One of the perks of being a member is that you don’t have the auto-playing video unit. In fact, if you become a member, you don’t have to see any banner ads at all (and the video unit in the post becomes play-on-click) when logged in. Well, that’s what is supposed to happen.
We’ve tried to make some improvements to the video player, both for performance reasons and so that non-members don’t keep seeing the same video of David checking out a Toyota over and over again. On the content side, we’ve added more videos (about 33 new ones this month) and started porting over our Instagram reels for those of you who said you wanted to see them but didn’t want to use Instagram.
A few minor layout shifts resulted in that player blocking notifications on desktop browsers if people scrolled up, so yesterday we tried a quick fix. Like most of the quick fixes on my project cars, it both failed to fix a problem and created a brand new one: That video player is now popping up for members.
That’s not great! Many of you reached out in the Discord or via email to let me know. Thank you to the person who reached out via pigeon. I will not be returning him.
Hopefully, this is all resolved by EOD. Again, apologies. Also, if you want to join the people who usually don’t see this player, please feel free to become a member. If you use the coupon code mattscrewedup you’ll get $5 off.
Top photo: DepositPhotos.com, 20th Century Fox
I would totally rock a tee with this exact graphic used in the top shot
I used to work in TV News. I would have loved that tee as well.
Oh, the stories I could tell.
But the technical stuff was a long time ago and my memory is getting a little patchy.
There are worse things to break, I suppose.
*gestures vaguely at office bathroom*
Gahhh! It’s still happening! Did “EOD” really mean “end of December”?
Hey, these things happen. Thanks for working to fix it, Matt. Fingers crossed, you get it figured out today.
the main reason I got a membership, the Aztek, second reason the members only discord…its actually not that different but still good enough to get a membership
Appreciate the update!
Maybe I’m too easy going, but it just didn’t bother me. I figured it was a glitch that would get cleared up. I got other stuff to worry about. BTW, I’m proud to see my “member” bowtie under my non-picture. Cloth is cool.
Man, I definitely do not dig up moist change from the couch cushions every month just so I can close close the auto-player on every page.
(Really glad to hear it wasn’t just a me problem. I thought I was going crazy imagining the original post where you announced that moist change-paying members wouldn’t see those anymore.)
I don’t understand the logic of putting auto-play videos up to annoy casual users, then trying to get them to be members to turn that shit off. What’s turned off is me. Having to stop two videos on every page doesn’t fill me with warm fuzzy feelings toward the site and make me want to pay. It makes me want to go somewhere else.
The video isn’t autoplaying, but it’s still doing that stupid thing where it shrinks down to the corner when I scroll past it and gets in the way of the text. Maybe related?
It’s telling how little value is brought by video content on a text-based site that it’s a punishment inflicted on non-paying users. The most infuriating kind to me is the little unstoppable video widget on TV news websites that follows you when you scroll. IT’S A DIFFERENT MEDIUM. It’s not TV. I’m on your site reading a written article. Why are you showing me your talking heads reading the news and talking over the text I’m trying to read?
And yet site operators keep producing that content!
I use EOD as a joke for my projects at work, I always say EOD when someone ask for something, make a pause and just say End of December lol
I tell them EOD. I just don’t clarify which D.
I’m partial to ‘decade’.
My minor grievance is with the huge MEMBER badge below my avatar (which I can’t access because I can’t access my account because I have to give my email address, then send a sign in link from my phone which loops back to my email, requesting send a sign link and another loop and I never get in. grrr really annoying!!!). Does it have to be so glaring? Can’t you just put a star or asterisk next to the MEMBER’S name to signify membership? I’m not a fan of shaming people into joining something when maybe they can’t? Or separating people into groups of us and them? Love the articles. Hardly ever comment but this was the time to put in my two cents and I thank you.
*whistles* so about testing the site before y’all roll stuff out to prod… Just saying, I could do some evenings when I’m done at the shop each day.
I don’t always test my code, but when I do, I do it in production
As they say in economics, the real world is often a special case.
In the web world, I often discover the significant differences between the dev environment and the live environment only after the code goes live.
Part of my email signature: “It works on my machine.”
Would it really be Autopian if it were done any other way?
You guys should take Mechjaz up on this – he’s been offering it for months now!
And you can blame him for things, like “We’re so sorry…we didn’t think there was such a thing as literal taillight porn, those videos were totally inappropriate we know, if only he’d caught that!”
“ménage à CHMSL – a film”
He was delicious.
Well, they were originally brought to the US as a food source.
Hi Matt, could you also take a look at links please? These have recently changed and some are showing as a brown colour that is almost indistinguishable from the regular text (especially to us older readers). Thanks.
Yeaaaaah I’ve been banging in the accessibility drum for so long I finally got tired of it. Autopian teal on white essentially invisible, and other crimes against WCAG.
Not Speckled Jim!
I think that more sites should honor the “mattscrewedup” discount code.
I would like my pigeon back please, she is the only way I have to send truly encrypted messages.
He’s just egging you on. No need to flip him another bird.
Stop squawking and carrier-ing on. You’re crowing about it now, but will coo when they return it
At least the lack of other ads means the site is usable still without melting my phone.
Thanks Matt (and disregard the email on this topic that I just sent you).
I’m all for keeping content in house (not on Instagram, etc…) but of course I don’t need to see the same video player pop up automatically on every page.
Thanks for the explanation. 🙂
First Matt and then Torch? It’s atonement day at The Autopian!
I’m holding on for Atunement Day, when a random contributor arrives at your home to tune your car. I’m looking forward to DT lifting the Z4 high enough to get 33’s fitted. So long, pain the ass low profile lift procedure! Welcome, horrible everything else!
Topshot of the month!
Can we stack the MattScrewedUp coupons? I got a feeling that there will be a lot of them. 🙂
We’d end up owing you money!
Forty lashes with a wet noodle!!!
I have one right here!
Seriously, I’m on lunch at work and just pulled a single serve frozen lasagna from the microwave.
DT’s leftover shower spaghetti?
Glad to hear its an error and not a new direction.