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> 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 loo

> 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.
    - dragontamer 5y ago
      > When I’m browsing and reading my hand lives on the mouse. My hand lives either on the space bar, or the page-down button. Both of which are far more efficient at scrolling through pages of text.
      - ant6n 5y ago
        > My hand lives either on the space bar, or the page-down button. Both of which are far more efficient at scrolling through pages of text. Neither pgDown nor space bar scroll.
dragontamer 5y ago
If the video is short, such as anything 20-seconds or shorter (even 5-second videos), the click is too much in my experience. Perhaps its "meme culture" or Tik-Tock culture. But there's a style of super-short 5-second to 20-second video where looping makes far more sense than clicking. -------- In either case, I've solicited feedback of this style in a variety of gaming forums from different communities. They mostly have had positive-experiences with tutorials / short videos written in this manner. Awesomenauts, Factorio, and Puyo Puyo. Three very different communities, three times they seemed to like the content and video/writing style of merged text + video. Call it "Tumblr style", or "Tik-tok" style.
- chronogram 5y ago
  Did you solicit feedback on auto playing or videos in general? Your comment seems to say 2 while advocating for 1. On your website your videos don't auto play for me on mobile, by the way, which I found convenient because it's tap on tap off. It's x-overflowing the videos though, which is inconvenient.
  - bitcharmer 5y ago
    >Did you solicit feedback on auto playing or videos in general? Of course they didn't. If they did, the site wouldn't work the way it works now. It's just another example of "I know better than my users" attitude.
    - dragontamer 5y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29348328 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29348328 Funny, everyone likes the autoplaying GIFs in this other context, but they hate it here.

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.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    > When I’m browsing and reading my hand lives on the mouse. My hand lives either on the space bar, or the page-down button. Both of which are far more efficient at scrolling through pages of text.
    - ant6n 5y ago
      > My hand lives either on the space bar, or the page-down button. Both of which are far more efficient at scrolling through pages of text. Neither pgDown nor space bar scroll.

dragontamer 5y ago

If the video is short, such as anything 20-seconds or shorter (even 5-second videos), the click is too much in my experience. Perhaps its "meme culture" or Tik-Tock culture. But there's a style of super-short 5-second to 20-second video where looping makes far more sense than clicking. -------- In either case, I've solicited feedback of this style in a variety of gaming forums from different communities. They mostly have had positive-experiences with tutorials / short videos written in this manner. Awesomenauts, Factorio, and Puyo Puyo. Three very different communities, three times they seemed to like the content and video/writing style of merged text + video. Call it "Tumblr style", or "Tik-tok" style.

chronogram 5y ago
Did you solicit feedback on auto playing or videos in general? Your comment seems to say 2 while advocating for 1. On your website your videos don't auto play for me on mobile, by the way, which I found convenient because it's tap on tap off. It's x-overflowing the videos though, which is inconvenient.
- bitcharmer 5y ago
  >Did you solicit feedback on auto playing or videos in general? Of course they didn't. If they did, the site wouldn't work the way it works now. It's just another example of "I know better than my users" attitude.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29348328 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29348328 Funny, everyone likes the autoplaying GIFs in this other context, but they hate it here.