HNTBAOTI Volume 1: Turning Off Autoplay on Flickr Video
Okay, here's the first installment of what I hope to make a regular occurrence here at Open the Dialogue, and I'm officially calling it "How Not To Be Annoying On The Internet." [Thanks, Chris!] Of course, HNTBAOTI as an acronym doesn't exactly roll off your tongue, but whatever. We'll be using Flickr Video to offer up sub-90 second videos / screencasts (and yes, that's a GOOD limit to have), and the first volume is one of my personal favorites, turning off the nifty autoplay feature. It's like turning off the keytones on your cellphone 30 seconds after purchasing a new phone, except...well, it's just not on a cellphone.
In any case, without further ado, here we go.
Hope you enjoyed this installment, and we'll hope to bring you more soon!
[ed: and before you ask, I did the screencast using SnapzProX on my iMac, and converted the file down to Web-ready using Apple's QuickTime Pro. The original file version wasn't working on upload but the converted, m4v file, did, so give that a whirl if you're unable to get .mov files working at first.]
Comments
Thanks, Tom, for your service to humanity. I wonder why they made the most annoying option the default?
Posted by: Rex Hammock | April 9, 2008 10:50 AM
Don't most video sites autoplay? YouTube, Google Video, Blip.tv, and Hulu all do... Vimeo is the exception to the rule.
Posted by: Andy Baio | April 9, 2008 12:00 PM
Andy - yep, most do as far as I know. On embed most videos don't, but on the sites I believe that they do - and yes, I think Vimeo is definitely the one that doesn't.
Even so, I still think a lot of users find it mega-annoying, especially those of us that use tabbed browsing and open up a link in another tab to view later.
That said, great point.
Posted by: Tom Biro | April 9, 2008 12:28 PM