A thought on naked videos

Sometimes people post naked videos (embedding youtube videos without any text - no not videos of naked things).  

Sometimes this looks like spam and it isn't intended to.

Other times it's fine.

Sometimes it makes things difficult for the moderators because we don't have time to watch six hours of video to see if a single post meets publishing standards.  This is especially difficult in cider press conversations.

Other times it's fine.

Sometimes the video is only visible in some countries and to others, it looks like it's a dead video and needs cleaning up before it makes the thread smell bad

Other times it's fine.


I'm going to make a suggestion:  When posting a video, include a couple of sentences what the video is about and indicate in some way why it is relevant to the conversation.  (this is also really good advice when you want to share a link to something nifty)

Not only would this help the staff, help people with slow internet, but also it makes the video (or link) you shared more likely to get views.  

Recently, we have noticed a few people are posting videos with content that is not nice. Seemingly as a way to bypass the be nice rule for conversations on this forum.

If you notice videos like that, please use the report button to bring them to the moderators attention. I don't want to watch videos, so it would be a huge help to the staff if those of you that are watching them would vet them for us.

In a large facebook group that I admin we have a "no naked links" rule. If you think something is worth sharing then we expect you to make a comment of your own to at least start a discussion. As you say, there is a huge amount of content out there that would not meet the group standards and sometimes videos are a way to sneak that by the moderators.

Man I thought this was about videos of naked people. lol

Seriously, I don`t think I have the required level of maturity either.

te he.
got your attention with my double entendre.

A few more posts like this came up overnight from various users.

Some of them looked a lot like spam and off-topic.  

A few posts had two or more hours of video and no text describing what was in the video.  To watch all those videos in those posts it would take about 18 hours.  I suspect these were removed out of exasperation!  

We're volunteers here.  We donate our time to keep permies a nice place to hang out.  Posting edge case videos and expecting some poor sod to watch hours and hours of video to see if your post meets publishing standards doesn't seem like nice behaviour to me.  I had a quick glance at those edge case posts and I think the staff involved were absolutely right to remove that content - not because it did or didn't meet publishing standards but because it was disrespectful to expect the staff to spend that much time watching a video to see if a post met publishing standards.  

What it feels like is that a few people are trying to get around publishing standards by spamming us with excess video content and if the content of that video doesn't meet publishing standards, they can say "well I didn't make that video, so you have no right to remove my post".  I'm sure it isn't their intention to come across this way.  But it is what it feels like they are doing.  

I repeat my earlier suggestion: When posting a video, it helps the staff immensely if you can include a couple of sentences what the video is about and indicate in some way why it is relevant to the conversation.  

Michael Cox wrote:In a large facebook group that I admin we have a "no naked links" rule. If you think something is worth sharing then we expect you to make a comment of your own to at least start a discussion. As you say, there is a huge amount of content out there that would not meet the group standards and sometimes videos are a way to sneak that by the moderators.

I vote for adopting this policy.

It should be easy to justify why a video is worth sharing, and not difficult to write a few words about how it is relevant to the discussion.
I've also seen viewing notes such as "the good part starts at 12:34:56, skip to there if you like." which direct a viewer to the relevant passage.

Most of the time, naked videos don't cause an issue.  

Sometimes they are encouraged (Meaningless drivel threads for example).

I would hate it we had to make a site-wide standard because a few users are attempting to take advantage.

I started this thread so we can point people to it if they are having problems with their naked video posts vanishing.

I started a poll to allow people to give feedback about how often they watch videos that are embedded into permies. https://permies.com/t/119414/

r ranson wrote:Sometimes people post naked videos (embedding youtube videos without any text - no not videos of naked things).  

...

So I'm going to make a suggestion that will increase the likelihood of moderators loving your posts and not mistaking it for spam:  When posting a video, include a couple of sentences what the video is about and indicate in some way why it is relevant to the conversation.  (this is also really good advice when you want to share a link to something nifty)

Not only would this help the staff, help people with slow internet, but also it makes the video (or link) you shared more likely to get views.  

I'll make a further suggestion that videos be shorter than 5 or 6 minutes. If the poster thinks a longer video is important, its length should be stated, and a correspondingly longer description and rationale should be included. This clearly shows respect to the forum and its viewers.

I really dislike when folks don't put at least some sort of explanation for a video they post. Just posting a video with nothing explaining why, generally I wont even bother to watch it. the only exception to this is a thread that the person has been posting videos and pics in regularly.

David Wieland wrote:

r ranson wrote:Sometimes people post naked videos (embedding youtube videos without any text - no not videos of naked things).  

...

So I'm going to make a suggestion that will increase the likelihood of moderators loving your posts and not mistaking it for spam:  When posting a video, include a couple of sentences what the video is about and indicate in some way why it is relevant to the conversation.  (this is also really good advice when you want to share a link to something nifty)

Not only would this help the staff, help people with slow internet, but also it makes the video (or link) you shared more likely to get views.  

I'll make a further suggestion that videos be shorter than 5 or 6 minutes. If the poster thinks a longer video is important, its length should be stated, and a correspondingly longer description and rationale should be included. This clearly shows respect to the forum and its viewers.

I have to say the 5 min attention span of our society is rather sad. Youtube videos over 5 min get significantly less views. The saddest part is people will watch 100's of 5 min videos spending hours watching them, but then complain about a video that is 15 min being too long instead of thinki8ng that is just 3 5 min videos in 1. A lot of the videos I watch tend to be more 10-20 min range. But I am also not watching tons of cat, and fail videos on youtube. I tend to look for stuff with good info that6 takes a bit more than 5 min.

I sometimes post longer videos, an hour or more, and will post a link as well as the embedded. With the explanation that it is a longer vid and someone might want to watch at their leisure.

I'll make a further suggestion that videos be shorter than 5 or 6 minutes. If the poster thinks a longer video is important, its length should be stated, and a correspondingly longer description and rationale should be included. This clearly shows respect to the forum and its viewers.

I have to say the 5 min attention span of our society is rather sad. Youtube videos over 5 min get significantly less views. The saddest part is people will watch 100's of 5 min videos spending hours watching them, but then complain about a video that is 15 min being too long instead of thinki8ng that is just 3 5 min videos in 1. A lot of the videos I watch tend to be more 10-20 min range. But I am also not watching tons of cat, and fail videos on youtube. I tend to look for stuff with good info that6 takes a bit more than 5 min.

I sometimes post longer videos, an hour or more, and will post a link as well as the embedded. With the explanation that it is a longer vid and someone might want to watch at their leisure.

I wasn't referring to attention span but to time commitment and topic focus. Longer videos often ramble. Personally, I'm trying to reduce my screen time in favour of productivity.

So...

I got this purple message, and I am puzzled as when I goto the link that I am told is broken, it works?

Please advise,  I did not know how to reply to a purple message as it only says "staff"...   no reply button seen...



----------------------



Inbox :: Message
From: Staff
To: Mart Hale
Date: Today 1:19:35 PM
Subject: Please check URL
Hi Mart Hale,

Regarding: Kelly Kettle boil water time.

A link, image, or video in your post appears to be broken or non-functional. Could you please check the URL and edit or update as appropriate?

To view and possibly edit your post, click here.  You also have the ability to copy and paste the best parts of your post to make a whole new reply in that thread.

I hope this helps,
permies.com volunteer staff

===============================



Pic of message in question...   I click on link of the youtube video and  it works and previews for me. ->


See attachment.

what's the link to the post?

https://permies.com/t/152965/Kelly-Kettle-boil-water-time#1197670

I checked on the link. It is working for me. Canceled the action item.

Link says for me "unavailable in your country". Probably that is the issue?

Ah, video isn't available in my country either.  

This is one of the reasons why we encourage posting more than just the video.  A title or description helps people who can't view the video - or when the video gets taken down - find out what the post is about.  Otherwise, it's just a naked, broken link.  

it looks like this - no indication what the video was about.   And no way to find out.  

Ok, I can see it but some staff cannot.    Must be that youtube has it locked down for certain countries.      If you are using VPN you coulc switch to another country and should be able to see it....


I can understand why this would be an issue for some staff that are in countries that youtube does not allow this video to be seen.

Thanks for putting it back up, I see some others can see it,

Cheers.

It's copyright issues that usually block videos.  

But we also have this problem a lot with old posts where the image or the video vanishes into the ether.

Given that staff often cannot tell which is a block on a country or which is a dead video (sometimes it says, often it doesn't) that post will probably quietly vanish again the next time a non-USA staff member sees it.  

The best thing is to avoid posting naked links or videos.  Add a sentence or two to describing what the content is.  That way the video isn't naked any more and the post is worth keeping even if we cannot all see the video.

r ranson wrote:
The best thing is to avoid posting naked links or videos.  Add a sentence or two to describing what the content is.  That way the video isn't naked any more and the post is worth keeping even if we cannot all see the video.

hint, I usually copy-paste some of the description from youtube and put it in the post in quotes.  I'm lazy that way, but it does the trick

r ranson wrote:It's copyright issues that usually block videos.  

But we also have this problem a lot with old posts where the image or the video vanishes into the ether.

Given that staff often cannot tell which is a block on a country or which is a dead video (sometimes it says, often it doesn't) that post will probably quietly vanish again the next time a non-USA staff member sees it.  

The best thing is to avoid posting naked links or videos.  Add a sentence or two to describing what the content is.  That way the video isn't naked any more and the post is worth keeping even if we cannot all see the video.

Also, if the poster of a video includes the precise title of the video in the post, it tends to future-proof the post.  (Videos generally do not stay up for long, compared to the age of active threads at Permies.)  Many staff will respond to a broken video by searching out another appearance on the web (if the video seems promising from the text description provided) and posting a new working link in a staff note that everyone can see.  Having the video title available makes this 10,000 times easier.

A naked link in a thread about how bad such things are?

What are you up to Paul?  I'm about to be RickRolled, aren't I?  I'll play your little game ...  log in for Age Verfification (?!) ... nope, too early on Saturday for me to laugh.

It's magic!

I am tempted to post a dozen links to videos featuring nudity.  

To the topic at hand:  a video without a description is okay; a video with a description is better.   Further, posting videos without a description could piss off the staff a bit because having to look at a video to figure out if it meets our publishing standards is a pain in the ass.  I suggest to the staff that if a post has a video without description and the video turns out to not meet our publishing standards, then I think it would be good to give out an apple core or two before deleting the post.  

To the other topic at hand:  I like the idea that we do not fear naked people.  Naked gardening.  Naked magic tricks.  Naked bike rides.  Whatever.  At the same time, we are not a site for spam - so we have removed a lot of porn spam.    I think if you look at the whole site, there are probably a couple dozen naked pics - so not much, but it is there.

paul wheaton wrote:I am tempted to post a dozen links to videos featuring nudity.  

mahahaha!!!  my evil ploy to get people's attention by talking about nudity worked.  

More and more videos vanish or are blocked in some countries due to copyright enforcement or other reasons.  

So bump, if you post a video, especially a long one that isn't just fun or frivolous, then it's really good to add some words about why you think it's worth watching and what it's about.  Otherwise, people just skip over it or report it as spam.  

I love learning about new plants, ideas, etc, please help me out by sharing why I would like the video.

I have very slow internet that is like on a ration basis so I can only watch videos before 5:00 am.  I skip the video thinking I will watch it tomorrow then I forget.

If a video is worth sharing here on permies, please tell me why it is worth sharing and something about it.

Just saw a post with a naked link.

No text.

No images

nothing to say what the link is or if it's relevant or if it's evil or if it is the user's friend who 'borrowed' the password and is posting crazy stuff as a joke to make that person look like an ass.

What's more, most people know that the fastest way to kill your computer is to click an unknown link.  Not much point sharing a link without words because it's not going to get many clicks even if it makes it through the spam filter.

So maybe... if you want to share a nifty link, please share a few words about what is on the other side.  You can even copy-paste a few sentences and put it in a quote box.

Otherwise, the spam filter might catch it and it will vanish without anyone seeing or clicking on it.

At the risk of feature creeping, I'd like to suggest some kind of dialog asking for info when we post a video. Just a few suggestions, a text box to type something into, maybe a link to find out why this is requested. That link could lead to this page or to a shorter summary. (Example dialog attached.)

(Is it still called feature creep if the creeper isn't the customer, but just some nosy guy giving unsolicited advice with no authority over the outcome of the project?)

Looking through the archives this week, I noticed threads that begin with a link and no explanation text aged poorly.   The link breaks.  With no explanation of what started the conversation,  it becomes irrelevant.

Much better for perennial content to include a few sentences on what the link is about.

r ranson wrote:Looking through the archives this week, I noticed threads that begin with a link and no explanation text aged poorly.   The link breaks.  With no explanation of what started the conversation,  it becomes irrelevant.

Much better for perennial content to include a few sentences on what the link is about.

adding to this as I've been going through some of the archives these last two months, post by post to help improve googlelove.

One thing I noticed is that threads with naked links or videos, and the link or video has broken have maybe 200 views in 15 years.  

The threads that have some sort of commentary have about 2,000-5,000 views in the same 15 year span.

It's especially interesting when the two threads have the same link or video and zero replies.  It confirms what google says about loving content with real human additions and disliking content that is just copy-paste or naked links without additional signs a real human cares.   Google used to call this "repetitive content" and that's a good phrase to get started.  Although the language is changing now that they are biased against (non-google-owned) AI content  without additional human commentary.