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Video-Heavy Threads

Last posted Oct 04, 2012 at 10:39PM EDT. Added Oct 02, 2012 at 10:53PM EDT
15 posts from 10 users

I think it would be wise to start regulating threads with a lot of YouTube embeds. For example, whenever I try to open Music General, my flash crashes because it can't handle forty-odd videos on one page. It's rather irritating.

I agree. When the topic revolves around something where people need to embed (here, music general, and even threads that revolve around posting .gifs), they should be considerate enough to use spoiler tags for a post that contains more than one video or multiple gifs, and they should use spoilers if they post a video more than once in threads where everyone is posting a video. Just something that should be common posting etiquette by now. I don't think there's a good way we could enforce this, though.

madcat wrote:

I agree. When the topic revolves around something where people need to embed (here, music general, and even threads that revolve around posting .gifs), they should be considerate enough to use spoiler tags for a post that contains more than one video or multiple gifs, and they should use spoilers if they post a video more than once in threads where everyone is posting a video. Just something that should be common posting etiquette by now. I don't think there's a good way we could enforce this, though.

We could always amend the rules.

Right. I made that suggestion in another music-related thread, because the same things occurred to my browser when going through that, even though I normally don't have that sort of problem with pages.

Pony General has a "light" rule about posting embeds in that thread:
Don't post more than three of anything, and avoid very large images.

Perhaps a rule like that might help. However, only one embed per post would still have to be solved for threads where music or videos are demanded. In which case, I don't expect users to count to see if a page already has 10 (or some specified number) embeds
 

  • Should it be a "written" rule to not embed at all?
  • Should it be unwritten, but not punished
    • (i.e. mods go into such threads, ask users to not embed videos if the thread is based upon videos, and change the embeds to links instead? After a while, users will pick up on the protocol. In other instances, mods just change embeds to links if there are too many per page.)
  • Do we ask users to stop at a certain number of embeds per page (e.g. 5 or 10) and hope they count how many there already are?

Something else?


I was ninja'd, but I refreshed to see what people might have said before I posted

I'd say that we simply promote the suggested courtesy (i.e. using links or spoilers in threads that can be expected to have many embeds and users/mods asking people to lay off embeds before they get to be too bad.)

Moderators would enforce as needed (i.e. changing embeds to links or spoilers when threads that don't explicitly ask for embeds end up with a lot of embeds.)
 
It's not really damaging the site or being rude (perhaps inconsiderate at the very worst, and only as a group who probably wasn't even aware of the problem, so I'd hate to make it a hard rule.)

I have to agree about the need to regulate embed-heavy threads in some way. I've started entering Music General directly on page 2 through the General portal simply because page one freezes my computer for about a minute, and I have a high-mid-range laptop that's only a few months old, along with a blazing internet connection (most of the time). There's actually a lot of threads right now that imply embeds (and I'll confess that I'm guilty too), which I'm betting kills a lot of users' computers and put some sizable dents in non-Americans' data caps. Personally, I'm all for a rule, formal or informal, that requires spoiler tags or links in a embedding thread.


Here's my idea:

  • Implement a new rule applying to it. It doesn't have to be formal or anything, you could even put it as a small addendum to the site rules. Personally I would say spoiler tags are the best option, but I'm not a mod or site admin, so it's your call.
    • If you do go with spoiler tags, it would probably be a good idea to give a refresher on the code in the rules post, as well the posts I suggest in my second point. I honestly have to go dig up the textile thread, then search through the whole page for the code every time I need them. If they were to become an important tool that could potentially be used daily, I want to be able to find them easier.
  • Write a post in any current embedding threads bringing the rule to the posters' attention. It's possible that someone would open a bumped rules thread, but I don't think many people frequent Site-Related often, and that's not even going into JFF- and Pony General-only users. A lot of those threads would benefit from a heads-up.
  • Mod-edit embedding threads to spoiler-tag/link the pre-rule posts, so it doesn't slow down everyone's computers.
    • Edit posts that don't spoiler-tag after the rule change until people get it.

My only question is, at what point do we consider a thread embed-heavy? Five posts seems small, but 10? 15? I know that by that point it starts to slow me down a little bit. 25 is probably too many, as I know for a fact from the bad music thread that that is about the point of freezing for me.


EDIT: And to your question, Verbose, I don't think an infraction needs to be punished in any way, an embed and a minute lost aren't the end of the world. Just edit the tags as a helpful gesture and friendly reminder.

Last edited Oct 03, 2012 at 01:18AM EDT

I think it might be useful to have some means of easily adding markup to forum posts and/or comments through the use of buttons placed either right beside or directly above or otherwise very near to the text box. This would mean fewer trips to the "Textile Guide" thread to copy-paste the code for spoilers.

However, as I have no programming skills whatsoever, I have no idea how difficult it would be to add such a feature.

American Tanker, Hell on Tracks wrote:

I think it might be useful to have some means of easily adding markup to forum posts and/or comments through the use of buttons placed either right beside or directly above or otherwise very near to the text box. This would mean fewer trips to the "Textile Guide" thread to copy-paste the code for spoilers.

However, as I have no programming skills whatsoever, I have no idea how difficult it would be to add such a feature.

I think that's a great idea. There have been a few suggestions to change some posting options, like seeing a preview of your post before you post it and (like you've said) having a menu of commonly used tags/buttons to click like in other forums.

It might be easier if there was a second link to a new page with commonly used HTML and Textile stuff. Right now, there's the Wikipedia "What is Textile" link, but it's not very simple.

Why not have a page with just a header for each tag? No talky stuff. For example:


Commonly Used Thangs

  • Bold

*Put 'yo words in asterisks to make it bold.*

It'll look like this.


  • Embedding Images

!YourImageURL.jpg!

or

<img src="YourImageURL.jpg">

Gets you this like cash money, dawg.


And so forth. Easy to read, easy to copy, (probably) easy(ier) to code, if it's a simple page with the normal KYM format.


As for the other suggestions of letting users know about the heavy video embeds, tomorrow. It's late here. Class.

^ We already have something like Tanker and Verbose are suggesting here:

Nonetheless, I like the idea of expanding that part a bit. I currently only says what is allowed, but doesn't very well explain how or what they do.

The "What is Textile?" section also links you to a Wiki article, which, although informative, is hard to find things in like spoilers and hyperlinking. Plus most of the textile it focuses on in that article is more related to stuff you need for entries than the forum. So perhaps let that link go to the Textile thread, as that is where most people seem to get their textile nowadays. Just change the entire line to: "For information on html and textile used on KYM, please go here." (or something similar)

I can probably update the OP post there a bit, to include footnotes that bring you directly to what you need and give it some more oversight, makes it a lot easier to scroll through. This also covers Verbose's second page idea. We already use threads for things like the rules, I don't see how textile shouldn't work if that once that thread receives some small work.

Last edited Oct 03, 2012 at 09:16AM EDT

Here is a solution you can try on your end:

Firefox would often freeze and crash on Video-heavy threads so I started using:

Flashblock [firefox addons]


It will make all flash content appear as this:

Simply click the logo to play that one single video or ad if you like.

Here is how the entire video thread appears to me
No crashing, no issues. Only plays what I want and doesnt cause display issues that adblock sometimes brings.

Flashblock is also available for Chrome. Not sure if exact same software as for Firefox.

I understand its kinda weird to have to block videos, but thats what happens.
Last edited Oct 03, 2012 at 01:28PM EDT

I do see merit to that, but I would not ask users to use a certain browser or to use a particular add-on to use the site, even if it's free. I feel like it places responsibility for a problem on the person who's subjected to the problem and not the people causing the problem (they aren't doing anything wrong, but they/the collective are/is responsible for the issue.)

Verbose wrote:

I do see merit to that, but I would not ask users to use a certain browser or to use a particular add-on to use the site, even if it's free. I feel like it places responsibility for a problem on the person who's subjected to the problem and not the people causing the problem (they aren't doing anything wrong, but they/the collective are/is responsible for the issue.)

I understand completely. But for now, anyone who is sick of videos overloading their browsers/PCs can get a temporary fix.

Ill see if i can think of a more proper solution for this problem. But tbh I don't really have any idea except for video auto-spoiler of some sort.

I'd like to throw in my views of the wonderful world of spoiler buttons.

They seem like an easy solution that everyone can adjust to. They'd definitely ease up the complaints of browser crashes. Just embed the video behind a spoiler with a proper title.

I understand not everyone will want to take the time to do this, but I think it is something we should take the time to do. So you waste a few seconds finding the right code? At least you're being considerate of those whose browsers can't handle the massive barrage of links. I think we should be encouraging the use of them in any thread containing videos.

Last edited Oct 05, 2012 at 12:39AM EDT

The fact that the spoiler button is moderately complex and often requires looking in the textile thread to remind one how to do it probably contributes to it's low use. Give them a short cut (like * for bold text).

I agree with Bob. I've actually started suggesting spoiler tags of my own initiative in a couple of embed threads. It's not really that hard to write it, as long as you have an extremely basic understanding of HTML code you'll get it immediately, and if you don't, it's ridiculously easy to explain. I've just taken to actually writing the code when I suggest it in an easily understandable form for someone with no programming experience, by going <div class="spoiler" title="insert your title here">insert your embed code here</div>. Easy, concise, and simple to understand.


Coolface, you ninja'd me, so let me explain that * is a part of textile markup, which is a standard language that doesn't have a spoiler markup. HTML does, and honestly, if you explain it right, anyone can use it. Coding a custom spoiler command would probably be rather difficult (don't ask me, I don't know anything about implementing textile into a site).

Last edited Oct 04, 2012 at 10:55PM EDT
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