The past couple of weeks, I've noticed more than ever something amiss and whether or not it's been happening for a while is inconsequential (in a way, BECAUSE it's been happening for a while actually means a lot, but I'll get to that in a second), the real point is is that it's happening enough that I'm groaning at it. Not to mention I'm pretty sure in the grand scheme of things, autoplaying is actually against the rules, in that staff-to-user "please don't do this" way.
But that's not really why I'm making this post. In fact, I don't actually think that's what matters at all.
What really matters is that autoplay has honest-to-god become basically old. Now, autoplay, once a forum discovers it and it catches on, can have benefits, uses, and seem like a lot of fun. Comedic timing relying on the element of surprise is one of the major uses of autoplay. Autoplaying Clarence Carter's "Strokin'" and catching everybody off guard sounded damn funny a while ago, but with the frequency in which autoplay happens now, it really means nothing anymore and it creates a massive bleed-over effect.
I always used this as a rule of thumb: could I remember the last time somebody used autoplay? If so then it's probably not a grand idea to use it at the moment because it kind of ruins it if everybody is always autoplaying things.
The big thing is that stuff gets autoplayed now just… because. Videos that don't benefit in any way from autoplay are set to start playing without consent simply because. I get that sometimes you think a victory celebration is in order, but you need not set it to simply start automatically playing. Derailing an inane thread with 8-Bit Prince music is even a reason to use the autoplay function, regardless of whether you agree that it's funny, or a good idea (I thought it totally was a good idea), but when you just have something on autoplay because you think it deserves attention..? Man, come on.
Honestly? It's actually kind of annoying. Sometimes people have have their speakers turned up loud, sometimes they're in a setting where they'd rather not have sound blaring off, or maybe they just outright don't want to watch your fucking video.
Regardless of whether you think autoplay was a funny idea to begin with, I'm sure we can all agree that simply seeing a youtube video and reading its title can completely discern the intention of its contents and whether or not we click play should basically be up to us.
Basicaly now I'm kind of completely supportive on giving the damn function a rest. It deserves it, it's earned a vacation.
 
