Topic: Can DF video editors please standardise comparison layouts?

To preface this, I am on the Autism Spectrum, which perhaps makes me more sensitive to this than others, I don't know, but DF videos have a bit of a habit of laying out comparisons in, for lack of a better term, the wrong way.

To boil this down to a one sentence TLDR: Old goes on the Left, New goes on the Right.

Or, Old goes First, New goes Second, if you prefer.

It may sound silly, but for some reason, not adhering to this standard really messes up my ability to follow a video. My mind just expects comparisons to be presented in this way, and when they're not, it's like a hiccup, or stutter, and the worst part is that recognising it doesn't fix it. Every time there's a comparison, my brain instinctively expects the old example to be on the left, and the new one on the right, and every time it's not, I'm confused and distracted. No matter how often it happens, or how aware I am of it, it doesn't help.

A good example of this happens to be the most recent DF video published as of this post, Halo: Campaign Evolved. All the comparison shots are presented "backwards" or "mirrored" with Campaign Evolved on the left, and then either Aniversary or OG Halo on the right. I hate to sound hyperbolic, but this ruined my ability to enjoy that video for what it's intended to be, which is a technical comparison.

I've been excited for this video from DF for a while. It's a title I'm interested in, from a franchise I love, covered by a channel I respect. But I made it less than 5 minutes into the video, and here I am writing this because I know that's as far as I'm going to get.

If this were a one-off, I probably wouldn't be so vehement, but this is an area where DF are consistently inconsistent. There doesn't seem to be a style-guide in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening, and while most videos adhere to the standard, and IMO correct, format, every so often a video comes along that gets things wrong. Sometimes there are clusters of them, sometimes it's just a blip. In this case I feel like it's been quite a while since one has cropped up, but I think that makes it all the worse considering the otherwise apparent care and attention given to the title at hand.

I've spoken to people on the subreddit about this before, so I know this isn't just a "me" problem. It likely effects different people to different degrees, many can just shrug it off and adapt with minor inconvenience, but I feel confident in making the point that this doesn't make it not a problem. As odd as cultural norms may seem, they do matter, and in the west, we write from left to right. It's how our minds are conditioned to parse information. If a detergent ad presented clean on the left and dirty on the right with the text "After and Before" I think it's fair to say they'd messed up.

Sorry if this comes across as whiney or entitled, but I love the channel and wouldn't be complaining if I didn't. Having a note or guide for editors to prevent this from happening would be a huge help.

It may sound hyperbolic, but this literally ruined my ability to enjoy the video as a technical comparison, which is it's main purpose.

Edit: I got focused in on the Halo video, comparing versions of a title, but this goes for comparing presets or settings within a title as well. This happens less often, because I think it's even more apparently incorrect, but there have been occasions where DF videos have shown Quality mode on the Left, Performance mode on the Right, or displayed PC settings in descending order, i.e. High - Medium - Low.

Like I say, this is rarer, but I feel like that reinforces the point that it's the wrong way to do it.