Get Rid of Autoplay video on homepage.
- Thread starter .lencon
- Start date
corona
Active member
13763252:Mousseau said:I'd assume the reason it's auto-play is so that every time someone loads the homepage, it counts as as video play... and staff videos will always have the auto-play spot on the homepage.
Do the math
It's pretty inconsiderate for people who don't have a ton of bandwidth to use. Or on my usual internet connection which is so slow that if a video starts autoplaying it bogs down the internet to the point of barely being useable.
There should at least be an option to turn it off in settings meaning 90% of people won't turn it off and anyone without an account can't turn it off so the impact on the $$ will be minimal but you won't incessantly annoy the few where it makes a difference.
13763252:Mousseau said:I'd assume the reason it's auto-play is so that every time someone loads the homepage, it counts as as video play... and staff videos will always have the auto-play spot on the homepage.
Do the math
That is not true at all, when we post a video sure it goes there, but member videos are featured in that spot more often than staff videos.
As for the idea that a staff video would be more valuable than a member video is also untrue, a video play is a video play for us, you know that jason.
13763355:eheath said:
Every single staff video posted will benefit from the auto-play on the homepage and you straight up told me that staff videos take that spot over member videos regardless of votes... Your last uploaded video was from the Dew Tour. I'd assume there is some benefit in having Newschoolers promote that, no?
Auto-play on the homepage is simply a way to pad views -- and by including it, you are doing everyone a disservice by creating false stats. It is also wack to have up to four moving images when you land on the homepage. (billboard ad, auto-play video, news article gif thumbnail, and right hand side ad)
The Newschoolers I loved was fueled by the community. The homepage was curated solely by the members, and we put together a magazine that included none of our staff's words other than Doug's intro.
This new homepage reminds me of an old version of Freeskier's website.
13764330:Mousseau said:
Its Beta.
The good news about launching something in Beta, is we want to get feedback. If you hate it massively, then the idea is that instead of making massive posts about how we're destroying the world - you disable beta and engage in a productive discussion about the changes you'd like to see. Sure, its enabled by default, because we didn't have many complaints at first. We wanted to push it out in order to get more feedback.
In Beta, we are 100% willing to change anything and everything. We invited tonnes of testers to start, and everyone liked it - so I'm really happy that we're now finally having a discussion about it sinking in.
That being said - sure autoplay pads numbers. Autoplay pads numbers on Instagram and Facebook too. It also gives a more living, breathing dynamic to a modern website and sucks people into videos which they otherwise from a shitty thumbnail they might have ignored. View counts don't have the power that they once had, so I have started to look at them as irrelevant due to the fact that all major networks are now autoplaying the shit out of everything on scroll. We looked at this as an opportunity to pull people into videos which they might have otherwise passed over, as that tactic seems to be effective on both Facebook and Instagram.
As well, remember - Beta. Perhaps what we need to add is the ability to turn it off or on depending on whether you're the type of person that likes to get pulled into a new video, or whether you're the type of person that wants it all static? If that's the case, then let us know that and we'll throw it in pivotal and it'll be a feature in a few days.
The editorial thing has come exclusively through member and industry feedback. Sure, I was all about it when we 100% featured community content, but literally almost everyone I have talked to has asked for us to produce more content and do a better job at curating. Sure the top spots get curated some of the time, but they are also about 70% of the time dedicated to hot member videos. Our curation also includes featuring content from members and athletes which the team of editors (who came from the ranking systems of the community) choose to be good.
I think this is a great direction for Newschoolers, especially when you look at it on mobile. 65% of the traffic is now viewing the page on mobile, and the new homepage was designed mobile first. The desktop version I could care less about TBH - because mobile is absolutely everything now. If we need to turn off autoplay as an option for desktop? No worries.
So lets shift this discussion - If you hate autoplay cool, please speak up. If you like it - do that too! Would an option solve that? How is the mobile interface? We're planning on NS being 80% mobile within the next 12 months, so lets really dig into the mobile interface and figure out what we can do there.
Appreciate the feedback guys, but please don't lose your minds over beta. its beta - its not even finished so let us know how you want it to be finished and we can change literally anything.
13764428:.lencon said:
I'm really not concerned about the numbers in any way. Auto playing videos in-line is a huge trend on the internet right now and we tried something we see as a popular trend.
Now, a member telling me they don't like it is another story. There's been a random few who have also said so but for the most part the feedback has been positive.
what do you dislike about it so much? Do others not like it as well?
13764746:.lencon said:
Has it ever drawn you into one video you we're surprised you liked?
which specific video made you rage hard enough to create this thread?
i really also need to hear from others on this issue - anyone else other that these guys posting here like or dislike?
13763304:VinnieF said:
Also just wanted to let you know I saw this.
I will add the toggle option to the site.
How much do you go on Facebook and instagram?
did the fact that they use extra bandwidth with their auto playing videos stop you from using the product? What is different if not?
.lencon
Active member
13764792:Mr.Bishop said:
No it has not, because I usually know what videos I want to watch. What athletes, locations, and types of skiing.
I cant remember what video made me rage. But I had already seen the Sammy C edit and when it kept playing every time I opened it up I was a little annoyed. Same with the Briggs and Harlaut.
I mean, I will agree with you that it makes the website looks fresh, I just find it annoying haha.
corona
Active member
13764794:Mr.Bishop said:
I've stopped going on Facebook completely because of all the autoplay. When I'm on fast internet I'll go on or when someone messages me (I get notified by email).
Otherwise it's just frustrating. you can see the top few things then you scroll down and a video staarts playing and then if you keep scrolling pictures won't load and new feed stuff won't appear and the internet bogs down.
It's not nearly that bad on the homepage here, but it's still an annoyance on slow internet.
cultrara
Active member
13764946:VinnieF said:
I think one of the issues is that NS is autoplaying a several minute vimeo vid versus instagram/fb which has much shorter vids that are more compressed and optomized for autoplay.
One issue that I have with the beta desktop homepage is that the visual hierarchy is shot to shit. Take a look at downdays, they do a good job with presenting a high volume of content without overwhelming the user.
Just my 2 cents. The mobile homepage is good and I know you're not too concerned about desktop Doug.
13763252:Mousseau said:I'd assume the reason it's auto-play is so that every time someone loads the homepage, it counts as as video play... and staff videos will always have the auto-play spot on the homepage.
Do the math
13763304:VinnieF said:
We're adding the autoplay toggle for people who don't like it. Should be out in a few days, if its infuriating you then please use the gigantic link at the top of every page load to disable.
13764934:.lencon said:
What kind of behavior leads you to the homepage so much? Do you refresh it a lot, or do you just come back there after the forums or something? My analytics say that a lot of people browse through the homepage once and then leave to other sections of the site. Is it that you're coming back multiple times per day and you see the same video up there?
Would you like it better if it was a fresh video every time you loaded it or something?
13764946:VinnieF said:
I mean the only trick here is that I understand you don't go on facebook that much... but literally like 1/7 of the population of the planet does and loves it. So you can understand that taking some inspiration of a site that is that popular is something which can't be dismissed as an implicitly bad idea.
So it stalls you when you load the page? Now that is no good. Could you PM / Email me a video of what you see? Every internet connection we've tested it works super smooth, but more information is better.
13764961:cultrara said:
I mean all the platforms are optimized to only stream the tiny part that goes up there. Facebook is streaming massive videos (If its an hour it plays the whole thing but only loads what it is playing) so there isn't anything there. Are you seeing big delays? I mean looking at our logs of internet connection strength, most people loading on desktop are behind pretty god damn fat pipes. With an option toggle in there, how could this be problems for people with modern desktops on modern internet connections?
Downdays looks disorganized as all heck to me. Sure its one gigantic image at the top, but the tiled layout hasn't been something which has been extremely popular on here - especially since we're using commuinty-generated thumbnails which look like absolute dog ass. Downdays and other sites with tiles use curated thumbnails... which makes it a lot easier to rely on the thumbnail vs. the data.
Yes you are correct, mobile is the future. We made the desktop to just expand out of the mobile interface. We're still supporting desktop, but putting absolutely every ounce of effort into mobile.
13764961:cultrara said:
Check this out -http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitcho...-are-blamed-for-high-data-usage/#7b34392c5c3e
Seems as though back in 2014 people were absolutely complaining about the data usage. However, also seems that it not only failed at stopping them from using the sites, but usage has increased.
a_burger
Active member
13765038:Mr.Bishop said:
I think there might be a fundamental flaw with the homepage then. New content, unless it is curated seems to start out at the bottom, but when I browse NS on mobile I never really scroll very far down, maybe 7 or 8 entries simply because of how large they are.
Most social media however is set up the other way around where newer content is usually at the top, so I feel like I subconsciously will look at the homepage, see the same content that has been on top for the day and just assume nothing else has come out worth my time instead of scrolling down.
My favorite homepage in the 4 years I've been on the site was the tile one from 2-3 years back simply because there was so much content to look at. Some was good, some was bad, but it was almost all there. I guess I'd rather just be able to see more content and make my own decisions on it rather then have someone else curate it. Removing the latest tab didn't really help in that regard either.
13765322:SDrvper said:
The mobile home page does not auto play, auto play is only on desktop.
As for the content on the home page, the list is based on ratings/comments/views like the old home page, the top two sections we have the ability to feature an article and video, but it will auto select from the hot list if we do not choose something, so basically the same as the old home page.
We don't just feature staff content either, we feature member videos and articles every day.
Yo I don't know if this got solved for the home page, but I'm about fucking sick of the auto play John Shockley video (though it's awesome) that's on every page stopping my iTunes/podcast/whatever when I'm browsing on my phone. Stop this shit!
13782244:loganimlach said:
It's about to make me freak the fuck out on a travel day when I'm trying to jam and read bullshit
13782708:Mr.Bishop said:
Safari on iPhone, doesn't crash my browser. The autoplay takes precedence over iTunes/podcast/anything that's playing. So essentially I can't browse NS and listen to music
13782832:loganimlach said:
Can you grab a screen capture of that?
Its not supposed to be autoplaying on your phone... dangit sorry about that.
Edit: Cancel that, I just was able to replicate. Will try to get a fix in place tomorrow.
**This post was edited on Jan 30th 2017 at 7:17:15pm
Mr.Mitten
Active member
auto play seems to temporarily fuck my connection when I first get on the site/go to pages where there may be an autoplay ad. Computer freezes for a sec, which can be quite frustrating when the audio of the video continues to play while my computer is frozen lol. May be my shitty wifi but not a huge fan of the auto play
13785315:Mr.Bishop said:
Correct