Why have [Youtube]link string[/youtube] fields gone invisible on DCF?

[IainB]

Why have #Invalid YouTube Link# fields gone invisible on DCF?
I'm not sure when it started, because I don't use YouTube links all that often, but I noticed a while back that YouTube links that I or other people had created in forum posts sometimes seemed to be "invisible" - still there (you could seem them in the BB code when you quoted a post), but they just didn't display. I reckoned that it was one of my Firefox extensions playing up, but didn't investigate.

Today I noticed today that, apparently without exception, all YouTube links are "invisible".
So I tried disabling a few of the likely suspects in the extensions, restarting Firefox each time. No joy.
Then I started up Firefox in Safe Mode, thinking that ought to do it. Nope. No joy.

I don't know if it is relevant, but I have also had a few SMF errors from DCF today, accompanied by the suggestion that the DC server may be busy.

Using IE10, I can see the little YouTube windows OK, but they are slow/laggy to display/render, so I wondered whether their display in Firefox was being delayed/blocked by something.

Any ideas?

MY OS is Win-64 Home Premium, and Firefox is v23.0 (via the ß channel).

[Renegade]

It's HTTPS that's the problem. Delete the S and you're golden.

[IainB]

Ah! Thankyou.    
I have the Firefox HTTPS-Everywhere extension, which forces HTTPS, well - everywhere! After disabling it for the DC site it all works fine now. All the YouTube clips show up.

I guess the HTTPS-prefixed URLs were stuck in the browser history cache, so it kept using those URLs even when the extensions were all disabled in Safe Mode. I shall clear them out.

[4wd]

Define "invisible", I use HTTPS for DC and have no problem:

[IainB]

"Invisible" as in "Invisible, man".
Your screenshot is odd though. I could not have done that. I wonder what is different in my setup?
In your screenshot, what does the red icon with an exclamation point signify?

The thing is, I had not really paid it much mind until it went consistently invisible. It only happened intermittently before then.

Just tested it now. It's consistent and repeatable:
Invisible YouTube frames: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=21962.0
Visible YouTube frames: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=21962.0

[4wd]

Your screenshot is odd though. I could not have done that. I wonder what is different in my setup?
In your screenshot, what does the red icon with an exclamation point signify?

-IainB (July 30, 2013, 02:20 AM)

I believe it means that some content on the page is unencrypted.  So while the content served from DC is encrypted, any external links to YouTube aren't.

You may find it better to mark HTTPS Everywhere to not action youtube.com rather than DC.

I used to use HTTPS Everywhere, (and the Greasemonkey alternative: HTTPS Please), but it caused more problems than it solved - easier to type https when I want it.

Just tested it now. It's consistent and repeatable:
Invisible YouTube frames: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=21962.0
Visible YouTube frames: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=21962.0

Both those work fine for me, top one indicates some of the page is unencrypted.

[IainB]

...You may find it better to mark HTTPS Everywhere to not action youtube.com rather than DC.
...
...I used to use HTTPS Everywhere, (and the Greasemonkey alternative: HTTPS Please), but it caused more problems than it solved - easier to type https when I want it. ...

-4wd (July 30, 2013, 03:23 AM)

I suspect that there is something peculiar to DCF in the way the square-bracketed YouTube fields are encoded in BB code. For example, if you put an http://... URL to YouTube in the field, it works fine, but if you put an https://... URL to YouTube in the field, it comes up with a BB code error.

HTTPS Everywhere works fine on youtube.com though, so I don't really want to change that.

I am still trialling HTTPS Everywhere and am interested in understanding why it does what it does and of what benefit that may be to me as a user. I may disable it if there's not much benefit from using it.

My overall objective is to establish some kind of optimum configuration for the automation of any useful privacy and security features - with little need for user control or tweaking.

[4wd]

Well, I reinstalled HTTPS-Everywhere along with HTTPS Finder, (no rules for DC created), and I can still see the videos in the forum, still get the red exclamation mark against pages with partially encrypted contents.

A question: Do you automatically load embedded video, (I don't automatically load any embedded media) ?

[IainB]

Well, I reinstalled HTTPS-Everywhere along with HTTPS Finder, (no rules for DC created), and I can still see the videos in the forum, still get the red exclamation mark against pages with partially encrypted contents.
A question: Do you automatically load embedded video, (I don't automatically load any embedded media) ?

-4wd (July 30, 2013, 07:32 AM)

Maybe the URLs were being fetched from your history cache? I had to clear my cache to get rid of them and start afresh.

I thought I had it set up so that I don't automatically load any embedded media. That doesn't necessarily mean that is what is happening though!    
What would I need to do to prove that, either way?

[4wd]

Maybe the URLs were being fetched from your history cache? I had to clear my cache to get rid of them and start afresh.

-IainB (July 30, 2013, 10:22 AM)

I don't have Pale Moon, (or Firefox), set to use a persistant cache, (disc cache disabled), it's purely RAM based which is cleared every time it exits - which I had to do to install HTTPS Finder, (exit that is).  But I also cleared what little cache there was, just in case.

I thought I had it set up so that I don't automatically load any embedded media. That doesn't necessarily mean that is what is happening though!    
What would I need to do to prove that, either way?

If it's set to not autoplay then you should get the same kind of thing I get in the screenshot above, (apparently Pale Moon only).

AFAIK, the only thing I'm doing to achieve that are what you mentioned here and the one I mentioned here - not running any addons to block any media automatically playing.

ADDENDUM: OK, it appears as if it's a "feature" of Pale Moon - I just downloaded the portable version and ran it with no addons and no changes to default settings except for the two about:config entries mentioned.  If I then go to DC in HTTPS, the media is displayed as per my screenshot.  In Firefox, you get what you said - nothing.

So, my bad, sorry