YouTube videos invisible
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Every month, we post a newsletter that contains a youtube video, embedded using the YouTube shortcode.
Looking back over these posts now, the embedded video is invisible. When you hover your mouse over the gap where the video should be, the mouse pointer changes to suggest you can click on something, and when you do the video starts playing and you can hear it, but you just can’t see it!
Here is one example post showing this behaviour.
This only seems to be a problem in Chrome. Just tried Opera and IE on the same machine and they are fine, and tried Chrome on another machine and it shows the same issue.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi, does this only happen when you put the video into columns? You’re using an older theme, so I’m wondering if there’s an issue with it supporting columns and videos together at the same time.
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Looking at other posts, this does indeed appear only to be a problem with columns. And, as noted, it is only a problem in Chrome.
Happy to be instructed on how to use columns so that they do work with videos.
Cheers,
Morag -
Thanks for the details, it seems to be a bug and so I reported it to our developers here.
As a heads up, we’re working through a backlog at the moment so it may take a little while before they are able to review it. Not all bugs will be addressed because it depends on the severity of the bug and how many sites are affected.
You can also consider changing your theme to a newer ones, like the Twenty Twenty :)
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Thanks for the update on the defect.
On the subject on themes, why are themes aged out? I picked one that I liked the look of and used it when I set up my blog. Am I supposed to keep changing it just to be supported? Why does look and feel get old?
Is there one that is “new” that is the same look and feel as the one I am currently using?
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On the subject on themes, why are themes aged out?
The web is constantly evolving: the different coding languages are constantly being updated and improved, the way browsers interpret those languages change, and the WordPress software itself is updated accordingly.
When a theme or plugin for WordPress is written, it’s written based on best practices and using the version of a coding language available at that time. As best practices, languages and other software change, it reaches a point where it’s no longer viable to keep the theme up to date without completely re-writing it from scratch. So the theme is retired instead so our developers can focus on creating new themes instead of spending most of their time trying to prevent outdated software from breaking.
You can still continue using a retired theme, and we still do security updates to them so it won’t make your site vulnerable to attack, but as WordPress and the web at large continue evolving, it will eventually start having issues.
Is there one that is “new” that is the same look and feel as the one I am currently using?
The Twenty Eleven theme you’re using has not been retired. But it is nine years old – it was the default theme that came with the WordPress software in 2011 – which in computer time is ancient. A lot has changed in how the web works since this theme was made, and WordPress itself has also had massive changes, most recently the block editor, and Twenty Eleven has not been updated for the block editor, so all blocks might not work well with it.
I used to use it as well, and it’s a great theme, but I don’t know of any modern theme that has a similar look and feel to it – design trends on the web also change, and people just aren’t designing new themes that look like Twenty Eleven any more. So if you’re considering changing themes, approach it as an opportunity to refresh and re-invent your site with a new look. I did exactly that a few years ago when I switched from Twenty Eleven to a different theme that looks nothing like it, and I haven’t regretted it once :)
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I’ve looked into this some more, and the issue is not related to your theme. Instead it looks like Youtube embeds just don’t work reliably in columns.
I’m still doing some testing on my end, and will let you know if I find a way to make this work.
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Hi there,
Just a quick post to let you know that this appears to now be fixed.
Thank you,
Cheers,
Morag -
Thanks for letting us know it’s working for you again :)
I still hadn’t been able to find the cause of this, but if it just started working again it means it was likely an unrelated change that broke this, which has since been fixed.
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