Update Dec 22, 22:00 EST: The issue with video buffering has been greatly improved, if not completely solved at this point at speeds as slow as 3G. The issue with videos automatically restarting at the end of a video has been mostly solved, and seems to only happen intermittently. We are continuing to work on that issue. Features like volume memory, video quality selection on mobile, and other aesthetic bugs will be brought in next week. If you still experience jittery buffering, where the buffer wheel flashes on and off the screen when trying to skip ahead in a video, please admin@funker530.com with your device and browser and we will investigate further.

Update Dec 21, 12:00 EST: Bugs regarding ad playback and ad skip buttons have been resolved. Current remaining bugs include odd video buffering behavior when skipping past the buffered section of the video on mobile, and at the end of a video. Once a video completes you should see a grid with related videos to choose from, but currently the video buffers and then restarts. On desktop you need to click the paused end of a video to see the related videos grid. We are working on fixing these issues now. We are also testing a reduced frequency of video ads as we balance our ad inventory and demand. Please continue to report bugs to admin@funker530.com.

Update Dec 14, 1:00 EST: We just deployed a fix which should solve any playback issues in FireFox. The issue where the skip button doesn't work still exists, but a page refresh solves it every time from what can see, and are working on squashing that bug now. Please continue to report bugs to admin@funker530.com.

This week we made a major leap forward towards full autonomy, with the launch of our new video player we built ourselves. Having control over our own player reduces the risk of us being influenced by outside forces, gives us full control over the player controls, and will allow us to add some unique community driven features in the near future.

There were two huge example of censorship affecting us. The first is that all of France was being blocked from watching videos for the last year. Now you can comment on your own riot footage again :) The second is that many major ISP's in the US were blocking all video ads at the ISP level, in an attempt to bankrupt Rumble, and anyone using their player. Both of these issues have now been dealt with.

The first user requested feature has already been released, which is that video recommendations that appear at the end of the video now lead to the actual video page, which has been a major feature request for the past 2 years that we previously couldn't control. All videos now come with English translated subtitles, which is a massive feature for our mission of archiving and providing context to global conflict footage.

Unfortunately, as with any new release, there are a few bugs our devs are working out. We didn't plan on rolling out the new player until everything was fully tested, however our previous video provider crashed for nearly a full day which forced to send our player into the wild with the hopes that our community would understand and be our beta testers. Fortunately, the vast majority of these bugs can be resolved by just refreshing the page a few times. Sometimes it takes one refresh, other times five, but this should be fully resolved by the end of this week. Here are some issues we know about that you will most likely experience over the next few days across all browsers, apps, and devices:

- Skip ad button not working. Solution: refresh page until it works.

- When the skip ad button does not work, and the pre-roll ad completes, the video skips to the end. Solution: refresh page until it works.

- Volume is too loud on some videos. We're looking to set the default volume at 75%.

- Video won't play at all. Solution: refresh page until it works.

- Subtitles inaccurate or too intrusive. This will be fine tuned as we move forward, and your preference for having them enabled or disabled will be saved.

These issues are also present within our app, and seem most prominent on Android. If you're reading this blog, please spread the word that we are working on getting things resolved as quickly as possible in the comment sections around the site when you see others confused or frustrated.

Thanks for your patience while we iron out these final few details, and if the bugs are too frustrating for you right now, check back on Friday and things should be running smoothly.

I also want to send a huge thank you to our sponsors who make updates and progress like this possible. Armored Republic, ATN, Arbor Arms, Jake's Mint Chew, Savage Tacticians, Toolbox Widget, Downrange Supplements, and many more over the past few years are the only reason we're still here. I would highly encourage you to support these companies if you enjoy this community.

Also a huge thank you to our veteran owned and operated developers at Hammrtech, who continues to pull off the impossible and keep things running smooth here.