Embedding video

[red_flanders]

You know, I joined the VeloRooms forum a while back to see how it was over there. There is much I prefer here–the layout is more readable certainly being among them. But the ability to post videos inline is really, really nice and not only aids the flow of discussion, but keeps people on the forum instead of linking off to another site.

I assume it's not possible with the forum software this site uses, but if it is, it would be a great improvement to have this function. I wonder if there is a plug-in which allows it.

I get that plug-ins (or rather too many plug-ins) can negatively affect site performance, but it would be interesting to hear if there is one and look at what (if any) effect it would have to add this.

It is a clear differentiator between the two forums, and the function is used profusely over there, to great effect. Thanks.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Yes video embedding is great

 

[the sceptic]

yes I often thought that this forum lacks video embedding. Its something every forum with respect for itself should have really.

 

[Parrulo]

It seems to be possible on vBulletin forums but it requires some forum voodoo i am not confident enough to perform considering i don't own the site and it could be a major fail if i mess it up.

I will ask Dan to see if he can get development to do it, or do it himself if he isn't busy. It seems like you need to go to CP admin and add a new bb code then the poster would only need to do:

[youtube]*link to video*[/youtube] and the video would be inbeeded, but i am not sure.

I will give you guys some feedback later along side with he possible forum restructuring.

p.s. Of course embeeded videos make pages much heavier and slower to load, which one of the biggest advantages vBulletin has, so the posters would have to be responsible with their embeeding and only do it for important stuff and not for stuff like joke replies.

I think we can all agree on that right?

 

[red_flanders]

Thanks for the response Parrulo. Look forward to hearing what you all come up with.

As the videos would not start playing automatically, I think the load would be on the servers overall rather than particular page loads...which ultimately would have an impact on performance of pages, but less direct. Not sure. Anyway, thanks.

I don't know their server costs and the details of their page performance or overall number/size of pageviews or calls to the servers there, but the videos are used a lot on some pages. Example: http://velorooms.com/index.php?topic=1314.1020

I don't see any performance issues but I'm on a fast connection. Would love to hear the details if you all do some performance investigation.

I'm a big fan of this forum and a big supporter, and again see this one clear deficiency we have here in terms of using the forum. This is the top cycling forum in the world IMO, I think we should have this feature. I think performance costs should be measured against quality of user experience and quality of content. Thanks!

 

[Parrulo]

I am also on a fast connection so it wouldn't bother me but not everyone is running on a 100 MB connection.

Besides i think the main problem on a page with too many videos wouldn't be the internet connection speed, like you said the videos only load if you choose to load them, but the overall performance of someones browser.

You would be surprised with the amount of people that without even noticing it overload their browsers with tons of plug ins and toolbars that completely ruin the browsers performance.

Either way this, just like the restructuring, has already been forwarded to Dan as all Admins were very receptive to the idea.

 

[red_flanders]

Thanks Parrulo, much appreciated!