Forum:Extension to External links policy: Video Links

Please see Policy/Video links for the policy and voting booth. Proposing a limit to the number of video links shown on a given page.

--Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 01:18, November 24, 2009 (UTC)


 * Looks good to me. 19:28, November 25, 2009 (UTC)


 * Had you and Pcj both comment on the policy, but neither has actually voted. Pcj suggested that it be added to WW:EL.  I've no objection to that.  But don't we need actual votes to make it part of policy? --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 00:09, December 3, 2009 (UTC)
 * You'll still only have 3...I might just decree it if it languishes too long. -- 00:22, December 3, 2009 (UTC)
 * I've been looking at the number of embedded videos continue to grow out of hand in the ICC encounters. Putricide must have over a dozen videos already, and most of them are all just regular guild kills. I think it's getting out of hand, and I would definitely like to change see this curbed. Options may be to switch to links instead of embedded videos (the latter seems to slow down the loading of a page) with a detailed description (and to discourage people from just posting a regular kill video vs. narrated strat videos, etc). People have been sneakily moving their own guild's videos up in the list so they show up first, too. Definitely not nice. --teni (talk) 18:51, April 7, 2010 (UTC)

I've hand-trimmed a few pages of the ICC encounters. Think Putricide gets the next chop. --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 19:39, April 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Eirik -- I would LOVE to chop a lot of the videos. I just need to spend some time watching all of them to make sure what's being dropped is due to poorer quality, etc. and I need to do that when I have a little extra time. Question for you: In something like Putricide where you have four scenarios (10-man, 10-man hard mode, 25-man, and 25-man hard mode), do we want to allow up to four of EACH, or do we want to allow embedding of four total (selecting the best one based on quality, helpfulness--whether it's labeled, provides an instructions, etc.) with external links for the best? I really think people are going nuts automatically adding a link to the video of their guild's boss kill, and it's causing some serious lag on page loads. Teni (talk) 21:59, April 7, 2010 (UTC)

What I remember of the guidelines I used, editing those few pages I did, was:
 * Initially, one narration video, one on-screen text video
 * per additional mode (25 man, 10man heroic, 25man heroic), one additional video, maybe two if they were noteworthy. The point, though, is that the video has to be describing things not found in the "base mode" videos".
 * "art" videos were given kind-of an exception in my judgement, but there aren't many of those.
 * If the video was just a video of the fight without any redeeming features, it gets dumped into the links section even if there are no other qualifying videos.
 * with each link I reviewed, I added at least javascript comments about the type of video it was, so the next editor doesn't have to review half an hour's worth of footage at a time. We really need a video housing template to contain that information, as well as a more convenient Youtube video link template.

... And I think that I may have been too lenient as is. Myself, I browse with scripts disabled, and (generally) with flash uninstalled (as in not there at all). Makes loading a lot quicker, but I have to go run a VM with a browser, when I want to actually look at vids. --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 22:40, April 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Eirik -- where would I find an example of your javascript comment about the type of video it was? I agree, we should have a video link template. There are people who are uploading multiple videos of the same encounter to the same page! (in the case of Putricide, it was one guild posting both parts 1 and 2 of their encounter). Teni (talk) 23:14, April 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Lady_Deathwhisper --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 01:00, April 8, 2010 (UTC)

In my humble opinion, we should just disable &lt;youtube> links, "Video" uploads (as in, use of the Video namespace), and then simply restrict to the links. It's much easier to judge when they are confined to a link, it will be easier on our users' browsers, and to me, the videos are simply unsightly. --Sky (t · c · w) 22:54, April 7, 2010 (UTC) Pcj: :|. --Sky (t · c · w) 23:24, April 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmm, I like part of that idea, we could disable the YouTube extension in favor of a template that would load the embedded player only upon the user's request. -- 23:17, April 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * One of the issues I'm having with embedded videos is that some people seem to think it's their way of showing off their guild's boss kill in WoWWiki instead of at their own guild Web sites. "Our video is at WoWWiki" as if that somehow makes their encounter better. I was perusing the history of Putricide page edits, and there are people who are not only uploading videos, but when doing so, they insert their own videos before the others; this is quickly turning into an epeen contest and I would personally argue the neutrality of such an action. Teni (talk) 23:19, April 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * This is a common issue with external links in general, and was an issue when YouTube was still restricted to an actual link. I suspect the notices common to most pages are what prevent many people from acting this way, but of course&hellip;.
 * Is there really any serious need to have videos of fights? There are enough well-known sites out there that host good ones that I would love to be able to just cut them altogether. -- Dark T Zeratul (talk) 00:33, April 8, 2010 (UTC)
 * One might include "Youtube" among those sites. I, for one, am not familiar with those "well known sites" you speak of, Dark.  I imagine I'm not alone.  While I'm not sanguine about having embedded videos on our pages, I'm a supporter of having links to videos and have acquiesced to the embedded ones due to apparent popular clamor. And I agree with Pcj's thought of a Youtube template or Sky's "no embedded videos" idea.  Embedded or not, we'll still need link management.  --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 00:54, April 8, 2010 (UTC)

Just an update: I've cleaned up the video section for Lord Marrowgar and Deathbringer Saurfang and pared inline videos down to two per category. I haven't removed any videos, but the extra ones (esp boss kill videos with no narrative/in-video text to add to the encounter) have been moved to the Additional Videos section. Looks much tidier. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll continue to clean up boss strat pages with overflowing YouTube videos. Until we have a more concrete policy, my effort will focus on keeping things in check. Teni (talk) 22:20, April 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for helping keep things cleaned up around here. =) 18:26, April 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * You're quite welcome! Normally I only have bits of time here and there to do quick copy edits, but that video stuff was just really getting to my nerves. I'll continue to clean up the boss encounter pages for ICC as I can. Teni (talk) 18:22, April 19, 2010 (UTC)