 to 20 seconds to move your hand to the mouse?
      - pushrax 5y ago
        I will seek when the option is presented. It’s either tiny or nonexistent though (e.g. for gifs, or if the author didn’t enable the video controls, which default to disabled in many browsers). I’m happiest when a video loads paused, and has a giant play button on it. How are you scrolling? When I’m browsing and reading my hand lives on the mouse. On mobile it’s even easier to click to play. In either case, clicking on a video takes less than 1 second. I do agree that extremely short loops can be a different story, but 20 seconds is by far over that time for me. 5 seconds is around the threshold. I’m sure this preference varies by person.
        5y ago
- renewiltord 5y ago
  Everyone else here is wrong and you are right. The animated GIFs (as h.264 video or whatever) were the right play here. Safari didn't block no-sound-track video for this reason. It's a good reason.
marcosdumay 5y ago
You know, Firefox has that option right at the settings window. And if there's audio, it blocks by default.
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  Websites still find their way around this setting. I think they put an overlay on the page and intercept the first mouse event they can, and use that to start playing the video. I usually just blacklist these websites in my Pihole.
  - lewiscollard 5y ago
    > I think they put an overlay on the page and intercept the first mouse event they can, ...such as one of those "totally-GDPR-compliant" accept-cookies-please modals maybe? :) I am 100% certain this is how a large number of sites bypass autoplay restrictions.
- radley 5y ago
  There's an old add-on, Disable HTML5 Autoplay, that still works most of the time and can whitelist sites. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-autoplay/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-autop...
pjmlp 5y ago
In theory, in practice videos can be rendered on the fly into image or canvas elements, either via JavaScript or WebAssembly. :) Or even better, endless server stream for an animated gif.

wyager 5y ago

I swear Safari used to block autoplay-with-audio, and it recently stopped blocking it. I remember this because I specifically needed to set audio to disabled to get a video clip to autoplay on my blog (basically just a more efficient GIF).

dragontamer 5y ago

> How about an extension that disables video elements until you click on them ... Like how Internet Explorer treated Java applets towards the end on their days. No. Short MP4 files should replace GIFs. MP4 files are more efficient than the terrible compression GIF files have. I've made a few video game pages where auto-playing MP4s were essential at giving the right message... discussion of tactics and "movement" of dynamic video game stuff is pretty common. (Any game requires the player to gain instincts that "predict the future", and short GIFs and/or MP4 files really help show off key moments). Factorio thing I wrote a while back: https://factorioguide.nfshost.com/backpressure.html https://factorioguide.nfshost.com/backpressure.html

sroussey 5y ago
Not sure why you are downvoted. Animated gifs are huge in comparison. One thing to note, however, is that it must be without sound. Auto playing sound of any sort is complete garbage.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  > One thing to note, however, is that it must be without sound. Auto playing sound of any sort is complete garbage. Agreed. I don't think I've ever felt the need to have autoplaying sound, and I struggle to think of any benefit from it. I'm willing to keep my mind open, if anyone knows of a good website that effectively creates an experience using autoplay sound, please give me it.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- sli 5y ago
  All but demanding that the internet's users bend to the will of a single person's pet project is not likely to garner a positive response, if you must know.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  > Not sure why you are downvoted. Because auto-playing motion is something I should be able to disable. It distracts me and I don’t want it. Ever.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    There's the option of simply not visiting the webpages that offend you. I'm not going to change my writing / guide style just because some people outside of those gaming communities don't like the way they work. Its one thing if you were the target audience, its a totally different thing if you're just a meta-commentator talking about the internet in general.
    - midasuni 5y ago
      Maybe that explains your results. Have a behaviour someone dislikes, they don't revisit, and thus don’t answer your survey question
      - dragontamer 5y ago
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> auto-playing MP4s were essential I never want auto playing videos. Ever. It is my personal preference and i should be able to express that in my browser, overriding your preference, as the author of the web page.
- nightpool 5y ago
  Do you have the same preference for auto-playing GIFs? If so then yes, we agree—users should be able to customize their user agent to serve their needs. If you don't, then I'd be interested to hear why. I don't believe any browser should treat GIFs and muted videos differently, and that was the crux of the GP's claim.
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    Animated GIFs are videos. They may not require a video tag, but they are videos by definition of using multi-frame images that change to simulate motion.
notfed 5y ago
Great so the extension should disable gif animations as well, good point.
Fnoord 5y ago
Its too much abused. Just like gif was in 90s. The client has two important values: attention/time and battery. Your preference screws both. There's a couple of solutions to that (such as only looping once or for X seconds or not showing it). Either way, you think too much from content creator PoV, IMO. The web was made in such a way that clients are able to (massively) modify the content or the way it is shown. If you don't fancy that then you don't fancy one of the core foundations of the web. I use all kind of extensions to modify my web experience. If your PoV would become dominant, I simply would not use WWW anymore. Default experience matters because most people don't use extensions, or not the same ones (power users do) so you get your way anyway. And I don't get my way on Firefox Mobile because they decided to axe a lot of extensions, and I don't get my way on work Citrix because admins decided which extensions are worthwhile (they block all video stuff, btw).
Supermancho 5y ago
You mean "yes and..." not no. Your post has no content explaining why you wrote "No." This is a bad habit that makes your sentiment confusing.
cabalamat 5y ago
> I've made a few video game pages where auto-playing MP4s were essential at giving the right message No. What you say is simply factually inaccurate. I've looked at the web page in your URL and it would be much better without distracting auto-playing video. The video should play then the user wants it to play. Is that really so hard to understand?
- pushrax 5y ago
  I agree completely. When there's a looping video below the fold, I'd rather start it with a click, instead of having to watch it up to twice just to see the clip from beginning to end.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    Then click the button to replay the clip from the beginning if that really is your problem. But you won't. Because the clips are 5 to 20 seconds long. So its faster to just wait for the loop than even to move your hand to the mouse.
    - danachow 5y ago
      Seriously? It takes you 5 to 20 seconds to move your hand to the mouse?
    - pushrax 5y ago
      I will seek when the option is presented. It’s either tiny or nonexistent though (e.g. for gifs, or if the author didn’t enable the video controls, which default to disabled in many browsers). I’m happiest when a video loads paused, and has a giant play button on it. How are you scrolling? When I’m browsing and reading my hand lives on the mouse. On mobile it’s even easier to click to play. In either case, clicking on a video takes less than 1 second. I do agree that extremely short loops can be a different story, but 20 seconds is by far over that time for me. 5 seconds is around the threshold. I’m sure this preference varies by person.
      - 5y ago
renewiltord 5y ago
Everyone else here is wrong and you are right. The animated GIFs (as h.264 video or whatever) were the right play here. Safari didn't block no-sound-track video for this reason. It's a good reason.

marcosdumay 5y ago

You know, Firefox has that option right at the settings window. And if there's audio, it blocks by default.

jeroenhd 5y ago
Websites still find their way around this setting. I think they put an overlay on the page and intercept the first mouse event they can, and use that to start playing the video. I usually just blacklist these websites in my Pihole.
- lewiscollard 5y ago
  > I think they put an overlay on the page and intercept the first mouse event they can, ...such as one of those "totally-GDPR-compliant" accept-cookies-please modals maybe? :) I am 100% certain this is how a large number of sites bypass autoplay restrictions.
radley 5y ago
There's an old add-on, Disable HTML5 Autoplay, that still works most of the time and can whitelist sites. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-autoplay/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-autop...

pjmlp 5y ago

In theory, in practice videos can be rendered on the fly into image or canvas elements, either via JavaScript or WebAssembly. :) Or even better, endless server stream for an animated gif.