Ricky MondelloFor me, in Ivory, all shared YouTube links look like this. Anyone know what this is about / is anyone else experiencing this?
Mutesplash@rmondello Yep
Renaud Chaput@rmondello Youtube recently made a change and stopped serving the video pages when Mastodon (or other software, AFAIK) is requesting it, probably using some fingerprinting. Mastodon builds a link preview based on the page that is served, hence what you are seeing (in German because your server is probably located in a datacenter in Germany, or Youtube thinks it should see german language).
We tried to get in touch with people at Youtube, but no success so far.
We tried to get in touch with people at Youtube, but no success so far.
Oliver@rmondello same generic german YT description now for some weeks for me in Ivory
Best Wishes, TheJesusFish@rmondello same. I assumed it was my pihole
Thijs Alkemade@rmondello It's your mastodon instance that fetches the preview, and that is hosted in (or at least YouTube's geoip database thinks it is in) Germany.
Miguel Arroz@xnyhps @rmondello Oh this makes sense. Yeah I’ve been seeing this as well.
Casey Liss@rmondello I'm probably going to get the details wrong, but I _think_ the issue is that your particular instance is hosted in Germany, and the server is grabbing the preview on behalf of the client.
@caseyliss I think you’re exactly right! https://oisaur.com/@renchap/112966046092296223
Renaud Chaput (@[email protected])
@[email protected] Youtube recently made a change and stopped serving the video pages when Mastodon (or other software, AFAIK) is requesting it, probably using some fingerprinting. Mastodon builds a link preview based on the page that is served, hence what you are seeing (in German because your server is probably located in a datacenter in Germany, or Youtube thinks it should see german language). We tried to get in touch with people at Youtube, but no success so far.
@rmondello Something something stopped clock something something 😉
Mats Staugaard@caseyliss @rmondello And up to 51% of the Mastodon network is hosted in Germany at Hetzner which is why it's mostly German Youtube https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/who-hosts-the-fediverse-instances
Chancerubbage@rmondello @caseyliss @renchap
It also might deal from boosts increasing requests on an URL, it can almost be did like default at times.
Leon Cowle@caseyliss @rmondello I understood from others posting about this, that it’s because that’s how youtube or mastodon is creating previews for the youtube url shortener “youtu.be” links (when you click share on a video on YT it uses this url shortener domain). If people use the full YT url, this doesn’t happen.
Jason Garber@rmondello The short URL youtu-dot-be doesn’t provide OpenGraph data, so… no previews.
☝🏻 This little detail came across my feed recently and now I can’t find it to credit the original author. 🙃
The advice from that post was to avoid using YouTube’s share/embed UI and instead copy the video page’s URL from your browser’s address bar.
…and, a relevant reply that Ricky’s boosted:
Renaud Chaput (@[email protected])
@[email protected] Youtube recently made a change and stopped serving the video pages when Mastodon (or other software, AFAIK) is requesting it, probably using some fingerprinting. Mastodon builds a link preview based on the page that is served, hence what you are seeing (in German because your server is probably located in a datacenter in Germany, or Youtube thinks it should see german language). We tried to get in touch with people at Youtube, but no success so far.
Niléane@jgarber @rmondello @renchap FWIW in my testing, sharing youtube[dot]com urls instead of youtu[dot]be didn't make a difference.
Jeff@rmondello It’s a known issue with Mastodon, not Ivory particularly. Has to do with preview card generation. A workaround seems to be to not use the shortened youtu.be url in your posts. Let’s test it!
30 Minutes of the World's CUTEST Puppies! 🐶💕
@box464 Adorable!
indiescribe@box464 @rmondello I can see the puppies!
@nileane Nooo! Definitely a locality issue. I can see the headline now from YouTube “EU regulations are taking your puppies”
James Gallagher@rmondello I saw this mentioned earlier and there’s a reply with a GitHub link issue so hopefully being worked on https://flipboard.social/@coffeegeek/112958565729144950
CoffeeGeek (@[email protected])
Are youtube links no longer working on Mastodon as cards? The last couple I've posted are just a generic youtube small card that just opens a new blank browser window, and stalls. #youtube #mastodon #fediverse
nilsmielke ⁂@rmondello Same in @elk, btw.
vera grey 
@rmondello i’ve been getting this for all youtube links on my server for a few months now, not just the link-shortened ones. best as i can tell, the server itself isn’t seeing a link preview so it can only serve this butchered version
i was even able to reproduce it by just using curl while ssh’d into the server, so it’s not even mastodon’s fault nor any client 🙃
Practically everyone. Has something to do with the URL server your particular server is using. For dot social, German and French are common.
(Google tracking or avoiding such related?)
If you are posting a YouTube link, provide context in your toot, you can’t rely on the url or thumbnail providing a title.
Brian Grinter@rmondello working fine in Australia. I use the urlrerjer than share links. Not sure if that helps
Jorge Rosas@rmondello same here with the Ice Cubes app.
felface@rmondello
Also seen on infosec.exchange here thought it was as it’s hosted in Germany but you’re not on there 🤔🤔
https://infosec.exchange/@jerry/112949684508943321
Also seen on infosec.exchange here thought it was as it’s hosted in Germany but you’re not on there 🤔🤔
https://infosec.exchange/@jerry/112949684508943321
Jerry Bell :bell: :llama: :verified_paw: :verified_dragon: :rebelverified: (@[email protected])
@Sempf @bretthaines it seems like YouTube in particular changes something periodically that causes this. In any event, there is a GitHub issue for this problem https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/30365
Rick@rmondello I’m seeing this for other sites as well.
Ölbaum@rmondello It took me way too long than I want to admit to realise that “Bevor Sie nach YouTube weitergehen” was not the latest viral video in Germany.
Exandra