So, soon after I joined the sift, we as a community voted not to sift comedy central videos because they were region blocked. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at the time, but some strong statements were made by our devs and various others, and so I bought into it.
Lately, more and more comedy central videos have come up, and while I love John Stewart and Steven Colbert, I vote any I find down... mostly because I wish people would stop submitting them given what we decided. I see many comedy central clips I would love to submit, but I don't.
Obviously, some people don't like that. I've even received a request to not downvote regionblocked videos until after they sift. What? How could that possibly make sense? I don't want them to sift--I don't want them here at all.
So perhaps I've missed a boat somewhere. Has our opinion changed? Personally, I think the whole, leave it to the community not to sift comedy central videos has been a vast failure. If we really think it shouldn't be done, then it shouldn't be done. If we don't care anymore, let's say that right out.
I don't like being pointed at as a witch because I believed in the discussion and the community concensus, so tell me I'm wrong, and if I hear the community in the statement, I will desist.
Lately, more and more comedy central videos have come up, and while I love John Stewart and Steven Colbert, I vote any I find down... mostly because I wish people would stop submitting them given what we decided. I see many comedy central clips I would love to submit, but I don't.
Obviously, some people don't like that. I've even received a request to not downvote regionblocked videos until after they sift. What? How could that possibly make sense? I don't want them to sift--I don't want them here at all.
So perhaps I've missed a boat somewhere. Has our opinion changed? Personally, I think the whole, leave it to the community not to sift comedy central videos has been a vast failure. If we really think it shouldn't be done, then it shouldn't be done. If we don't care anymore, let's say that right out.
I don't like being pointed at as a witch because I believed in the discussion and the community concensus, so tell me I'm wrong, and if I hear the community in the statement, I will desist.
I haven't felt the brunt of it, because Comedy Central isn't blocked in Denmark, but lately I've hit a few HULU videos, which are only in the US. I've not dovnvoted them though, but I would like a *region or something, so we could cleary mark and mock them.
Just downvote all your hearts desire thats what the siftah is for, and you can downvote on any basis you see fit. If a video can't sift without your non-vote, then it's not meant to be.
http://engineering.videosift.com/talk/Suggestion-Filter-setting-for-Region-blocking-videos
I've made up my mind, the downsides of allowing regionblocked content outweigh the upsides.
Solution:
Why not just declare a regionblocked video * dead when the video can't be seen from your specific region? Doesn't that solve the problem?
The one who invokes dead will have to specify from what region the video can't be seen or the video will be declared * undead again or fixed with another regionblocked video.
_
CC videos seem to work fine again from over here, but if they didn´t I´d just ignore them, not downvote them.
There are methods to circumventing a region block, and I think it should be the poster's job to provide a link to a viewable video for our foreign friends. Until then, downvote away.
*quality
Isn't there a site where one can check if a site is available in other countries??
I remember the Great Firewall of China
http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/
which is no longer functioning..there may be similar sites? Anyone?
By the way, I never downvote comedy central vids from youtube or whatever.
And thanks, Zif.
Really I don't mind either way, if they're allowed or not, I guess I'm more bothered by all the waffling (mmm waffles) on the issue and lack of any real stance on the issue. Even if the rule is only gold stars and above can post them, and then they have to provide a region blocking circumventing alternative, maybe not completely fair, but at least its a stand. All that said I will admit my own go with the flow hypocrisy by as an up voter of Comedy Central videos.
Technically, we should be * discarding the Comedy Central posts for violating our guidelines. I'm actually fine with that, although I don't think we should purge previously sifted videos from our ranks. If a new embed is found, those videos can be revived.
I say a *regionblocked invoc is needed, this will at least warn people that there is a chance the video won't work for them. Some have gone out of their way in the past to at least link to an alternative source: Redlasso, C&L, Onegoodmove.org are all options of finding non blocked versions of blocked clips. As a community we should help each other by trying to find alternatives sources, when we can. ahem
I like the idea of *regionblocked. Ideally it'd be slightly like *dead, only the video stays where it is (frontpage or queued), but is labeled regionblocked, and gives people of the appropriate rank the ability to change the embed so if they have a non-regionblocked code for it, they can insert it. If a code is inserted, the video loses the regionblocked flag.
I'm as against the braindead mentality of region-locking to create false scarcity as anyone, but us blocking those vids won't bother the corporations doing it at all.
I'd rather put methods for bypassing regionblocking in the FAQ, instead of depriving ourselves of the manna that comes from Comedy Central.
There are plenty of video host sites that are not on the "blessed" list for one reason or another and as far as I know none of the sites are banned as long as the video itself does not violate the rules.
I also agree that down voting these videos is childish and selfish. If you don't want to support it then just don't vote for it. Nullifying someone else vote is just plain selfish in my opinion.
The truth is if we want any clips from networks like NBC, CC, and FOX for the time we have to put up with the region blocking. If enough people who can see it want to sift it then it should be sifted. Obviously those that can't see it won't vote for it so it is a tougher uphill battle to get it sifted let alone if users are protesting with a down vote.
To me it just seems childish to take the stance that if "I can't see it, then no one should see it".