Of the 10 DU post I've just read 9 of them were videos

[Iwasthere]

This discussion thread was locked by EarlG (a host of the General Discussion forum).

I can't always watch videos 🙁

[marble falls]

1. Sharpen your search perameter. Or close caption them and read. I read more of them than I listen to.

[Diamond_Dog]

4. I do the same

And if it seems like ten minutes of blah blah blah just to hear one sentence I log out.

[marble falls]

9. Absolutely. Also if there are any capitalized titles promising "Putin DESTROYED by ... , TFG EVISCERATED by ..., ...

... I don't watch them. Click bait titles on videos are a major turn off. As is most of these home video bloggers. I wish there were fewer and that they all could be more like Bryan Tyler Cohen - he shows the clip first and then make his comment, he does not break them into a ten or fifteen peices and blather between them about what we saw with our own eyes and heard with our own ears. It's like they think we're twelve.

[Silent Type]

32. Oh yeah, I'm so tired of titles with those type descriptions. Never watch them.

[marble falls]

39. Sometimes it's tough but then there are two or three of the valuble posters here who actually add the ...

... transcript to their posts. I will break my rule some times and only for them. Otherwise it's a fairly consistent no.

[Silent Type]

62. Yes, several DUers are really good about some narrative. Oh, and the Lounge videos

are fine. Nowadays, that’s about only time I really smile on-line, cats, dogs, toddlers, and stuff.

I do laugh a lot, but it’s often about trump, so it’s not really a warm laugh.

[Cheezoholic]

40. If it looks like a Tennessee Firecracker Stand...

It probably is....

[Trueblue1968]

59. I do not want see videos period. We have a video category. Use It !!

Can't we use this forum as specified in the title. Discussion.

I notice, threads where a video is placed and the OP doesn't bother to say ANYTHING ....there are not too many comments.

What a waste, in my opinion.

[question everything]

72. We don't "have a video category,". you have to decide which forum

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I'm With You

I'd sure prefer a one paragraph synopsis that let's me decide whether I need or want to watch the whole thing.
There used to a forum where just videos were posted & it was perfectly acceptable to do so without comment.
But, I believe that forum has been retired.

[EarlG]

8. There are two forums now specifically for videos

Cable News Clips and Liberal YouTubers.

If you trash both of those forums, you will see significantly fewer videos on DU. It won't completely eliminate them since videos can be posted anywhere, but MOST videos are posted in those two forums, so trashing them will definitely make a difference.

[NewHendoLib]

11. Thanks for this.

Now if we could only trash all caps breathless thread titles

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Thanks

I looked but missed them.
It's not really a problem
Just opining.

[Croney]

15. Done!! Thank you.

[erronis]

58. Thanks. It seems that these front-page videos should not have such a prominent place.

The real-estate on the home page is valuable and having too many large video images is distracting.

[EarlG]

66. This is one of those "you can't please everybody" situations I'm afraid

At launch last October, the DU4 homepage did not have the video column, which had been on the DU3 homepage. We received a significant amount of feedback asking to put it back, so we did.

[orleans]

70. omg! when did you start the cable news clips?? i just managed to locate it and was looking thru

there -- it's AMAZING!!! i love it!
thanks to you and those posters for putting that together.

[Ocelot II]

3. Don't want to be bothered with actually commenting on something? Just post a video.

Come on, people, this is a message board. We're supposed to be thinking, not just collecting other people's videos. If I see that little red video marker I just pass.

[WheelWalker]

13. Damn straight! I couldn't agree with you more, comrade.

[et tu]

23. gee i like choice

and i watch and read a lot of posts- that's why i'm here.
i comment when i want, again another choice. coming
from an educational background, i know that reading is only
one of several learning domains. right brain- visual, i like choice~

[PortTack]

30. Same!

[et tu]

38. thank you

[Ocelot II]

67. You can choose a video if you want. I will almost never choose them because most are time-wasters

and don't deliver what their breathless headlines promise. The real point, though, is that there seems to be a trend toward posting videos with no comments or indications regarding their content. This strikes me as just lazy. If a poster thinks the video is important enough that we ought to take the usual 10 minutes or so to watch it (and maybe have to watch a lot of tendentious blather a long with it), instead of the minute or two to read and understand text with the same content, at least take a little time to tell us what's in it and why it's significant. I also come from an educational background (30 years, give or take) and I know about the different learning styles. But not wasting people's time is just a matter of courtesy.

[erronis]

79. And the same is true for posts that are nothing more than a xitter link

Much better if the poster adds a small abstract about what is in the xit (tweet). I have my browser blocking anything to do with musk but if it looks interesting I can open the xitty link in another browser or private window.

(the x is pronounced like "sh" as in Chairman Xi's name.)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. I agree. I can read key excerpts of an article in less than a minute that a video takes ten minutes to work around to

Many videos are clickbait. Many don't even indicate a source. Further, videos are not quotable or excerptable. Most have no summary or a pitiful teaser sentence pretending to be a summary. Almost never do they have a length indication.

Some are blocked for Canada and other countries.

Frequently I can scan an excerpt in ten seconds, get the key piece of info and move on.

[Rhiannon12866]

25. Anytime I post a video, I provide a caption to explain what it's about. They are available on almost all videos.

[PortTack]

29. I like your videos Rhiannon...thx

[Rhiannon12866]

31. I'm not a fan of videos without captions, either. And they are provided for almost all videos,

[MerryBlooms]

37. I love your video contribution. With my work schedule, and rarely

Watching TV, I'd miss a lot of our liberal TV contributions. Thanks so much for taking the time to post all those videos! I am truly grateful! You are the One person I search for here on DU every morning. Thanks so much! 🥰😘🤗

Also, I appreciate you post in GD and Video. I often don't have time to hen peck around, so I always look for you in GD. It's my DU homepage.

[Rhiannon12866]

41. Awwww! Thanks so much! I try to keep up.

I watch a lot of TV news so that's what I mostly post - except for the late night guys who add the humor we desperately need right now. And I add the captions so DUers will know what they're about, available on almost all videos, especially news. And DU helps me keep up with news, I'd miss so much without it.

[MerryBlooms]

65. You just just keep doing you. I love you. 🥰🥰🥰

And to all the other folks who post videos, I appreciate your efforts too. Thank you. 😘

[femmedem]

47. I look for your videos every day, Rhiannon!

I hated reading the OP because I was afraid it would hurt your feelings or discourage you from posting.

If folks don't like videos, they don't need to watch them. There are some forums I rarely visit--not everything on DU is for everyone--but I would never complain about other people using them.

Why discourage anyone from posting anything that doesn't violate the terms of service and which other people are engaged with?

[Rhiannon12866]

51. It's not the first OP that I've seen like this. I guess too few that there are forums just for videos

I'm not sure why, but I see an equal number posted in GD, not sure if EarlG's closing of V&M means that there's no other place to post videos, but unless the video-avoiders block GD, they're still going to see them.

And yes, I feel bad when I see OPs like this since I make a real effort to keep up with the news. Thanks so much for the encouragement!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

57. You do and I appreciate it. I wish more posters did too. . . . . nt

[Rhiannon12866]

60. Same here! We need to know what it's about without spending the time to see if we're interested

[NJCher]

77. I think it's very important

To document and have access to the spoken word. You do a tremendous service to the forum with your clips.

I often watch the political shows at night and when I hear a good point, it’s nice to know I can access it at DU if I need to, which is fairly often. I send them around to people who are interested but might not be able to watch.

It’s pretty clear how important your clips are by the number of hearts you get at Valentine’s Day. 😊

[Rhiannon12866]

78. Awww! That's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me here!

I've seen more than one thread complaining about videos here, a couple on my actual OPs asking if I can't provide "a transcript," but you've seen what I usually post, portions of news shows that aired within the hour. And I know that many people don't necessarily stay up as late as I do, or don't have cable or even TV, so I try to pass on the news stories I usually watch since that's how I keep up. And I know they're not as popular here as GD or LBN, but I was excited when we started being able to post videos here (V&M and LBN were my first host gigs on DU.2) so that's mostly what I try to share for those who are interested. Thanks!

[qwlauren35]

54. That's me.

I avoid watching videos except Biden ads, Lincoln Project ads and clips of Trump making an ass of himself.

I am a skim reader, and it frustrates me to wade through a video to get information.

Humor, on the other hand is great in video form.

A picture may speak a thousand words but I can't say the same for a video.

[Mysterian]

6. I hate that and I hate "X" posts.

I'll never click on anything from that shite platform.

[Celerity]

74. ...

Link to tweet

[Jerry2144]

7. Right. Just give a warning that it's a video and

An option to filter out all videos. None are worth wasting data on, especially if there’s no summary or anything saying this is what to take away from it.

[Raine]

10. Same here. I just don't bother with those posts

I skip them. I'd rather read then have to look at a video.

[WheelWalker]

12. I largely avoid them like spam.

[SWBTATTReg]

16. Ditto. Heck, by the time you see a few videos, almost 1.5 hours has passed. I don't want to sit there and

watch an endless parade of videos. This is almost as bad as watching camping videos, where in, I swear, almost everyone of them, will show them driving endlessly until they get there, then they spend who knows how much time setting up, and then they spend endless amounts of time cooking. Every video is like this. Now, if I see a camping video, like going to a national park or the like, and it starts out like this, I drop immediately and dump the video. Not everyone wants to watch you cook, you set up camp, blah blah blah.

I really just want to see the sights of that particular area, not your usual camping routine when you get there.

[brush]

17. It's so annoying, and most don't even have a brief summary of what the video is about.

I wish the admin would set wudh a policy on video posts.

[Bucky]

18. Let me just offer my condolences thusly...

[Fiendish Thingy]

19. I really wish videos were restricted to the video forums. Nt

[orthoclad]

20. I liked it better with a video ghetto here

All the videos were concentrated in the video area.

I don't waste time on watching videos. 99% of the time, they're a waste of time and bandwidth, when a couple sentences give the same information. They're a low information density resource.

Text is very high in information density. Pixels aren't info, they're meaningless data.

[EarlG]

21. See this post

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=18772014

[orthoclad]

35. True, but General Discussion

is increasingly filled with blank posts which are only links to videos.

[marble falls]

42. Though not as many as there were. I hate the "insider' post: "Pete just went crazy!" ...

... heard it on line. Now what??? ...."

No real information, just a juicy title. No who, what, where or even a link.

[EarlG]

43. I don't think it's too big of a problem

As I write this, only 6 out of 80 of the OPs on the first page of GD contain a YouTube video. In addition, there are 12 threads containing a tweet.

So currently 62 of the 80 OPs on page one of GD do not contain a tweet or a video. (There’s actually been a pretty significant decrease in the number of tweets on DU since Musk took over Twitter.)

FWIW there’s a Star Member feature which shows a little indicator next to thread titles if the thread contains a video or tweet, so you can avoid those threads if you want to.

[ancianita]

22. Then post a thoughtful OP with fact-filled sources and some startup analysis.

Be the change you want to see.

[SCantiGOP]

24. I rarely watch videos here

Just skip them and go on. Most take 10 minutes to tell a one paragraph story.

[PortTack]

26. Put you finger on the red slide and skip the introductory parts or the parts that don't interest you.

[marble falls]

45. I don't write off any source with out a fair listen. In Fox's case that would be as soon as anyone's lips move ...

... and there's a screen crawl. I will fast forward thru blogger fluff to see the video without their constant interruption to yammer what they they're gonna show me, and what they already showed me. I like the way Brian Tyler Cohen does it. Some network needs to look at him.

[TexasTowelie]

52. BTC is already working with MSNBC to put out a few videos each week

and occasionally he appears as a guest on some of their shows.

[marble falls]

63. That's good news.

[CrispyQ]

27. Why can't we put AI to good use transcribing all videos,

Instead of making stupid images that are fake.

[flvegan]

28. You mean the ones with the clickbait post titles

No context, embedded video linked to some monetized YouTube account of lawdknowswhat validity where you may be blessed with the opportunity to then watch multiple commercials (because YouTube sucks, btw) just to listen to hyperactive idiot breathlessly tell you how his best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this insider who said that Trump is totally toast (again)?

Never seen that here before.

[Disaffected]

33. Add to that, cryptic click bait titles.

"This!"

[jmbar2]

34. I like a lot of videos posted here.

Appreciate other folks sharing good stuff. I just skip the ones that don't interest me.

[Mme. Defarge]

36. I thought it was just moi!

[texasfiddler]

44. If we had more democrats pushing a real narrative in 2016 we might have won the election.

Messaging is everything. AM radio fucked us in the 90s and Fox has fucked us since the 2000s. Why give the new platform to the right wingers. Democrats complaining about videos that help our narrative is not productive to say the least. I'm old school and love a good read over a video, LET THEM POST THE VIDEOS!!!!!

[femmedem]

48. Yes, this!

[AllaN01Bear]

46. i usually now watch x and or other sources than youtube as they banned me for having a ad blocker.

i wont pay the $10.00 either.

[ZonkerHarris]

49. It's an epidemic

[liberal N proud]

50. It's frustrating as hell

While watching TV with my wife, we like to read as well. Not watch tv and a video.

Or in an airport sitting in the waiting or Dr. office. It’s rude to listen to video then.

[ecstatic]

53. Posts with the little red square have videos; posts with little blue square have tweets

FYI, you can avoid most video posts by keeping that in mind. Now if the video was linked from somewhere other than Youtube, that's a different story. Not sure.

[catrose]

56. Thanks! I've been avoiding the video forums but they appear everywhere, often with no caption.

Now if we could find a way to identify posts that contain links only, no explanation.

[ecstatic]

61. lol. nt

[Kaleva]

71. Where does one see the blue or red squares?

[Scrivener7]

55. I don't absorb information as well from video as print, so I've trashed the video forums.

This way, I only become aware of a video if a LOT of people have found it valuable and it appears on the front page. It works well for me.

[mike_c]

64. I almost never watch videos...

...and I wish posters would take the time to post a brief synopsis below the link. Just the main message.

[MerryBlooms]

69. Most do take time and effort to caption. Have you?

Do you or anyone else dogging these folks know how much time it takes!?! It's a lot!

[MerryBlooms]

68. Bs. You've been here since supposedly 2006, you can't figure out yet

What posts you want to follow? Come on! You done a blanket attack on some beloved fellow posters. You really want to go there? Pisses me off you got some tail draggers horning in. No one here should be dogging out a media post, just because you disagree it's a video. Most give a description. You're more comfortable with, Turn on such or such, right fn now? Or some other obscure bs we have to Google, and get 10 or so definitions? Meh. Drop video from your DU. It's not rocket science around here.

[Celerity]

73. ...

[question everything]

75. It is too bad that so many here trash the posters. I don't watch, but appreciate the time and effort

Why the need to declare it so emphatically? Yes, I do this now too but only because I don’t understand why giving the posters of the videos such a hard time. Just let them be.
Please?

[RockRaven]

76. One can "trash" a whole forum, that may be something useful to you. nt

[EarlG]

80. Someone up thread said they wished Admin had a policy on videos

We do have a policy. The policy is that if people want to post videos, they are more than welcome to. We provide a couple of specific forums for certain specific types of video, but other than that people can post videos wherever they like.

Star Members can see which threads contain videos because on the Latest page and in forums, a little red square shows up next to the thread title if a thread contains a video. If you’re a Star Member and you don’t see it, make sure you have the indicator turned on in Account Settings.

We have a lot of people who spend a lot of time bringing interesting videos to DU, and I support those efforts. We’ve also provided tools for people to avoid seeing the majority of videos, and I encourage people who don’t want to see videos to use those tools, rather than try to disparage the efforts of people who bring the videos to DU.

I don’t disagree that it would be helpful for people to post a brief explanation of the video, but it’s not compulsory, and many people already do that anyway. So with that said I’m going to lock this now. People who like to post videos on DU should not be made to feel as if they’re doing something wrong.