META: Autoplay video ads on the blog

Submitted by amedema on January 27th, 2022 at 11:20 AM

Other than an adblocker (can't use due to needing to see ads for work) does anyone know a good way to prevent the video ads from autoplaying with sound? 

It's ridiculous to try and listen to the WTKA Roundtable while also hearing about Realtor dot com every 30 seconds. 

Any solutions? Can they be set to autoplay without sound? 

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Robbie Moore

January 27th, 2022 at 11:52 AM ^

To the good guys who run MGoBlog: please tell me you don't need the money these auto play ads bring in. It is truly detrimental to the MGoBlog experience. And, in my humble opinion, it makes the folks who run it look like money matters uber alles. And I don't believe that is the case. 

Joined: 12/01/2008

MGoPoints: 46214

Cosmic Blue

January 27th, 2022 at 12:24 PM ^

there is a "disable HTML5 autoplay" extension you can install in chrome. i've used that for forever since autoplaying vidoes became a thing. i dont use firefox, edge, etc. but i would bet they have a similar extension you could find if that is your preferred browser

Joined: 10/13/2008

MGoPoints: 1502

NotADuck

January 27th, 2022 at 12:40 PM ^

Correct me if I'm wrong but I remember Seth making some sort of adjustment to these ads about a year ago.  He said it had something to do with one of the ad providers turning on that feature from what I recall.  I could be wrong but I wonder if he can make the same fix again.

Joined: 12/20/2013

MGoPoints: 18378

mGrowOld

January 27th, 2022 at 1:17 PM ^

Unrelated (sort of) to the topic does anybody else feel like they're playing "wack-a-mole" when they try to make a selection on your phone?  It always seems like the nano-second before I hit mgoboard for the 2nd time (because it requres selecting it twice to open up) the whole site moves up or down an inch or two so I can to click on either an ad or some portion of the site I have no interest in.  And no matter how long I wait it always does that small movement up or down righ before I make contact with the phone just to fuck with me.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 213289

truferblue22

January 27th, 2022 at 1:29 PM ^

Yeah I work from home but still had to stop accessing the website during work because TWICE now I've had the page in the background while on a Teams call and the "moving to the desert" ad started playing. 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 13363

Seth

January 27th, 2022 at 1:32 PM ^

We've reported this to Didna. It's coming from a certain blocked advertiser (Realtor.com) who's breaking through everyone's security protocols. They're trying hard. Sometimes these just get in the system and there's nothing to do but wait them out. A political campaign was running these same bugs in 2020 and it was a constant headache.

What bites is we aren't really making any money off of those ads. They're sneaking them in as low-rent ads that would have been replaced by something from Google.

I did move Google up in the priority tree which seems to have lessened the Realtor.com bug, but if I could actually track them the smart people could get rid of them.

Joined: 10/14/2008

MGoPoints: 149423

bluebyyou

January 27th, 2022 at 1:40 PM ^

Same thing has been happening to me.  You are trying to listen to something else, or you just want to read a piece/comments, and the damn ads start playing,

Make this site "modern" with recognition of Youtube, ease of pasting picss, etc. and I am happy to pay to use it, 

Joined: 09/07/2009

MGoPoints: 18614

poseidon7902

January 27th, 2022 at 4:14 PM ^

I know it's been said, but I'd gladly pay a subscription that allows me to have an ad free experience.  I don't want to use an adblocker because I think the team deserves the revenue, but it's getting to the point that the experience here is making it impossible to not have an ad blocker.  

Joined: 11/09/2013

MGoPoints: 5461