Watching Embedded Videos as the Author?

[Enjay]

I was just wondering is anyone had an explanation for this.

Yesterday, I uploaded the following video and posted it to this thread: viewtopic.php?f=124&t=73456



YouTube was really slow yesterday, and the video took ages to clear its checks, but I think that's irrelevant to the question.

The thing is, when I try to watch the embedded video, after a few seconds of trying I get this:

but if I click the link to watch it on YouTube directly, I can see it just fine.

I originally thought it was something wrong with the video settings (or the checks problem) but, no, I can watch the video on another browser where I'm not signed in to Google, I can see it on my phone and I can also sign out from Google on this browser and the video works just fine too. However, as soon as I sign back in to Google, I can't watch the video as an embedded video on the forum; I have to watch it on YouTube.

I can watch other videos not made by me on this forum, it's only my one (I haven't checked my other videos yet). So, does YouTube/Google have some weird thing where creators cannot watch their own videos if they have been embedded on another site?

[edit]I tried another one of my videos - same problem.[/edit]

[Rachael]

Chances are either Youtube made a change that your browser's cache hasn't caught up with yet, or your browser has a poisoned cookie (a cookie that causes the target website to glitch). Best thing to do is try clearing your cookies and cache.

[Enjay]

Just by chance, and for completely different reasons, I actually cleared my cookies and cache yesterday. The video problem existed before and after clearing.

My main browser is FireFox but I just tried on Chrome. I signed into Google first and then the forum. The embedded video worked but it's still not working on Firefox. So it is browser specific. Whether it's my own particular setup of the browser or something to do with Firfox more generally I can't say.

To me the weirdest part is that it is only my own videos and not just any video that I'm having problems with.

[edit]Found the culprit: Privacy Badger.

It has several YouTube entries but this one in particular:

is to blame.

Yellow/amber means it's set to block cookies. If I set it to green, then the video plays.

I have Privacy Badger enabled on Chrome too but the weird thing is that the above entry doesn't even appear on that copy of PB.

[Caligari87]

I hate to harp on the old "it's a conspiracy" tines, but Google has been known to make API / standards changes on its services which Chrome (and addons using Chrome's API) can immediately account for while other browsers lag behind and appear "broken." While I'm not saying this is necessarily the case here, it certainly seems in-line with the pattern.

Adblockers and privacy addons for Chrome are especially suspect IMO, since Google's whole overarching business model essentially depends on them not working effectively and Google keeps making "security" decisions which undermine their abilities either explicitly or implicitly.

In this case, I have a sneaking suspicion that Privacy Badger is working exactly as intended on Firefox, and Chrome is letting something "slip" because it makes Youtube embeds and/or tracking work better despite the blocking attempts.

[Enjay]

Could be. However, I just tried with Opera - I logged in to google (which I don't normally do when I use Opera), opened a new tab for this thread and clicked the embedded video. The video worked. I also have Privacy Badger installed on Opera too so... who knows? Weird.

Could be worse. I believe that Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and all associated services and apps went down about an hour ago. How will the world survive? (Very well, probably. )

[Graf Zahl]

I wish that social media shit went down forever. The world would be a better place...

[Caligari87]

Indeed. I disabled my Facebook account months ago, likewise with Discord, Twitter, Reddit, a few weeks back now. I've been slowly filtering back into some of those (namely reddit) but trying to stay logged out as much as possible. My mental health and general life engagement has increased drastically for the most part and I don't think I'm missing all that much. I plan on going back to Discord eventually (once I figure out how to manage it more healthily) because there's a lot of friends I have there that I don't have contacts with elsewhere.

[Enjay]

Personally, I don't really do the social media thing, so those issues don't affect me directly. However, I have been researching quite a bit into the large scale manipulation and polarisation of public opinion by "bad actors" and hostile states. It's fascinating and frightening just how successful and far-reaching the implications of such manipulation are.