July 28, 2012

YouTube Technical Bleg

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Here’s a puzzler: my browser no longer plays YouTube videos. On Thursday they suddenly stopped working on both Firefox and Opera. IE still worked, though. Today, Firefox started working again, but Opera still doesn’t. I just get a big black rectangle with no controls.

Anyone know what this could be? Ad blocking doesn’t seem to be the problem. My laptop still works fine using the same browser version I have on the desktop. I rebooted, of course. I don’t recall installing or updating anything on Thursday. Other video sites still work fine. Only YouTube doesn’t work.

And here’s something else weird. When I embed YouTube videos in the blog, the normal embed codes don’t work. I just get the black rectangle. But the old YouTube embed code displays fine:

  • Doesn’t work: <iframe width=”375″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/watch/xxx”>
  • Doesn’t work: <iframe width=”375″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/xxx”> 
  • Works!          <iframe width=”375″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/xxx”>

I’ve racked my brain and I can’t think of what else to try. What did I do to anger the YouTube gods?

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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