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Comment by ph33t | Hacker News Reader

I am of the opinion that web sites should never make noise automatically. Never, no matter what site. I often have my sound on without even realizing it. Nothing is more disturbing to me or those near me than me going to a site and having stuff come over the speaker. I almost always close the tab immediately. Please never autoplay anything.

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Can't agree more. Also, autoplaying videos—never a good idea.

Even on youtube?

Especially on YouTube.

I mean, how hard is a "youtube autoplay" plugin? What other site even needs that function? Are people really too lazy to press play?

Since autoplay is the default right now, you could expect a fair amount of people to think youtube's broken if you changed it...

Somehow I think they'll get over it.

Yes. Even youtube.

I routinely open a bunch of tabs with interesting things, then read them. Youtube included - I'd like to be able to open a bunch of videos, then watch then one at a time in the tabs.

I don't want all of them to start playing at once.

Is this not the new behavior? My YT videos only play when I go to the tab now.

This is specific to the browser, not YouTube: https://plus.google.com/+FrancoisBeaufort/posts/6PiJQqJzGqX

Interesting, thanks. I find that very surprising, as YouTube now behaves differently across browsers. I'm surprised Google would make this the policy for Chrome, and not make the change in YouTube too; it's much better.

Not to mention that it's infuriating if the you're wearing headphones and the sound is loud or you have your volume inadvertently cranked up.

And it's 4:26 in the morning and there are people sleeping near you.

Or you're at work or in class. UX designers should always err on the side of "don't risk getting the user fired".

Not just infuriating, but potentially dangerous. If a website uses my audio to play a 100% volume sound without my consent and I had my headphones up high to hear a subtle recording, I might get permanent hearing damage.

Every time the concept of a "Web Bill of Rights" comes up, I want Article I to be: no use of audio without express user consent. That consent might be stored for a time on a per domain basis, but only for 1st party content.

This seems at odds with the conventional wisdom around here RE: adblock. You're simply requesting bytes from a server, what your computer does with them is up to you (and therefore your responsibility). You should probably configure your system so website have no ability to autoplay.

Autoplay takes over control of your system in a way that is unexpected to the user.

The visual equivalent was the much despised popup. Autoplay shouldn't be used for the same reason.

You must never use youtube then? That seems to be a popular site

C'mon on, you must know that the user's expectations of YouTube are different than most sites.

Even on youtube, autoplay is annoying.

Especially when you re-open some browser session and then one of those tabs happens to be a youtube one playing some video.

That shouldn't happen in Safari or Chrome anymore - videos don't autoplay until you actually open the tab for the first time.

I have YouTube set to not autoplay.

The plugin "HTML5 Video Everywhere!" would be worth it if just for the ability to disable autoplay.

YouTube shouldn't autoplay videos. I especially hate it when you click on a channel profile to check out what they're about and some promo video starts up at max volume (my computer happens to be sensitive to sound differences, too). At any rate, YouTube should only play a video when the user presses the play button.

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