Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

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I've gotten high mileage by blocking OVPs directly. I'm advocating doing this to encourage video providers to NOT enable autoplay on video.

    0.0.0.0			www.autofixinfo.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			c.brightcove.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			player.theplatform.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			link.theplatform.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ci-2862d2c8d6-68f418d2.http.atlas.cdn.yimg.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			video-img2.thedailymeal.net	# Autoplay audio
    0.0.0.0			ht1.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ht2.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ht3.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ht4.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ht5.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ht6.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ht7.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ht8.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			ht9.cdn.turner.com	# Autoplay video

Protip: install dnsmasq which allows you to block entire domains rather than listing hosts independently.

(Note: corrected s/VPN/OVP, see followup.)

Firefox provides the "media.autoplay.enabled" setting, which can be disabled. It's a very difficult setting to implement correctly, but it works most of the time. The larger trouble is that many websites, including YouTube, expect autoplay to work and act slightly wonky when it doesn't.

Edit: Have some bug links

Original reporter suggesting the setting should apply to HTML5 media. Includes a very long discussion of the problem and why it's difficult: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=659285

Bug about websites that assume autoplay works, marked invalid because those websites shouldn't(?) make that assumption: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1173848

Thank you!

> act slightly wonky when it doesn't.

I would hope so. Autoplay videos are fraught with discrimination: "live in a country where bandwidth is expensive? Fuck you, have an autoplay video."

I hope browsers move toward having autoplay as default "off" in the future.

I visited a site that was linked here recently and they not only had an autoplaying video, there was no way to pause it or stop it. The only option was to mute the video, while it still played.

Horrible. That's why people use ad blockers.

My canonical example is a PC World page on killing video autoplay ... with an autoplay video:

https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/CQAJEyHG...

Chromium bug:

"Disable video/audio autoplay" https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=514102

>* I've gotten high mileage by blocking VPNs directly.*

Uh... oh! You meant CDNs? I'd suspect there'd be a lot of collateral damage if you block entire CDNs, no?

As I discovered while looking for targets of opportunity, the term of art is apparently "online video provider", or OVP (not "VPN" as I'd first written, thinking "video provider network".

"Tips for Choosing an Online Video Platform (OVP)" http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Ar...

Yes, there's collateral damage. I'll take it. If needs be, I'll hop into /etc/hosts and unblock for a moment.

If you have a mac, I highly recommend gas mask for switching hosts files.

What does it bring to the table over "mv"?

I'm not always in a terminal (IKR!?), so clicking the gas mask icon and setting it to the hosts file I want is only two clicks.

I personally find it very convenient.

Make yourself a script file called 'RenHosts.bat'[1] and place it somewhere convenient, I personally have mine pinned to the start menu. This allows you to "easily" turn your modified HOSTS file on/off.

You'll need to right click and run the script as Administrator since it is accessing your System32 folder.

[1]http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hostsfaq.htm#Rename

Linux here.

I've got a set of scripts for updating and toggling hosts files.

I have done something similar using HTTP switchboard, but let's face it, this is a terrible approach. It's a dreadful waste of our valuable time, and there aren't enough of us competent to do this that it impacts advertisers. Rather than fight a constant rearguard action, I've just started avoiding domains that I know are likely to be full of cruft.

Among the reasons I'm posting hosts is to show how concentrated OVPs are. A small number of entries wipes out nearly all instances. Plus it puts pressure on providers.

    0.0.0.0			c.brightcove.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			player.theplatform.com	# Autoplay video
    0.0.0.0			link.theplatform.com	# Autoplay video

Wow you really must not like video.

I really don't.

More to the point: disabling the elements in CSS isn't sufficient to keep video/audio from playing INVISIBLY.

Killing the source is the only option.

Yeah, but you can only do that in systems with access to DNS resolution.

Tablets, mobile phones and computer systems as normal user, no such luck.

Rooted Android works. You can swap the /etc/hosts file.

Plugins such as uBlock Origin should allow for adding hosts to blocklists.

Not an option for 99% of the users.

"Root your phone to install an adblocker" isn't exactly uncommon knowledge to non-technical users.

Most people don't want to root their phones.

If you can configure the DNS servers directly or via DHCP in the network settings of the device, then you can take control of how domains get resolved at that level.

In fact I've (unintentionally) bypassed site-blocking on some public networks, just because I configure my devices to use public DNS servers instead of whatever the DHCP provides.

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