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Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

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271–280 of 330 posts

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#271
post #115

What you are really asking is for Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS to make a better web _for you_. Because you don't want media to autoplay does not mean it is a good solution to just block it outright for everyone. Some websites have legitimate use for autoplaying media. Some users (believe it or not) actually _like_ their videos autoplaying when they scroll through their Facebook feed or whatever media site they visi…

This seems like a good setting if the preference varies.

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#272
post #12

firefox -> about:config -> media.autoplay.enabled = false additionally the dom.audiochannel.mutedByDefault and media.default_volume settings may also be useful if you want slightly different behavior. If you want a more blunt tool you can also use content blockers to block media content until you opt into it for a particular site. > I know there are plugins than can somewhat do this, but no solutions are universal or…

> firefox -> about:config -> media.autoplay.enabled = false

Unfortunately, this isn't available for devices with a monopolized browser. (iOS)

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#273
Video: Arguable, since a lot of times is part of the basic design and very lightweight.

Audio: MUST be muted be default. There's nothing that I hate more than opening something in a new tab for later, and a few seconds later, having to track down there that damn noise is coming from.

Always, always, mute tabs be default!

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#275
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Formatting text this way makes it hard to read on mobile and in text browsers. I couldn't even reply just now, my text wouldn't show up as I typed it, I had to click "edit" so I could view and edit my post by itself. [edit] dang, can something be done about this? Flagging for format? Maybe a little drastic, but try reading HN in elinks, you'll see that a long line breaks the whole page. How about line wrap? Desktop u…

Wouldn't it be easier to just fix the CSS?

Or get a browser that works?

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#276
post #120
post #37

Things that make me just close tabs straight away: 1) Autoplaying videos, especially ads. 2) Pop-ups / overlays. 3) Loading lots of extra elements causing text to jump around. Especially true if I'm just browsing around and click on something that looks interesting, the above will take that thing from "this might be worth 30 seconds" to "not worth it". Why kill that little dopamine boost someone just got from clickin…

It actually triggers anger in me when I've started to read and something pops up over it. It's the least likely way to get me to click your thing.

Well, the most likely scenario is that you will click their thing. Why? Because you're thrashing around on your mobile screen trying to get rid of the pop-up or overlay.

Whether you succeed or not is immaterial: the ad got clicked on, and hey, even if 99.9% of those clicks are accidental ones that will never convert, they still look like "organic" clicks and the ad revenue still gets booked. Expensive consultants like this person ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12944902 ) will chalk it up in the "users engaged" column. Everybody gets what they came for... except you and me.

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#277
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > Some websites have legitimate use for autoplaying media. Some users (believe it or not) actually _like_ their videos autoplaying when they scroll through their Facebook feed or whatever media site they visit. > This was also true of popups. It still is. Is this analogy really correct, in the sense that there are legitimate , user-focussed cases for pop-ups? I know lots of web-sites want me to see pop-ups, and som…

Not only is the analogy correct, the problem has the same solution: require evidence of user intent. Pop ups work just fine when spawned as a result of a user clicking on a link. Videos can start playing when a user taps or clicks on them.

I like it when I open a youtube page and it automatically plays.

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it's ads served over an ad network, the site honestly doesn't have a lot of control over what content goes in the ad boxes. Advertisers don't really care, either - it's not their user experience they're garbaging up.

So use an adblocker to give them lesson.

Or direct action. The gray hats among us might rent or subvert a botnet and use it to click those ads like crazy. Click, click, click. Generate overtly fraudulent clicks by the billions, all day and all night.

That's the only way to shut them down for good -- make it hurt to abuse your visitors.

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#279
post #246

In the past, I was responsible for analytics around a decision to autoplay or not autoplay videos on a media site. The site did both mobile and desktop videos. * voluntary customer feedback was universally negative * bounce rate decreased substantially (around 40%) * total interactions with the page increased almost 3x (clicks on significant UX elements such as like/subscibe/additional video plays) * interactions for…

In summary, what users say they like and what they actually like are wildly different. The average user seemed to engage more when we removed the burden of first interaction.

They're clicking by mistake, trying to make the overlay go away!

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#280
post #272
post #12

firefox -> about:config -> media.autoplay.enabled = false additionally the dom.audiochannel.mutedByDefault and media.default_volume settings may also be useful if you want slightly different behavior. If you want a more blunt tool you can also use content blockers to block media content until you opt into it for a particular site. > I know there are plugins than can somewhat do this, but no solutions are universal or…

> firefox -> about:config -> media.autoplay.enabled = false Unfortunately, this isn't available for devices with a monopolized browser. (iOS)

So make another Ask HN post: "Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Monopolized Browsers for our devices"
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