I never decided anything, as far as I remember. I do think that we should stem the tide of region blocked videos, so as to promote removing the blocks.

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.

Recently there was this discussion:
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.

I'm with you 100% Oxdottir

What am I replying to here? This SiftTalk post is region blocked in Germany
_

CC videos seem to work fine again from over here, but if they didn´t I´d just ignore them, not downvote them.

they have a lessor chance with me, and I am not in a region blocked-I down vote most, on accounta I can't stand Jon Stewart or Bill Maher's writers...nor do I particularly care for their delivery....but it mostly has to do with the aspect ratio and the horrible colors of their embeds...and the goddamn adverts....did I mention the so-called comedy relies on sophomoric sarcasm as a cardinal element??? It's old like moldy cardboard-

I don't blame you, oxdottir. Calling it dead wouldn't work, because the next guy to come along and play it fine would *undead it.

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.

Thanks for bringing this up oxdottir, I've had similar thoughts. I enjoy Comedy Central but have refused to vote on any of the recent videos as I can't see them without involving a proxy or digging up the clip on a different site. I have considered down-voting since the community had decided not to allow Comedy Central embed's, but have not done it up until now. I may start doing it now though...

*quality

Awarding oxdottir with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by Zifnab.

^Yes, there are some problems with invoking dead. We may need to make clear to those you invoke * undead should first check if the video is regionblocked..someone who invokes dead should add information about regionblocking+the specific region if (s)he's aware of it (one can check this by going to the original site where one will see a message "this video is not available in your country" (YouTube))
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?

Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate them. The person who asked me not to downvote says he understands my position now and retracts the request. I guess I will keep with the voting.

By the way, I never downvote comedy central vids from youtube or whatever.

And thanks, Zif.

I've always thought this was a have your cake and eat it too rule. It reminds me of when congress passes those non-binding resolutions that don't do anything more than say, 'we've decided we don't like this by a majority vote, but aren't actually going to try and pass any laws relating to it, because then we couldn't partake in using it.' Actually in videosift's case its almost a case of congress outlawing it for everyone but themselves, seeing as people below a certain star level can't post Comedy Central embeds.

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.

My issue with the downvotes is that they are irreversible and only a comment on the source of the video rather than the video itself. If a new embed is found, the downvote stands.

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 am anti banning of any clip, if it has an embed code, we should be able to take advantage of it here on the Sift. In Canada we can't view half the American websites because of business deals with our fascist media (CTV and Global.) Why punish the sift for this?

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 agree with Fedquip, I don't think we should be downvoting videos for regionblocking.

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.

I don't understand why anyone would downvote a region blocked video to begin with. It's like burning down the candy store because you mom won't let you have any.

I think it is more like saying, if all can't have candy, why don't we have all these other perfectly fine treats that all can share.

I think some people are confused here. I do not believe it was ever stated that CC videos are not allowed. What was decided was that they would no longer belong in the list of "blessed hosts" because of region blocking. If you think that means the same thing as them being banned your are mistaken.

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".