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As a result of the discussion about this question, we approached the CMs to find out whether there was a way we can support video material in questions on Sports.SE in a way that is beneficial for the site.

Good news - there is one! They can enable Youtube embeds, similar to how I think they do them on Movies & TV.

So, we come to the community with the question: should we? Video-based questions may be a benefit to the site, but they do bring with them some downsides as well, so we want to discuss whether it's appropriate to do so.

Some notes on video questions, from the CMs:

  1. Make sure the majority of content on the site doesn't become video questions
  2. Make sure questions are not only "what's in this video". So, for example, a question "What's this movie" and then a video is a bad question on movies & TV
  3. Even if the question is "What's this play" and then a video, try to describe the play in words a little bit, even if the video is there to illustrate. That's good both for accessibility as well as if the video goes down.

I want to underline #3 there: the question should still, as much as possible, describe the video in text - both for users who do not want to view a video, and in case the Youtube video goes down. In the question that spawned this, we would still have expected at least some description of the play (even if the user couldn't really accurately do so, the attempt is appropriate), and ultimately end up with the text we have now - we just wouldn't have needed that embedded gif.

I'll post two answers, please upvote the one you agree with (do not downvote the other one, only upvotes will be considered). We'll keep this open a few weeks given how dead meta tends to be.

Edit: Given the 6/1 responses for/against, we will be looking to the CMs to implement this shortly. Will update again when they do! Thanks everyone for participating!

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  • Whut? You can write multiple answers on meta? Or is it because you're a mod?
    – alamoot
    Commented Aug 10, 2020 at 2:49
  • @alamoot No, not because I'm a mod; I can do the same on other sites. As far as I know this is never restricted, except (perhaps?) at lower rep levels (but even that, not as far as I know; but I don't have any accounts to test that with).
    – Joe Mod
    Commented Aug 10, 2020 at 4:15
  • According to this answer, also Arqade, Music: Practice & Theory and Science Fiction & Fantasy have embedded videos. EDIT: Now I found a posts which should have a full list: Which sites have YouTube embedding on?
    – Martin
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 8:16
  • That post isn't kept up to date, unfortunately - note that I edited in Sports a few days ago, for example.
    – Joe Mod
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 17:19

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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This has now been enabled for Sports.SE - and you can start using it. The general guidance we give out when enabling that is what Joe already put up there, but to reiterate:

  • Make sure the majority of content on the site doesn't become video questions - if it gets out of hand it can be disabled.
  • Questions shouldn't be just "What's this move called" and then a video link, akin to "What's this movie" and then a video being a bad question on movies & TV.
  • Try to describe what's going on in the video with words as much as possible, the idea is that even if the video is there to illustrate things, the question should hold its own ground and be understandable without watching the video. That's good both for accessibility as well as if the video goes down or is region-locked, for example.

That said, enjoy!

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Yes

We should support embedded Youtube videos on Sports.SE, so long as the questions are still otherwise good questions.

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  • 2
    Just a side note, there tend to be LOTS of youtube videos with game highlights that get taken down within days (if not hours) of matches due to copyright issues. Although you've required description of plays, just like the question that spawned all of this, having the video itself can clear thing up significantly. So we might want to have a some sort of standard for the videos we allow as well
    – alamoot
    Commented Aug 10, 2020 at 2:56
  • Location restricted videos are also a issue, official links are sometimes location based. Should we allow those videos if they are not accessible by everyone?
    – Ram Chandra Giri
    Commented Aug 10, 2020 at 17:55
  • We already take down dead links on sight (or update them), so I don't think this is an issue here. Having a dead video is useless with or without it being embedded, but it's still a plus as long as it works.
    – dly
    Commented Aug 13, 2020 at 21:57
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No

We should not support embedded Youtube videos on Sports.SE, or otherwise allow questions that are primarily contained in a video. Questions must be entirely accessible in text format (with supporting videos only as secondary resources).

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