Image via WikipediaI really like a lot of things about sports web site espn.com. They have a fine stable of writers and reporters, some cool flash-based live in-game data interfaces, and the ability to stoke the SEC-Big 10-Pac 10 football controversy like no other.
But for the love of all that is right and true about the web, STOP THE AUTO-PLAY VIDEO ON THE FRONT PAGE!
There are few things more annoying than surfing to a web site and being bombarded with sights and sounds from a video that I didn’t expect. Quite possibly the only thing I can think of that approaches that level of annoyitivity (I made that word up) is those flash ads that obscure part of the copy until you close them.
We all know how to use the “play” button, ESPN. If we want to listen to your anchors talking about the latest sports news for 2 minutes, WE CAN PUSH THE BUTTON. As it is, I am to the point where I don’t even want to check the scores from Sunday’s NFL games to avoid the annoyance. There’s always Yahoo! Sports instead.
I seem to recall for a long time the auto-play was turned off. Maybe it was my browser. Whatever. It needs to stop.
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on Sep 25th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Totally agree. MLB.com sites do the same thing. Irritating.
on Sep 26th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I work for ESPN.com and this is by far the biggest complaint we get, so its something everyone is aware of. Earlier this year they did add a way to turn off auto-play. You just need to click the customize link under the video player and in those setting uncheck the autoplay box. You have to be signed in for it to work but its something. There are also other changes in the works that will change the nature of the video player in general.
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Thank you. I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I abandoned ESPN due to this long ago.
on Nov 4th, 2008 at 10:23 am
For the Love of God, Stop The AutoPlay!