Embedding YouTube videos in posts <oooh>

[RowanMumsnet]

Hi all

Just to let you know, we're soon going to enable you to embed YouTube videos in your posts. (Only YouTube ones we're afraid; the system works via the auto-detection of YouTube links so it won't work for other video sites.)

When we turn it on (probably later today), you can just add the YouTube URL to your post, and when the post appears on the thread the video will appear as a clickable thumbnail.

We've put a maximum of three videos on each post, but there's no daily limit to how many you can post (because unlike pictures, the video links don't place an extra load on our servers).

Hopefully this won't lead to much trolly nastiness because YouTube is fairly well policed, but as ever do please report anything you think we need to see or take down.

Thanks
MNHQ

@RustyBear

So, that's the url of a picture in my Picasa web album, posted first from the app on my phone, then via Safari on my phone (which doesn't seem to allow automatic link conversion) then on the ipad (which does)

I then tried doing it PubeGardens way and couldn't get it to accept it at all - it just told me an image had to be at least 1 pixel high and wide., which presumably means it couldn't 'see' it at all.

I'm going to pass this on to Tech

Its not just a copyright issue though. Most personal website/blogs will have very few visitors/low bandwidth.

MN is the opposite. So if an embedded picture is posted in a thread, every time anybody viewsnrhat thread on MN it will use the bandwidth of the originating site. This could mean their site becomes unavailable if they go over their bandwidth limit/or they could be forced to pay more to keep their site online

Embedding images from other sites is effectively stealing bandwidth, and bandwidth costs money.

www.cineplex.com/News/POLL-Happy-birthday-Colin-Firth-Which-of-the-actors-movies-is-your-favourite

Hmm you're right Rusty, it doesn't seem to work on Safari from an iPhone. I still have the 'convert links automatically' box on the Safari/iPhone version though?

Does it work on Safari from a desktop?

(It doesn't work on the app for now, but it will when we have the new improved app)

Testing on my android. I thought that mobile users couldn't post pictures Sorry, I think I was wrong. Then fair enough, the embedding images doesn't add much and would probably cause headaches when used wrongly.

Rusty, I would imagine that technically the bat infringes copyright but as you are not intending to sell it, trade under it or make money from it in any way, nobody would be in the least bit bothered.

When you're linking to the image it takes the person who clicks on it directly to the place the image is hosted. Whether others are linking to your image directly, or they've saved it to their own computers and have uploaded it themselves, I don't know. It's different to having the image embedded in the thread because I only see it/load it/use bandwidth if I click on it which the majority of skim readers won't. Whereas if it's in the thread, anyone who opens the thread uses that bandwidth, whether they physically see the photo or not.

Thanks Bertie

Just to add to the fun, the auto-link isn't working on mobile at the moment but Tech will put a fix in for that imminently.