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Blender is a visual tool and pure text answers can only go so far at times in explaining something. Alot of the answers so far have links to external video sites such as Vimeo or Youtube etc.

See.. Provide a way to embed videos in answers

Should we enable the embedding of videos here? It could be a bit messy but with proper use could be beneficial in the long run.

Some sites like Music, Arqade and Scifi already have this it seems.

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    $\begingroup$ I think we should. As long as we mention in the FAQ that videos should not make up the majority of the answer, we can simply downvote/flag/edit the posts if they get to spammy. I think the Pros outweigh the cons. $\endgroup$ – CharlesL May 31 '13 at 14:38
  • $\begingroup$ @zeffii too high? There's about 100+ people here everyday it seems, but not many come to meta. $\endgroup$ – iKlsR Jun 1 '13 at 13:16
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    $\begingroup$ if we only get 180 or so visitors per day, we should be worrying about that instead of worry can we embed a video, which for all practical purposes doesn't add much convenience over an inline link. $\endgroup$ – zeffii Jun 1 '13 at 13:35
  • $\begingroup$ @zeffii you should go through meta and see what is being done.. we have to address stuff like this from early so we can see if can be beneficial or if people want it, thats one of the purposes of meta $\endgroup$ – iKlsR Jun 1 '13 at 13:42
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    $\begingroup$ iKlsR, For future reference. it's best to simply ask the question and let others be heard in a open forum where users can be heard with their own answers, rather than posting in this pseudo-polling format. I can appreciate what you are trying to accomplish, but pre-posting all sides of the conversation isn't necessarily the best way to get the clearly-vetted results you seek: Polling is not a substitute for discussion. $\endgroup$ – Robert Cartaino Jun 6 '13 at 15:48
  • $\begingroup$ @RobertCartaino I approached it wrong from the start and wasted the initial views. thanks for the advice and insight. $\endgroup$ – iKlsR Jun 6 '13 at 15:52
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I think it'd be nice stay audio free, text's much easier to translate too.

Sometimes step by step instructions are unreasonable/too-verbose. In such cases we can already use APNGs & GIFs, as shown in in this awnser.

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  • $\begingroup$ mp4, has nice size compared to gifs sometimes. < below 2 mb should be sufficient $\endgroup$ – zeffii May 24 '15 at 19:31
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    $\begingroup$ If playback (pause/play/rewind) functionalities are desirable for a GIF animation, save the GIF to your local hard drive and open it in GIMP. Then Filters -> Animation -> Playback... $\endgroup$ – vvoovv Jun 4 '15 at 17:39
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This was bound to show sooner or later so here it is.

Cons

  • We run the risk of people just posting tutorial videos as answers
  • Answers with videos as a large portion of their body would be very delicate as if the video is pulled or deleted, so goes the answer
  • We run the risk of people making full videos of their problems and adding it as a question source
  • Sloppy answers that just introduce the video with no summary or accompanying instructions.

Pros

  • Blender is a very visual tool and some people learn best from audio visual content
  • It could help in explaining difficult or lengthy concepts
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    $\begingroup$ I would have expected two answers one for the pros and one for the cons. So that users could vote for a variant $\endgroup$ – stacker Jun 1 '13 at 4:57
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    $\begingroup$ Another point to add is that the content in videos cannot be searched. Good, searchable content is particularly important for a new site. Also, some people might not even be able to watch videos. I personally think that linking to videos is a good way to ensure that they only provide additional, nonessential information. $\endgroup$ – grc Jun 1 '13 at 13:25
  • $\begingroup$ re: "a very visual tool" we do have the add image feature, which can often suffice. $\endgroup$ – wchargin Jun 9 '13 at 21:21
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I want to add my vote to the overwhelming sentiment here that we should not have videos embedded here on BSE. I think that it will not add anything to the site, but may only facilitate the already poor "I'm stuck in this tutorial" type questions.

A video embed (in my opinion) does not fit in SE system, it is easily a link only post. A post could too easily be totally dependent on the video, then there is no content on BSE when the link goes dead.

We have thousands of very good answers, non of which have a video. Animated images are a popular and good way to post a quick explanation when it is difficult to explain something. The benefit of the gifs is that they are supplemental, the text is still there.
I feel a full youtube video embed would go too far, and very possibly degrade the quality of our posts.

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Not only does video take more bandwith and time to upload/download, but presumes that all users have very fast internet access. I'd hate to wait for answers to load on my phone for instance. The main issue for me is that I'm not at all convinced that video will add to the clarity of questions and answers. Gifs let you replay short specific parts of the process and the written descriptions force people to be concise and to the point. Not many users write long and pointlessly. I just don't trust that most users have the will/technical skills/discipline to edit out the rambling and stream of consciousness.

I'd go nuts watching the eternal "So I'm a noob, so like I press here.. sorry here... no I meant this, you know... that...so... wait...let me start over."

I happen to believe that the 2mb limit for gifs is a great thing....

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  • $\begingroup$ Another case to downvote a post $\endgroup$ – GiantCowFilms May 22 '15 at 1:43
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Besides all the other reasons already stated as to why we should not allow embedding of videos, there's the issue of edit-ability. If the biggest part of the answer is a video, what happens when there's a little mistake you want to fix? It takes quite a little bit more effort to edit a video than text, IMO.

I think the best thing about SE is that you can edit all the things and having videos would not allow for this as easily.

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't see why gifs are different, still a series of frames.... $\endgroup$ – GiantCowFilms May 23 '15 at 16:15
  • $\begingroup$ Well, gifs are shorter, have smaller file sizes and are intended to be optional; as they're just about only used in the best answers, they tend to be higher quality. I think the problem with video is that there would be video only questions (despite there being no gif only ones, AFAIK). $\endgroup$ – someonewithpc May 23 '15 at 17:17
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Yes! We should have video embeding

Cutting features because they may cause abuse isn't a very good idea... We have down votes to stop abuse. Down vote video only questions/answers. Down vote audio reliant posts. That is why that button is there*. Stack exchange can handle abuse.

Lets look at an example of an abuse able feature that is a positive component. Comments can be used to be rude and demanding, but overall they have caused a lot of improvement and have been of general assistance. People can politely correct posts or request necessary clarification.

Another one, downvotes! These can easily be abused and people sometimes take them personally. In general they cause quite a lot of upset, but then also keep the quality up and are useful for stopping feature abuse.

And here is an extreme example: one could argue that stack exchange is a bad idea since it begs to be (and is) abused.

Video can be beneficial, so why should we let people who don't know how to handle it from stopping us from reaping the benefits? Lets have video, it is a beautiful medium to transfer information.

Note:

Gifs have been lauded as an existing and better alternative, and I will say now that they will still be the go to method. Video is harder and slower to produce and share, and will only be used in a few important cases. I doubt that this site will see an significant impact, but the few added videos will be very valuable.

*Internet-ragers may disagree......

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    $\begingroup$ As a Bronze 5 league player and average internet-rager I disagree. $\endgroup$ – iKlsR May 22 '15 at 1:16
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    $\begingroup$ @iKlsR A bunch of us internet-ragers are raging in the renderfarm now, if you would like to join in.. $\endgroup$ – gandalf3 May 22 '15 at 1:26

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