Re: Firing media events early for throttled downloads

On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 10:41 AM, Boris Zbarsky <bzbarsky@mit.edu> wrote:

> I think the right message is "in-page media should not autoplay,


I don't think that's the right message. I think there are lots of situations
where it's just fine for in-page media to autoplay. For example, when the
user clicks on a thumbnail of a video and a Youtube page opens to play the
video, the user's intent is clear and the video should play immediately.

There are two ways users can avoid obnoxious autoplaying. First, don't visit
a site if you don't like its UI. Second, use a browser (or a browser
extension) that gives you the control you want. There is no need for the
spec to address these issues. It should not be a tutorial on building
friendly user interfaces for Web sites or browsers.

What the spec *can* do is provide a declarative way for authors to request
autoplay behaviour, so it's easy for browsers to prevent autoplaying without
interfering with other uses of the play() API. And we have that, and we
should encourage authors to use it when they want autoplay behaviour.

(As a general rule, when the spec provides simple declarative ways to do
things already being done via other means but viewed as obnoxious by some
users, it's a win for those users, because the behaviours are easier to turn
off.)

Rob
-- 
"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." [Isaiah
53:5-6]