One link video posts?

June 2, 2006 4:56 PM

It seems to be acceptable to post videos with just one link now, but can we get some clarification on what makes a video a good video to post? For example, what makes this video a good FPP?
posted by the giant pill to etiquette/policy at 4:56 PM (41 comments total)

Because it's a kitten being silly. Jesus.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 4:58 PM on June 2, 2006

Yep. I mean what XQUZYPHYR said.
posted by snsranch at 5:05 PM on June 2, 2006

Agree. Posting YouTube links are pisspoor.
posted by movilla at 5:16 PM on June 2, 2006

Jimbob (2006) The lameness of single-link YouTube videos on community weblogs; directions for the future. International Journal of Metatalk, 11921:214245.
posted by Jimbob at 5:20 PM on June 2, 2006

there's a "omg kittens! so fucking cuuuuute!" meter I'm working on that should clear things up.

in AJAX.
posted by mathowie at 5:22 PM on June 2, 2006

So cute kittens being silly are the best of the web? Ok, got it. Thanks. How about parody video's of G dubbya rapping? Come on. This is hardly worthy. How is this different then anyone linking to a random news story? At least one person is going to find everything posted interesting regardless, but best of the web?

A collaborative web blog as a conversation? Yes. Please.

Ok, we got that they are going to be here to stay, but can we please have a yardstick?
posted by the giant pill at 5:24 PM on June 2, 2006

Crap. /me removes one link from upcoming post
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 5:25 PM on June 2, 2006

So cute kittens being silly are the best of the web? Ok, got it. Thanks.

We could build a small city out of all the anally-inserted broomsticks in this joint. The fuddy-duddyness of the YouTube haters is, I emphasize, NOT what makes MetaFilter great.
posted by scarabic at 5:26 PM on June 2, 2006

For no discernable reason, video posts that would be deleted in a second were they pointing to text, audio or still image equivalents are allowed to stand. It's annoying. (Yeah, I know you can't really have a text equivalent, but you know what I mean - completely shit posts are deemed okay, as long as they're video.)

The post you link to is indistinguishable from the Ceiling Cat post from the other day, but that was deleted in a trice. Or take sgt. serenity's 80s crap metal video post (fun though it was) - if he'd linked to an MP3 of a crap metal song, I'm sure it would've been deleted.

Apparently no one is flagging this type of post though - we could fix that...
posted by jack_mo at 5:28 PM on June 2, 2006

can we please have a yardstick?

Oh man... I missed my opportunity, didn't I?
posted by scarabic at 5:29 PM on June 2, 2006

The fuddy-duddyness of the YouTube haters is, I emphasize, NOT what makes MetaFilter great.

Nor are the YouTube posts.

Yours fuddy-duddidly,

Todd Lokken
posted by jack_mo at 5:29 PM on June 2, 2006

That cat video is probably not worthy, but some of the youtube stuff such as those bendy women, the radio controlled plane, and the juggling guy are the best of the web. Beats a page of text describing something cool.
posted by fire&wings at 5:39 PM on June 2, 2006

posted by movilla at 5:50 PM on June 2, 2006

Fark...YouTube........etc...
posted by movilla at 5:51 PM on June 2, 2006

fire&wings has a point. I mean, if a picture really is worth a thousand words, and that video is 28 frames (pictures) per second, then that 1:51 of video saved jonson having to type 3.1 Million words to describe a retarded kitten jumping around on a laptop. Huzzah.
posted by Gamblor at 5:57 PM on June 2, 2006

Way fucking better than newsfilter or bushfilter.
posted by smackfu at 6:07 PM on June 2, 2006

Nor are the YouTube posts.

Arguable. The very first post on MetaFilter was, in fact, just pictures of cats dilly-dallying on top of electronic equipment. I dunno what kind of erudite scholasticism you think is in MetaFilter's DNA, but it's always been about simple delights as much as anything.

But if we could even get the YouTube haters to think of their outrage as equally worthless to the video posts, that would be progress. So I agree with you.
posted by scarabic at 6:11 PM on June 2, 2006

but some of the youtube stuff such as those bendy women, the radio controlled plane, and the juggling guy are the best of the web

Didn't see the planes, but the other two did indeed rule. Especially the bendy women. I just meant that it seems like shit video gets a free pass, whereas other kinds of shit gets deleted.

Oh goodness, if I say anything about .pdf files, law or physics next, please box my ears.
posted by jack_mo at 6:12 PM on June 2, 2006

Oop, on not-preview: I'm all for simple pleasures, including video pleasures, scarabic, and I'm not outraged by any stretch of the imagination. Just think there's a weird double standard.
posted by jack_mo at 6:19 PM on June 2, 2006

Arguable. The very first post on MetaFilter was, in fact

No, it's not arguable. Pointing to the first post ever when I doubt even matt knew the direction of the site is meaningless. You can easily get youtube links anywhere on the net. Other parts of metafilter not as easily. I don't mind the youtube posts, but take them away and metafilter is just fine.

For no discernable reason, video posts that would be deleted in a second were they pointing to text, audio or still image equivalents are allowed to stand. It's annoying.

But it's just like TEEVEE!!!1
posted by justgary at 6:40 PM on June 2, 2006

I don't mind the youtube posts, but take them away and metafilter is just fine.

First they took the YouTube posts away, but I did not say anything....
posted by dersins at 6:46 PM on June 2, 2006

"First they took the YouTube posts away, but I did not say anything...."

.... and then the three bears ate Goldilocks for dessert.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:52 PM on June 2, 2006

The "radio controlled plane video" in question.
posted by loquacious at 7:30 PM on June 2, 2006

1. Skip the video posts.

2. Post something better.

3. Take a giant chill pill.
posted by brain_drain at 7:50 PM on June 2, 2006

Where can I get one of these "chill pills"? And do I need a prescription or are they over the counter?
posted by blue_beetle at 9:03 PM on June 2, 2006

Thanks, loquacious, for the plane video. I, too, had missed it. It seemed absolutely joyful.

Some YouTube posts are great. Some are so-so. Pretty much like any other posts, huh?
posted by leftcoastbob at 9:15 PM on June 2, 2006

My one FPP was all YouTube links.

I spent three hours searching for supplementary pages, and text, and various other dry as hell crap before I finally said 'Screw it,' and posted just the vids. It was a better, tighter post for it, IMO.

Just sayin'.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:57 PM on June 2, 2006

here's the thing: the one person here (potentially more, potentially less) whose day was brightened by the goofy cat on computer action was worth (to me at least) the inumerable scads of people whose days were ruined by it.
posted by jonson at 11:24 PM on June 2, 2006

Skip the stupid law posts.
posted by Joeforking at 1:59 AM on June 3, 2006

The thing with YouTube posts is that they're almost all just single links followed by a bunch of throwaway comments. What can you really say about the goofy cat, or the bizarre dancing, or the over-the-top political parody?

Now, there's nothing really wrong with having a bunch of goofy videos that you can't meaningfully discuss, but VideoSift does that sort of thing way better than MeFi does. Go there for 20 minutes and get all the goofy cats you need. (And then leave them off of the MeFi front page, thanks.)
posted by Galvatron at 2:00 AM on June 3, 2006

Galvatron, you can say the exact same thing about the recent spate of law posts.
posted by graventy at 5:06 AM on June 3, 2006

jonson said 'here's the thing: the one person here (potentially more, potentially less) whose day was brightened by the goofy cat on computer action was worth (to me at least) the inumerable scads of people whose days were ruined by it.'

And lo, a new form of utilitarianism is born ;-)
posted by jack_mo at 5:32 AM on June 3, 2006

The popularity of youtube and google video is a phenomenon and the latest internet fad. Lame front page posts to individual videos are just a reflection of that. Give it time. In a year or so, we'll all be complaining about the lame smellovision links that we'll be reading from our flying cars.
posted by crunchland at 5:33 AM on June 3, 2006

God I'd like to strangle whatever asshole convinced people that a good post requires supplementary links. Every single time I see some self-appointed post quality cop nattering on about a single link post I want to scream.

What makes a good post? It's amazingly simple.

1. You go about your day of surfing the internet.
2. You find something kind of cool or interesting or different that you think the people of MeFi might find interesting.
3. You post it.

What's so hard about that?

If somebody wants to go do some overly researched post about a topic and cram their post with links fine, whatever. Ain't a chance in hell I'm actually going to follow all that and read them, but others probably will, and what the hell do I care? There's room for both.

MetaFilter isn't a specialty blog. We don't do one thing. We do all things that are interesting. Some times that's videos. Sometimes that's freaking home pages. Sometimes that's politics. Sometimes that's art. Sometimes that's music. Sometimes that's pop culture.

It's a buffet. Take what you want, and stop complaining that some jerk brought potato chips and you wanted carrot sticks.
posted by willnot at 8:04 AM on June 3, 2006

I like this post. It's about the Good. What is Good? How can we understand "best of the web" unless we first understand the ways in which something is better than something else? Is video good-in-itself, or does it need to be a particular kind of video? Is there a principle by which we can measure the good video... a yardstick? I read once that man is the only measure... but can I please have a man-length measuring rod so that I can make an estimate before I post? Otherwise, how will I know the Good when I see it?

Is it possible that some things that appear Good to me are in fact bad? This is pretty worrisome, no? Can there be disagreement about the Good? On a side note, is the Good teachable? Is it one, or many?
posted by anotherpanacea at 10:23 AM on June 3, 2006

Galvatron, you can say the exact same thing about the recent spate of law posts.

Is this sarcasm? 'Cause I'm thinking I could probably not say the exact same thing about the law posts--you can have some meaningful discussion about them, and you certainly can't find them at VideoSift.

(And really, comparing a few days of law posts to a couple months of The Best Of YouTube demonstrates a remarkable lack of perspective.)
posted by Galvatron at 10:31 AM on June 3, 2006

The thing with YouTube posts is that they're almost all just single links followed by a bunch of throwaway comments.

Which is precisely what we should be using Memepool for.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:14 AM on June 3, 2006

i don't know, guys. video is spiffy. flash video can often be spiffy. if we're more tolerant of content from a fairly new video delivery system used on websites that are only a year or so old, doesn't that just make sense? we don't need a totally utilitarian merit system for links to stay. we just need to know if we enjoyed it. and apparently enough people have been enjoying the youtube stuff.
posted by shmegegge at 1:59 PM on June 3, 2006

You Unleashed The Fury Jack !
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:09 PM on June 3, 2006

Of course, I did just go post a single Youtube video link. Sigh. Now I have to hate myself.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:20 AM on June 4, 2006

"Now I have to hate myself"

We're all right there with you.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:54 AM on June 4, 2006