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Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

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Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#111

Post by gordaco »

l0b0 wrote: post #56
gumby wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this a good mechanism for determining which sites I don't care about.

Yep, browsing habits include: On medium.com or affiliated site: 40% chance of BS. Blank page with JS disabled: Built by people who would love 5 GB web pages; 80% chance of BS. "Please disable your ad blocker": Only people who love ads are real people; 90% chance of BS. "You seem to be offline." Built by idiots; 100% chance of BS.

Also, enabling Firefox's reader mode (accessed quickly by pressing F9, at least in Windows) gets rid of the "please disable your ad blocker" and similar nagware most of the time.

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#112

Post by msravi »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #109
msravi wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox tracking protection doesn't block all cookies - just third party trackers on the disconnect.me basic list [1]. While all scenarios you listed are theoretically possible, basic due diligence suggests that there are pretty significant differences in their likelihoods of occurence. It is disingenuous to treat these as equally likely just to appear fair. 1. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tracking-protection

> It is disingenuous to treat these as equally likely just to appear fair. Then it's a good thing that the comment explicitly wasn't doing that, openly unsure of the likelihoods.

Understanding how Firefox tracking protection works is one google button press away.

If you tell me that the OP had the time, patience, and technical skill to list all those possibilities but could not do a basic check on how Firefox tracking protection works, and instead talks about how with Firefox tracking protection "plenty of honest parts of the internet would break", and how blocked domains are used "sometimes for legitimate non-tracking purposes", forgive me for not buying the "openly unsure" claim.

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#113

Post by gaius »

zzzcpan wrote: post #62
tdb7893 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It harms all the industries where the content is ad supported, which is the majority of the Internet right now. For just what I use every day Facebook, Spotify, Google, almost all news, Youtube, Reddit, and xkcd are all add supported. I get why people don't like ads but it's clearly how an absolutely massive portion of the modern Internet is monetized right now

I don't think anyone has a problem with ads per se, as long as there aren't that many of them, they are contextual, non-intrusive, non-tracking, etc. So the problem is more about not ads, but who is controlling what ads are acceptable and how they are displayed. Imagine a web browser that doesn't let publishers decide how ads are displayed, where and how many of them. It can choose an acceptable ad format for the use…

anyone has a problem with ads per se, as long as there aren't that many of them, they are contextual

The ad industry 100 years ago solved this problem. Wanna sell widgets? Take out an ad in Widgets Weekly and you know you will perfectly target an audience of widget-fans. All this tracking stuff is totally unnecessary and everyone must know it.

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#114

Post by danShumway »

This is a losing gesture. It used to be that installing an ad blocker was the weird tech thing to do, and it was their fault that the site broke. Now tracking protection is the browser default, and it's the sites that are weird.

It's a small distinction, but an important one. When stuff doesn't work, the default reaction is to blame whatever the weird tech thing is. In this case, CBS is moving from a position of being able to say, "well, you messed with your browser, and you broke it" to, "we're doing something odd, and it requires an instruction manual to make it work."

It's the same reason, for better or worse, that people were worried about secure boot for systems like Linux. When you hand someone something, and it doesn't work, and your response is, "well, you just have to mess with some config settings"... well, sometimes that works. There will be some people who do it. But now you're in "Linux territory". It's doable, but you have a prerequisite now to slightly educate people on tech literacy before you can ask them to do the thing you want. And none of your other competitors have that prerequisite.

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#115

Post by lionradio »

alangpierce wrote: post #105

I could imagine a few reasons for this: • CBS is being malicious, and it's intentionally refusing to play the video if they detect tracking protection. (It sounds like a lot of people on the thread are assuming it's this one, and it very well may be.) • CBS is being lazy, and didn't bother to test with tracking protection and work through any technical issues (like implementing graceful fallbacks). • CBS is being cau…

From the perspective of the website ff tracking protection is the same as an adblock user. I think they are just distinguishing both cases because most ff users don't know that they are using an ad blocker.

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#116

Post by svrtknst »

msravi wrote: post #112
Dylan16807 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is disingenuous to treat these as equally likely just to appear fair. Then it's a good thing that the comment explicitly wasn't doing that, openly unsure of the likelihoods.

Understanding how Firefox tracking protection works is one google button press away. If you tell me that the OP had the time, patience, and technical skill to list all those possibilities but could not do a basic check on how Firefox tracking protection works, and instead talks about how with Firefox tracking protection "plenty of honest parts of the internet would break", and how blocked domains are used "sometimes…

I've used Firefox tracking protection since it was release, and I definitely have had occasional issues with "honest" sites not loading. Not super often, but it's happened.

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#117

Post by [deleted] »

dang wrote: post #59
mankash666 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's this bull-shittery supposed to evoke? Sympathy for your lack of understand of copyright law, or your bull-shit entitlement to CBS' content, or just how disconnected you are from content economics? Ever run a content business? I bet no. Ever run any business? I guess not - fundamental rules of economics relies on a quid-pro-quo transaction that you seem to not understand. Or, since geniuses like you have cracke…

Since you've persisted in posting flamewar-style comments after we asked you several times to stop, we've banned this account. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. That means posting civilly and substantively, or not at all.

[deleted]

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#118

Post by hnkf »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #79
anonymousab wrote: post #74

I've found it amusing that a few news sites disable their atrocious autoplaying videos (and often, the preview window that follows you when you scroll an article) when they detect ad blocking or tracking protection. They're purposely giving me a better experience for blocking, rather than an inferior one. But I guess the metrics must show or are being interpreted to show that most users prefer the obnoxiousness.

> most users prefer the obnoxiousness Most people aren’t looking to read the news- they’re bored and looking for entertainment. So they LOVE all this crap that autoplays, especially when it queues up more clickbaity crap that sounds more interesting than today’s headlines.

I’m not sure what your sources are, but “most users” sounds incorrect. All of this stems from personal experience and is anedoctal, so I’ll leave it at that.

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#119

Post by retSava »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #63
hfdgiutdryg wrote: post #5

Click the hamburger (3 vertical lines) in the top right corner of the screen I found it humorous that they simply call it 'the hamburger', and that they confused vertical with horizontal.

I always call it the hamburger menu, especially when doing tech support for everyone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

GP notes that they omit the ´menu´ part of it.

Re: Turn off tracking protection to resolve “video is currently unavailable” error

#120

Post by teddyh »

tokai wrote: post #89
infogulch wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people aren’t looking to X- they’re bored Wow the way you put this brings so much into focus. All of these apps and websites with awful ux where you can't find anything because you're drowning in a sea of content and shit is constantly flashing in your face... that is the point . People actually want that, for no other reason than its entertainment and it distracts them from their boredom. They're not actually look…

I think calling it entertainment is very flattering. I would call it distraction, or maybe even conditioned response.

I think the word you are looking for is “diversion”.
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