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After logging on to YouTube I see the following message over a pink background at the top of the screen: "I call shenanigans". Does anyone know what it's all about? I'm using Chrome, so I'm guessing it's not a browser compatibility issue...

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Edit (after answer received, to summarize the answer): this probably occurs when you are trying to connect to a YouTube account while the same browser is already connected to some other Google account (either YouTube, Gmail or other?). To resolve: if your browser is currently open on a Gmail or YouTube other than the account you want to login with to YouTube, just open a new browser and login using it.

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it might be an add or some prank played by one of your co-workers – Mahmoud Hossam Sep 1 '09 at 8:03
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Nothing to do with your actual question, but "I call shenanigans" is an expression. urbandictionary.com/… – Don Salva Sep 1 '09 at 8:08
@Phobia: probably not, there are other mentions of this over Google (you can search for yourself), but no solution – Roee Adler Sep 1 '09 at 8:08
@NoCanDo: I know what it means literally... – Roee Adler Sep 1 '09 at 8:08
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As for your question, it's a prank between YouTube devs that wasn't supposed to be shown to the outside world. Somehow it did show...*shrug*...I guess the devs have a laugh whenever a confused YouTube user asks this very question ;) – Don Salva Sep 1 '09 at 15:41
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closed as off topic by random♦ 2 days ago

Questions on Super User are expected to generally relate to computer software or computer hardware, within the scope defined in the faq.

4 Answers

up vote 10 down vote accepted

After a little searching I found the following quoted section which should give you something to try.

I have found that when I use a separate browser, that this problem is resolved. So, I use one browser for one YouTube account and another one for my other YouTube account(s). Especially remove the "&feature=email" part of the YouTube links that come in your emails sent to your main email address. This resolves my issue completely. Must be some issue with cookies! Maybe YouTube thinks we are rating our own videos? Not my case! I just have more than one YouTube channel - a personal and a regular! Anyway, I'm guessing the problem has something to do with browser cookies...

Please comment if this does work for you, as Superuser is already the top search result :)

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Yes, I think it's the case. What happened with me is that I had my Gmail open, but my YouTube account is on a different e-mail address. – Roee Adler Sep 2 '09 at 6:06
I was trying to link my YouTube account with my Google account. It automatically displayed the right two accounts, but when clicking Link these accounts I got that error. Got around it by using the Link with "other" account button. – Svish Dec 6 '09 at 7:34
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up vote 3 down vote

I googled it and found a few other places where this question was asked. The most convincing answer (from youtube's support forum) is that it's a prank among the Google programers that probably was never meant to be seen by the public. Here is a good search to sift through if you need to find out more.

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up vote 0 down vote

Do you have a virus? Scanned for spyware/viruses/etc using your favorite scanner of choice? Very odd..

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I'm very well protected, using a corporate laptop with all the bells and whistles (Antivirus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware, etc) – Roee Adler Sep 1 '09 at 7:58
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up vote 0 down vote

It's most likely a developer tool used to indicate the server caught a "bad call" in the URL "switches" that are on the end of most video URL's. The possibility that it is a developer tool would indicate why the alert looks so informal, and may or may not have been intended to be seen by the general user.

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