# You Tube Videos in Threads

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064>\
**Category:** Site Feedback\
**Created:** [October 23, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064 "2021-10-23T14:38:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 19\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/1 "2021-10-23T14:38:59Z")

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I was perusing a thread the other day, the Yakkety Sax one, and viewed some of the embedded videos. I’d hit the pause button and scroll down further to see another.

After a few minutes the paused videos would start up again with no action on my part. I’d have to scroll back up again to hit pause again. At one point there were four videos playing at once.

What causes this and how do I stop it?

Anyone else have this problem? I’m on a PC running Win 10.

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/2 "2021-10-23T14:56:08Z")

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I’m guessing it’s an issue (or feature) with your browser. It might just mean a setting that needs to be tweaked or a extension that’s causing things to start playing on their own.  
The only time I’ve had that type of thing happening is, and not on this board, the new videos that when you scroll past them, they pop out and sit in the bottom corner of your window and start back up. As if the programmer decided that when you scrolled away from the video, what you actually wanted to do was continue watching it.

In any case, and this is, at best, a workaround, when it happens look at the tab. You should see a small speaker symbol appear on it. If you click that, it’ll mute that tab. It’s actually a nice feature when you have multiple tabs open you can spot the one that started playing music a lot faster.

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**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/3 "2021-10-23T21:10:56Z")

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No, they are all in the same tab, not multiple tabs. Check the is Yaketty Sax inherently funny tab. That’s where it’s happening to me.

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**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2021, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/4 "2021-10-23T21:39:14Z")

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It has happened to me, but in my experience it is rare. I’ve always suspected that something, perhaps a new ad trying to pop in (I have an ad blocker running), causes my browser to think the paused video should be playing.

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**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/5 "2021-10-24T03:42:18Z")

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I do run an ad blocker. Perhaps I’ll try a different browser. Currently running FireFox

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**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/6 "2021-10-24T05:44:43Z")

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I get that behavior, too.

I think it’s discourse. You know how all the posts aren’t loaded until you scroll to them? If I scroll past a video I have watched, and then new posts load, then the video starts playing all over again.

Very fucking annoying.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/7 "2021-10-24T05:54:45Z")

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Me too. I sometimes use the spacebar to scroll. Try it. It works almost everywhere. The most notable exception is Youtube comments, although it worked there at one time.

Pressing the spacebar can also be interpreted as the enter key if the focus is on a button, e.g., the video play button. I assumed that was the problem at first, but it continued despite my efforts to make sure the focus was elsewhere.

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**Author:** ![yarblek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/71e660/32.png) [@yarblek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yarblek)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/8 "2021-10-24T07:19:41Z")

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I also get that happening sometimes and this is while using a browser based on Chrome on an Android phone.

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**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/9 "2021-10-24T12:40:42Z")

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Well, at least it’s not just me. So there’s a small amount of contentment there I suppose.

I’ll have to try some of the alternate scrolling options and see if it makes a difference.

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/10 "2021-10-24T13:11:16Z")

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Moving this to “site feedback”, since this is mostly a question about the system running the site, and you might get better answers here.

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**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/11 "2021-10-24T15:00:56Z")

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Thanks

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/12 "2021-10-26T02:23:48Z")

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What’s the actual set of steps to reproduce this? Watch a video, pause it, then scroll way down in a topic?

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**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/13 "2021-10-26T02:27:38Z")

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> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Watch a video, pause it, then scroll way down in a topic?

That seems to be it for me, though it’s possible there is some extra step that I haven’t noticed (maybe it requires multiple videos, etc.) Happens all the damn time for me.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/14 "2021-10-26T13:45:46Z")

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That’s what does it for me.

Yesterday I tried using the space bar to scroll, after clicking outside the video frame to ensure focus was not on the pause play button.

Made no difference.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/15 "2021-10-26T20:13:43Z")

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> [@GaryM](#):
>
> the Yakkety Sax one

Which one? Searching for “yakkety sax” produces 20-40 topics that look possible.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/16 "2021-10-26T20:21:44Z")

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That’s interesting - because space bar is a keyboard shortcut for play/pause in the embedded YouTube player - perhaps it’s stealing focus or some such

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/17 "2021-10-26T20:42:48Z")

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> [@GaryM](#):
>
> Yesterday I tried using the space bar to scroll, after clicking outside the video frame to ensure focus was not on the pause play button.

> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> That’s interesting - because space bar is a keyboard shortcut for play/pause in the embedded YouTube player - perhaps it’s stealing focus or some such

I was going to suggest not just clicking outside the youtube box, but highlighting some text somewhere. That’ll prove that you clicked outside the box (not that I’m doubting you) but also if you then hit space bar and scroll back up (or Shift-Space Bar) it should still be highlighted, suggesting the youtube box didn’t steal focus back.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/18 "2021-10-26T21:09:58Z")

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There is some weirdness for me on the way into a video. I have to click it once to sort of enable the player, I can see it reload the embedded video (or something) then I have to click it again to get it to play. This is different from how embedded videos have seemed to work elsewhere (not saying I don’t like it - actually, I like that it’s easy to avoid accidentally playing a video)  
I wonder if the behaviour being described here is sort of the counterpart of whatever makes it necessary to click twice to play?

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-tube-videos-in-threads/953064/19 "2021-10-26T22:02:47Z")

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Have you tried restarting your browser in safe/troubleshoot mode? That’ll disable your extensions and reset everything to their default settings.  
I’m _thinking_ it won’t change anything since you said it doesn’t happen anywhere else, but I’m curious if there’s an extension messing with it.
