A Video Thread

[Jono]

Sorry if this has been suggested before.. I did have a quick look.

It would be cool if HWI had a video thread where only the Moderators and Admin (especially Dave) could post links to videos that this forum has available to download. I don't mean the videos on the main HWI site that are embedded, I mean videos that you can download and keep on your own computer. Since I have joined I have downloaded a few videos in a few new threads...but I'm sure there are others available, I just wouldn't know where to start looking!

So basically this thread would have every video that is available to download listed, to make them easier to find.

What do you think?

EDIT: And this could work prospectively as apposed to retrospectively, if it is too much work to go back into old threads!

[roger]

Hi Jono and thanks for the suggestion. I can see it would be of benefit to members who wish to download as many videos as possible without spending months trawling through historical threads. As with all things though, there are a number of reasons why it may not be practical.

It would take Dave a huge amount of time to add so many links to a new thread (and it would almost certainly have to be Dave). We would also need to continue adding new videos to the existing threads where the topic is already under discussion and we always try to avoid duplication.

All new videos would need to be added by replying to the thread which, in time, would result in the thread extending over many pages so it would still not be easy to locate any particular one. The way round that would be to edit each new video into a single post but then nobody would know it existed because it would not appear as a new post or in the Last 50.

It would be essential that only Dave could post to a video thread (as you suggested) to avoid the risk of discussion being fragmented. Unfortunately, we cannot restrict threads to individual members whether they are staff or not.

I am also concerned that we would be making it too easy for lurkers to help themselves to a significant amount of material for possible use elsewhere. Yes, the new videos include the HWI logo but many of the older ones don't.

So, unless Dave is strongly in favour (and I haven't spoken to him), I suspect we will be continuing to add videos to the relevant thread on the Concert and Media boards and sometimes to the Site and to You Tube. Hopefully, everyone will be able to see them and locate them without too much difficulty.

Roger

[Dave]

Hello Jon and Roger!

I'm glad you've replied already Roger as it's complicated, as you have explained, and it's a subject that often crosses my mind. I don't have any preferences at the moment but I will return to the subject again, as i am sure others will do... new ideas (thanks Jon) do no harm at all and may be very useful either immediately or in the future.

Meanwhile, I do have my hands full with the present batch of videos, some of which need glitches fixing and all of which are in HD (which I like) but it is extremely time consuming. I see no point in posting an HD video with even minor glitches - it would irritate me... so I do need to fix them. I also have to figure out how to get them onto the main site, which cannot at present handle HD video (hence the delay there) but I will...

Roger, I'll run my initial ideas past you first, when I have a minute to spare!

Cheers, Dave

[Jono]

Thanks for the feedback Roger and Dave,

To offer a couple of (maybe) possible solutions to issues that Roger mentioned:

1) Could the thread be locked after it is used? And let the Moderators/ Staff know that it is only there for Dave to post on. Also you could delete or move any other replies that are posted there during the time it is unlocked...(replies by cheeky people )

2) Maybe you could do both. Post a new reply for each new video, and edit the first post in the thread...so you could treat the first post like a "contents page"...but I guess if you were going to do that you may as well just have them all as links on there...which would mean the only purpose for the "replies" would be to add the new video to the recent posts.

3) I'm not sure how you would prevent the lurkers issue...I'm guessing the threads can't be made "members only", and that everything is public? Maybe you could only post links to the videos with the HWI label in this thread?

4) I guess the time issue would be the biggest. So it would ultimately be up to Dave if he wanted to do it I guess.

I really hope something like this does appear sometime...even if only in the future. What do other people think about this?

Cheers
Jono

[roger]

Hi Jono,

Unfortunately, an individual thread cannot be made available to members only. We could have a board that is members only but I am not prepared to set up a new board for a single thread.

Your other suggestions are technically possible but would require a significant amount of additional work. For a short term project, I would find the time but this would be ongoing and I cannot make a commitment to give additional time for evermore.

But as you say, none of that overcomes the lurker issue and, without resolving that, I don't see there is anything to be gained by considering the technical issues.

Roger