Kirkville:
Auto-play videos suck. They use bandwidth, and their annoying sounds get in the way when you’re listening to music and open a web page. I happen to write for a website that uses them, and it annoys me to no end. (My editors have no control over those auto-play videos, alas.)
But you can stop auto-play videos from playing on a Mac. If you use Chrome or Firefox, it’s pretty simple, and the plugins below work both on macOS and Windows; if you use Safari, it’s a bit more complex, but it’s not that hard.
The most egregious user of autoplay videos in the Mac community must be Macworld. The site has been taken over by marketing weasels and is a shadow of its (useful) former self.
Used to stop by Macworld to read the Macalope, and often read a few other articles while there. Since they switched to Facebook for comments management I’ve not been back.
The auto play video is only part of the problem.
I gave up on MacWorld. Their stories are old and I’ve already read them somewhere else.
Macworld is a shallow caricature of itself these days. I love the idea of thwarting them with a trick I learned from one of their columnists.
Very little at MacWorld to cause me to visit, other than the Macalope, Glen Fleishman, and Dan Moren. Other writers there are rarely credible, or readable.
I thought their moving comments to Facebook was just another example of their not caring about readers. But their forums were stripped of their value many years ago. And the comment system was so buggy it made taking part in any conversation worse than not having a comment section at all.
It actually works pretty well on Facebook.
In the end, the autoplay videos are just one symptom of a much bigger problem.
the fact that the MW editors claims to have no control over their own website speaks volumes.
moving their comments to Facebook was daft. i checked the Macalope comments one time and saw it was mouth breather trolls, have not revisited the comments nor plan to. probably their intent.
A couple years ago I sent Jim a text to the effect that every time I log on to the MW site I feel like I’m being mugged. Still do.
Especially annoying as the videos have nothing to do with the article one clicked on. CNN does this as well.
If Macworld consisted of just those 3 writers (and Kirk McElhearn) I would bookmark it.