Embedding Videos In Posts

[Craig]

Hi all,

When we moved over to the new forum, we made a change to our Member Expectations to cover uploading images and also embedding videos to the forum, and I just want to cover posting videos in a bit more detail:

Using media in your posts​

You should ensure that any images that you upload to TowersStreet are either your own, or you have full permission to do so. If this doesn’t apply, please link to the image/website with credit. Any image uploads should also be suitable for all (including uploads within the Courtyard Tavern). The team reserves the right to remove any image uploads hosted on the TowersStreet server.

TowersStreet also has the option to add GIFs to your posts, please use this option sparingly. They should also only be used to add and contribute to the discussion. If members repeatedly use the GIF feature inappropriately, then the option may be withdrawn.

Media embedding, which allows videos from sites such as YouTube to be added to posts is also available on TowersStreet. Videos should only be posted if they add to discussion, and should also be accompanied by opinions or viewpoints of your own. Posting videos without your own views or opinions is considered spamming, and the team will remove posts if found.

If you're posting factual content such as a POVs, promotional ads/videos from attractions themselves - these get straight to the point and we wouldn't expect a blow by blow account of what goes on in the video, although posting your own opinion and a description of what the video is about is expected.

There's no need to follow the exact format below, but to give everyone a rough example we're looking for something along the lines of:

The park have posted a POV of <new ride>. First impressions are that there's some good pops of airtime throughout although it does seem a little short. The station looks a bit bare, so I'm hoping it receives a further theming before opening day too.

We've had a fair few occasions in recent weeks where we've seen a number of vlog style videos posted without much/any of the poster's own views added, some have been removed by the team but some have also remained. In the case of content such as this, we ask that from now on there be a little more thought into whether the video should be posted, and what should accompany it. So before posting, we're asking everyone to abide by the following::

Is there anything new in the video?​

Does the video cover anything that hasn't already been mentioned? If it's only covering information that's already been discussed in previous posts, then please don't post it.

Summarise the video​

Summarise the content of the video, for longer videos timestamps to the important parts also helps too - vlogs often contain a lot of "filler" and not everyone wants to watch a 30-45 minute video! Remember that our members primarily use a forum for written discussion, and whilst a video can sometimes be helpful to aid in that, it shouldn't be used instead of it. Can the gist of the video be understood just by reading your post? If not, then you likely need to add a little more information.

Include your own views and opinions​

People use forums to read other poster's personal views, not just factual information - so ensure everyone hears your own views and opinions about the video you're linking to. What did you find interesting in the video? What are your own thoughts and opinions?

Simply posting that "<vlog creator> has posted a new vlog, looks good" isn't an acceptable contribution to accompany a video. As a rough example, a post including a vlog could be something of the lines of:

"<vlog creator> has released a vlog from opening day at the park. There's some shots around 20 minutes in showing the improvements to the entrance plaza, the new ticket kiosks seem to look much more welcoming and should ease the morning queues. They also visited the new restaurant (skip to around 35 minutes), the menu is a tad more expensive than I'd like, but the food looks good quality and a vast improvement on the options that were there last season. Great to see that the annual pass discount is sticking around as well"

Again the above is not a set format that we want everyone to follow, but as you can see there's an effort to summarise the parts of the video that you found interesting, point toward where to find the important bits and also offers some of your own thoughts to progress discussion too.

It's great that people want to support their favourite creators, they work incredibly hard to do what they do - and knowing some of them personally, we as a community want to support them too. But at the same time it's also essential that we still encourage and foster discussion here on TowersStreet. We are one of an ever dwindling number of discussion forums on theme parks, and we'd like to keep TowersStreet as a place for well thought out discussion and content from our own members, rather than just becoming a "link dump" for videos on YouTube.

Vlogs can be and indeed are a very useful source of information, but in the case of posting them here on TowersStreet, they should only be used as a tool to aid discussion, not draw away from it. We'd like to ask everyone for their help both when you're creating posts that includes vlogs by adhering to the above, and as readers to flag posts that don't meet the above by hitting the report button for the team to review it. Thanks in advance .

 

[Craig]

Just a bump to remind everyone of the above. Despite multiple reminders within topics we are still seeing videos posted with no description or opinions of the poster applied. We’re also seeing videos posted where the content is already covered in previous posts.

We’re now deleting this content and issuing warnings to those who do so. If we identify repeat offenders we will start to limit their posting privileges.

We’re a discussion forum not a link dump, it takes just minutes to add a quick description and to point out what’s unique and interesting that people haven’t seen before. And finally let’s hear what you think about it and add to the discussion!

 

[rob666]

Yup, if I want coaster videos, I go to youtube (not that I do very often).
Don't need them putting under my nose thanks if they are not fully relevant to the topic, I know where to go look.
And credit for the moderate moderation Craig...though I still reel against the censorship of fellow "thoosies".

 

[Sambiasso]

This is by far the strictest forum on the Internet, christ lighten up abit if you had given me an hour I could have uploaded it.

Happy to allow 50+ posts on Chessington thread about Rita being moved from a Buzz tweet but if anyone posts something relevant it gets deleted.

 

[Steve74]

A quick reminder regarding referring to creator’s videos or websites. I’ve removed a number of posts in recent days that have referenced content creator’s videos. In some cases the video hasn’t even been released yet(!!!), in another it referenced that a video had been uploaded but gave no link, no summary and nothing about what’s interesting within said video.

This post in Guest Services and our updated member expectations summarises what we expect if you’re linking to another website or video. In short:

• It should add something new to discussion and be on topic
• You should summarise what you found interesting within what you’re linking to
• And finally it should accompany your own views and opinions on the subject

There’s a longer explanation in the Guest Services post which I’ve linked to. The team will remove posts which don’t abide by this and we will start to take action against those who repeatedly ignore this rule.

I fully understand the need for rules, but I feel it was a but heavy-handed removing my post to the video and all other replies to it - especially as you removed the post only 15 mins before it premiered!

Once it had premiered, the link would've become like any other link to YouTube and as you saw from replies to the post, there were the beginnings of a conversation of people commenting on the video's subject matter and once more people saw the link later last night and today, they'd have commented on it anyway!

 

[Dave]

I fully understand the need for rules, but I feel it was a but heavy-handed removing my post to the video and all other replies to it - especially as you removed the post only 15 mins before it premiered!

Once it had premiered, the link would've become like any other link to YouTube and as you saw from replies to the post, there were the beginnings of a conversation of people commenting on the video's subject matter and once more people saw the link later last night and today, they'd have commented on it anyway!

Surely if you have a concern about moderation that’s what private messages are for?

I have to say for me all these links to a video that didn’t exist (no longer how soon the video would be live) where annoying, it disturbs the flow of the conversation as unless you where a member of that channel you couldn’t engage in any of the debate.

 

[Craig]

I wanted to address a few comments made about video posting in the hotels topic, so a couple of the posts have been moved/copied here to allow me to address it without being off topic.

I fully understand the need for rules, but I feel it was a but heavy-handed removing my post to the video and all other replies to it - especially as you removed the post only 15 mins before it premiered!

Once it had premiered, the link would've become like any other link to YouTube and as you saw from replies to the post, there were the beginnings of a conversation of people commenting on the video's subject matter and once more people saw the link later last night and today, they'd have commented on it anyway!

There were only two other replies to the post which were removed, one of which was asking who the Youtuber was - i.e. nothing to do with the hotels.

The fact is that the video was not live yet, so therefore you hadn't watched it. How were you to know whether the content within it was interesting or relevant to the topic? I don't think it's particularly "heavy handed" to ask that people take the time to actually watch a video they're wanting to post and form their own thoughts and opinions on it prior to posting. Sure, it's "only 15 minutes" to the video premiering, but regardless of that, there's still 48 minutes of a video to watch with absolutely zero idea as to whether there's anything within that 48 minutes that's worth talking about.

As we've mentioned multiple times now, we're a discussion forum. We expect members to use other sources like Youtube videos and other websites to accompany their own views. If we just allowed people to constantly dump links without that, then it'd become a very boring place.

This is by far the strictest forum on the Internet, christ lighten up abit if you had given me an hour I could have uploaded it.

Happy to allow 50+ posts on Chessington thread about Rita being moved from a Buzz tweet but if anyone posts something relevant it gets deleted.

As I mentioned above, it's not particularly strict to ask people to watch the content they're posting first and form some views and opinions to add to the discussion. I note your original post stated:

Walk With Me Tim released a video on YouTube yesterday, 2 night stay in each of the hotels.

Can't link it atm

Now can you imagine if we allowed everyone to post that regarding a Youtube video that they've seen uploaded? The forum would quickly get bogged down with "x on Youtube has uploaded a video about visiting the park at the weekend" or "x on Youtube has uploaded some speculation about Nemesis" with nothing added to discussion.

If you could've linked to it in an hour, then I'd suggest simply hanging fire to watch it, link to the video properly and add your own thoughts and opinions on it to allow discussion to flow. AT86's post in the topic is an example of how to utilise another source such as a Youtube video or website to add to discussion. Not everyone has time to watch a 48 minute video, so a couple of timestamps to major points, or as they have done a couple of screenshots from the video are a great way of getting to the point and summarising the video for those who do not have the time, or do not wish to watch it.

As for your comment on the Chessington Buzz tweet, it's a prime example of what I'm getting at. When Connor98 originally posted it, he provided a link to the tweet, a summary of what the tweet was talking about as well as some of his own views to allow discussion on the topic. Now regardless of the authenticity of the tweet, posting it like that is fine, and perfectly permitted within the rules of the forum.

Now for example, let's look at if we allowed someone to post about those tweets in a similar way to the Youtube video:

"Chessington Buzz are posting a tweet in 15 minutes. Based on a few comments, some people have already seen what they're going to post"

or

"Chessington Buzz have tweeted last night about the park. Can't link it atm"

Both of the above are a bit daft, but you get the idea!

And finally, I'm more than happy to discuss and explain moderating decisions in detail for those who wish to. However, please just drop me a PM to do so in future, or alternatively if you'd rather publicly query it you can drop a post here in Guest Services. Posting in the thread only serves to drag it off topic again. Thanks

 

[DistortAMG]

To be honest, I post quite a lot in the forum. I do not at all think this is a strict forum, I think it is quite the opposite in fact, the team are very liberal and "with the times" in their moderating style, which in my opinion is a great thing.

There are rules in place and I have accidentally come on the wrong side of rules occasionally (posts being deleted etc), but I still understand why they are there. Elaborating on that further, I appreciate that fact too, because it makes navigating the forum and content so much easier. The fact I post here and keep posting here is because I enjoy spending time online here. The way the forum is moderated is a big factor in that.

Obviously, everyone will have their own views on this matter, but I thought my opinion was worth posting. (probably where it is not needed. )

 

[Skyscraper]

I've been caught out by the rules a fair few times, but have learned my lesson now. They might seem strict but are there for a reason; to ensure the forum looks tidy and clean. The team do a fantastic job, and the forum would not be able to function without them.

 

[MellowPasta]

I've been caught out by the rules a fair few times, but have learned my lesson now. They might seem strict but are there for a reason; to ensure the forum looks tidy and clean. The team do a fantastic job, and the forum would not be able to function without them.