Forum:Related videos module coming soon

Forums → Ten Forward → Related videos module coming soon (reply • watch)

Hi, Over the past couple of months we have been developing and testing a related videos module on some wikis like Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Halo. During these tests we have been tracking the number of video plays as well as collecting community feedback. We are now ready to expand the rollout to the rest of the site, and we are starting with wikis that there are the most videos for - which includes your wiki!

The videos we have are fully licensed from video partners we have developed relationships with. They include videos such as trailers, famous movie/TV clips, walkthroughs and behind the scenes interviews. We currently have video content from Screenplay and are working to create partnerships with other vendors, including Hulu, soon. You can see the video content we have by visiting the video wiki and either searching by keyword or checking out the various categories.

When the module is enabled, it will already be pre-populated with videos related to your topic. We will try to pick the best videos from the video wiki, but understand that the community’s ability to adjust the content is very important, so you will have access to both adding and removing videos within the module. This can include adding videos already on your wiki or adding new ones from the video wiki.

Our high-quality videos will compliment the fantastic articles and photos on your wiki. On 5 of the test wikis the videos in the modules have already had over 10,000 views. This is an exciting number and we hope as we make more videos available these numbers will increase. We are in the process of pre-populating the related videos module for your wiki, and expect the module to go live within the next couple of weeks, so please let me if you have any any questions or concerns. Sarah (help forum | blog) 23:49, May 23, 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I have a question: How does one remove the whole module? - Archduk3 23:58, May 23, 2012 (UTC)

Hi, This will be a sitewide addition, so there will not be a way to hide the module. It will not appear in monobook. Being in the first round of wikis to have this means that you will be able to offer early stage feedback on both the module and the content you would like to see. In order to activate the module, we will need to enable the video extension tool here. You will be able to add and remove videos you feel are most fitting to the wiki, so that the content you feel is most important is what users see. Let me know if you have any other questions. Best, --Sarah (help forum | blog) 18:05, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

With our unusual (and occasionally tenuous) relationship with Paramount, CBS, and Pocket Books (never mind other license holders along the way), we had some serious issues with the video module previously, which is what led to our request to turn it off (and leave it off). As you may have noticed, we are very careful with all of our copyright issues, and indeed, every image here has full copyright notices on it, something that is much more difficult to rationalize with segments of video. I'm (as are the other admins here) more than a bit hesitant to reopen that can of worms with the re-enabling of the video module on Memory Alpha.

Unless this is a feature being forced upon us (despite a prior decision to not have videos) by Wikia, I'd prefer that we leave the videos off until we have a chance to talk with the rest of our community. -- sulfur 18:40, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

Videos should remain off here. They were disabled for good reasons, and while I wasn't here for that discussion, I do agree with the result. From what I've seen, all the copyright issues remain with this, up to and including that the videos currently on the video wiki don't meet the minimum for fair use under US law. Wikia may not be concerned with copyright violations, but MA isn't wikia. - Archduk3 19:11, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

Without weighing in on the merits here, could the available videos be limited to those Wikia has obtained licenses to(assuming some of them deal with Trek), to keep users from adding their own(thereby avoiding copyright problems)? 31dot 20:29, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

The problem with that 31dot is that, as I understand it, one of the major copyright issues here is that even if the videos have correct licenses, you can't easily get to them like you can with an image, so claiming fair use becomes a problem since easy access to that license is required. I also doubt that wikia would end up with anything directly related to Star Trek except for the trailers to the films, which we already link to on youtube where someone has felt it necessary. I assume that wikia does have permission for the videos they do have, and they just didn't add the information required due to continuing ignorance, ineptitude, or both, but I also have to assume that videos can still be uploaded and edited, without meeting any of the requirements in US law, elsewhere, where we can't do anything about them, and then placed here, where they become our problem, because wikia doesn't "police" these. We don't need the trailers internalized so badly that we need to open ourselves to massive administrative overhead and copyright violations. - Archduk3 21:08, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

Hi All, Thank you for your feedback, the issues you presented around licensed content sparked a really great conversation in the office. While all of the content we’re hosting on video.wikia.com is fully licenced and legal, we realize there are communities who are concerned about users uploading video from non-licenced sources. One of the ideas that came out today’s discussion was the ability to only allow videos that are licensed and available via http://video.wikia.com. Will this help allay your concerns regarding licensed content? We've chosen not to turn the related videos module on for your community while we continue to explore options regarding allowing communities the choice of using only videos we have licensed specifically for use on Wikia.--Sarah (help forum | blog) 23:22, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

While it's nice that you've chosen to respect the community consensus to not have videos turned on here for now, most of the core problems, as in the reasons video were disabled here, remain with what you are proposing.

• There is still is no easy way to get to the video description page from here, and that description page isn't even going to be here from what I understand. Now, I'm under the impression that the law requires copyright information to be easily available to claim fair use, so please correct me if I'm wrong there.
• MA isn't CC-BY-SA, so videos "hosted" anywhere on wikia that isn't here or Uncyclopedia would seem to be incompatible with our CC-BY-NC license, since the two don't mix.
• None of the videos on the video wiki have US law and MA required copyright information. They list your "corporate partner", aka the source, who is most likely paying for this little venture, but none of them even mention the copyright holder, and the last time I checked you have to at least mention Warner Brothers to use footage from a Harry Potter movie. Once again, if you don't need to mention the copyright holder to claim fair use, please correct me.
• There currently are no videos on the video wiki that are directly related to Star Trek, therefor they have no place here. People shouldn't be coming here to watch a clip from Shrek, and that shouldn't be encouraged, since there's a whole other wiki for that.
• This isn't just about the module, since you said you have to turn on the video extension here to use it. That should be clearly not acceptable, since the reasons for it being off all remain. If the mentioned restrictions don't effect the whole wiki, they're really only going to be has helpful as replacing Hoover Dam with an umbrella. If the restrictions do effect the whole wiki, that doesn't really address any of the other issues.

So the short answer is no, only having videos from the video wiki on this wiki is not acceptable, or even legal it seems. - Archduk3 00:17, May 26, 2012 (UTC)