Can you ditch the animated GIFs?

#1

I find the animated GIFs that are excerpts from videos annoying: The screen grab gives me what the video is about, and having something moving around on my screen without me asking for it is annoying. If I want to see the video, I’ll click on it. I read somewhere in this forum that hitting ESC on browsers other than Chrome will stop the animation, but I DO use Chrome, and even if I didn’t, I shouldn’t have to do this.

4 Likes
#2

OTOH, some people view the posts from the bbs, where the video is not available unless they click on the link to the post THEN click on the video.

So, for us those hypothetical people, this is a nice feature.

3 Likes
#3

Yeah, I’ll second that. Having to watch the first forty cycles of the GIF usually kills my interest in watching the video, or makes it annoying to watch the video with the GIF cycling rapidly just below the video itself.
Maybe there’s a Chrome extension that’ll allow a GIF to play for a specified number of cycles?

2 Likes
#4

Why can’t they fix the BBS so it pulls the videos in properly?

5 Likes
#5

this makes me sad as animated gifs often make my day… But I guess not everyone likes them. So, what are we to do here? Should we all stop doing something we enjoy to suit your tastes/enjoyment?

I know there is someone else here who doesn’t like them because they actually cause that person pain, but I believe they use a blocker extension in their browser - I’d imagine that chrome has something for that. You could always do that too.

5 Likes
#6

In Firefox, QuickJava and Toggle Animated Gifs help block the pain-gifs.

Autoplay is a bug, and an attack on users with sensory issues, not a @#% feature!

P.S. Is there any similar fix to the flashing lights everywhere else? Nothing like running from a dog, only to be hit by a battery of flashing pain-lights…

3 Likes
#7

See this topic for plugins that will assist.

0 Likes
#8

My complaint is my under-resourced devices (thin, arm, or otherwise) risk bursting into flame and become unscrollable with more than one animation or video onscreen.

Meanwhile dare I suggest a toggleable dark/transparent div beneath videos and above everything else? I assume some detail of modern content (maybe ads) would break that functionality horribly, but here’s hoping.

2 Likes
#9

Well, yeah. Obviously.

Actually, I was looking for a referendum, hoping for a chorus of "Yeah, what he said"s that would sway the powers that be. Doesn’t seem to be going that way. Oh well.

Mostly it bothers me when I try to watch the linked video inline: I try to focus on the video I asked for, but I’m distracted by the immediately adjacent, looping video I didn’t ask for. Otherwise I just scroll the video off the screen, and click on another tab when I’m done with Boing Boing for the moment.

Not thrilled about having to put add more crap to my machine to avoid this, but maybe that’s the best answer.

1 Like
#10

A) he is complaining about video posts on the front page.

B) we like gifs

C) no change necessary

3 Likes
#11

GIFs are tweet-sized visual scratches.

1 Like
#12

Man, I really feel for how shitty the world is for you.

1 Like
#13

I second this motion vociferously.

PLEEEEEAAASE

3 Likes
#14

Read the title.
Came for the Animated gifs.
Was not disappointed.

5 Likes
#15

I think it’s probably split on this issue… some of us like gifs and enjoy putting them up/sharing, but at the same time, i can see where you and others are coming from.

Tragedy of the commons maybe? the commons are never gonna make us all happy…

0 Likes
#16

Hey! I resemble that remark!

2 Likes
#17

Don’t we all…

3 Likes
#18

Hi, longtime reader who finally bothered to comment-register just to complain a little (THE INTERNET, FOLKS!)

BoingBoing is increasingly using animated .gifs as post headers.

I find the ubiquitous constantly-repeating visual loops
irritating and distracting - they make me want to click away, and a few
times, I have.

If they illustrate something important about the post that’s one
thing; but they are seemingly on every 4th or 5th post lately, and it’s
IMO overkill.

I actually like some .gif art and enjoy it when you guys feature .gif
artists, but please stop getting carried away with .gifs as unnecessary
post headers.

I don’t need them to go away entirely; but a little restraint in their use would be appreciated.

4 Likes
#19

How 'bout putting them below the fold, and mentioning that you have one at the fold?

1 Like
closed #20

This topic was automatically closed after 654 days. New replies are no longer allowed.

0 Likes