This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments or questions on this topic should be made in a new Senate Hall page rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record. —MJ— ^Holocomm 18:26, November 13, 2012 (UTC)

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) 23:39, May 23, 2012 (UTC)

• And…we don't get a choice in the matter? I don't care unless it affects Monobook. But even without having seen it, I don't think we'll want it. Cade Calrayn 23:45, May 23, 2012 (UTC)
• The existing video extensions are already disabled here, so why would you enable this? How do we opt out? -- Darth Culator ^(Talk) 23:46, May 23, 2012 (UTC)
• What could I possibly want with "related videos" on a wiki? I'm here for informational purposes, both reading and writing; if I want videos, I'll go to YouTube. As per the previous two comments—will it come with a disable/opt-out option? — DigiFluid^{(Whine here)} 00:54, May 24, 2012 (UTC)
• Without trying to sound rude, I feel this really falls along the same lines as this. As Culator says, we already don't use videos on purpose. While it's considerate of you to think of Wookieepedia, I think it would be better if we could keep this out of a CT just to save time. I believe I speak for most—if not all—of the community when I say that we don't want videos. Per Culator: How do we turn this thing off before it gets started?—Cal Jedi ^{(Personal Comm Channel)} 02:15, May 24, 2012 (UTC)
• No. -- Riffsyphon1024 06:47, May 24, 2012 (UTC)
• How do we opt out? Could you, perhaps, some day consider, you know, asking us first if we want some useless module for something we don't use, instead of dropping in and saying we're getting it? I don't know, would that be too much for you, Wikia? Would common courtesy be too much of a hassle for you? Trak Nar ^{Ramble on} 06:53, May 24, 2012 (UTC)
• Per all of the above. And, if no opt out option is given, you can pretty much guarantee that we will be vigilant and make sure no articles end up with unnecessary videos so you may want to save yourself the effort and just forget about rolling it out here. - Cavalier One^{(Squadron channel)} 07:55, May 24, 2012 (UTC)

Hi, Thank you for your thoughts. 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) 18:07, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

• You're not getting the point. WE. DON'T. WANT. IT. Period. Take the extension to another wiki that actually wants it. We don't. —MJ— ^{Jedi Council Chambers} Friday, May 25, 2012, 18:25 UTC
• I actually have a question, what is the most effective way to Abusefilter this out? 1358 ^(Talk) 18:26, May 25, 2012 (UTC)
  • You know, I think Wikia's main problem is that they doesn't realize that we, the users who responded to this announcement here, actually represent most our community. If the admins say they don't want it, and a bunch of normal users agree, then why are you still doing it? Cade Calrayn 18:35, May 25, 2012 (UTC)
• I think our 'early stage' feedback is already quite clear, before this even happens: we aren't interested. We don't want it. And we will be vigilant in removing it in any way we are able. Perhaps there will be some wikis that will find this useful—we are not one of them. To echo Trak's comment above: is it so difficult to ask if a community is interested in modules which have nothing to do with wikis, instead of showing your proverbial face just long enough to say 'this is coming, deal with it'? I know the internet is the land of anonymity, but in my experience, basic courtesy isn't that hard. — DigiFluid^{(Whine here)} 18:40, May 25, 2012 (UTC)
• I wished you guys would have been able to react less hostile on Sarah's polite response (and I prolly am opposing this as much as you are, in this wiki)... – Tm_T@Wookieepedia:~$ 18:46, May 25, 2012 (UTC)
  • 'Too bad, we don't care what you think or want' is rather rude in itself, no matter how politely it's worded. — DigiFluid^{(Whine here)} 18:50, May 25, 2012 (UTC)
  • (edit conflict × 2) "Polite"? She completely ignored everybody's statements that we don't want it and simply kept talking about it like it's a done deal and we're going to get it no matter what. That is not even remotely what I would call "polite". —MJ— _Comlink Friday, May 25, 2012, 18:53 UTC
• I'm not trying to be particularly rude to Wikia Staff in general and Sarah in particular, but they seem to ignore everything we say. If I may quote what Sarah said herself: "You will be able to add and remove (emphasis mine) videos you feel are most fitting to the wiki..." Thus, if we can remove any videos we do not want, we can remove all the videos since we don't want any of the videos. I'm quoting from a Wikia Staff member, thus I do not believe you (Wikia Staff) should interfere with us anymore. You will let us remove what we want; we want to remove them all.—Cal Jedi ^{(Personal Comm Channel)} 19:02, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

Wikia Staff: I must refer you to our official site feature policy, passed by consensus in 2009, which requires the explicit approval of the community before adding any new feature not developed by MediaWiki. If you launch this feature without our approval, you will be deliberately ignoring the will of our community, and proving once again that you have absolutely no respect for your users. Is that really what you want? -- Darth Culator ^(Talk) 18:50, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

Hi all - First, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. Your comments led to a great discussion here in the office today regarding the related videos module. First: We won’t be turning the module on for Starwars at this time.

I do want to make a few clarifications (and explain a decision we made today based on your feedback). The first is that we are changing the way we’re architecting the product so that wikis like yours who choose not to have embedded video in the content area do not need to turn that video variable on for their wiki. What this means is that the related video module will stay in the right rail which is already space dedicated to sitewide Wikia elements (recent wiki activity, images etc) without having to allow embeddable video in the content space.

Second, we’re exploring the ability to limit the videos available in the module to content from our Wikia Video Library (http://videos.wikia.com) which are all fully licensed for use on Wikia and will not include content from YouTube or other similar video hosts. If this community is concerned about ensuring the videos that display in the right rail are both licensed and of broadcast quality, this will be a good option for you.

All this being said I want to reiterate that we won’t be turning the related videos module on for your community at this time. The global release of this module to Wikia’s right rail has not been scheduled yet at this time; we’re expecting to learn more about how communities use and interact with this feature as we roll it out to a larger set of communities. --Sarah (help forum | blog) 23:20, May 25, 2012 (UTC)

• Thank you. I'm sure everyone here appreciates you being receptive to our feedback. — DigiFluid^{(Whine here)} 23:25, May 25, 2012 (UTC)
• Thank you. Rest assured that we will be wanting to opt out of this module by any means necessary. As Culator pointed out, you can not launch any feature on our wiki without first seeking our prior community-wide approval. If you do otherwise, you will be not only ignoring our policies but proving, as Culator said that you have no respect for your userbase. We sincerely doubt that you want to generate such a negative approval rating and overall image of yourselves, considering that you have members of the communities, including this one, working for you. If you wish to retain a satisfactory working relationship with us, it would be wise if you respect and follow our polices. If we don't want a new feature, then simply put, we do NOT want a new feature. Thank you, however, for informing us that you will not be activating this new feature. Hopefully in the future, our policies will be respected and we can avoid this debacle yet again. Trak Nar ^{Ramble on} 03:37, May 26, 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your quick responses and feedback. The right rail modules in the Wikia skin have always been a space where we highlight new and changing content and the related videos module is an expansion of that. It is a module in the side rail, not in the content space (or viewable in monobook), where we will offer videos related to Star Wars. Unlike other modules that are completely automated, the community here will have the ability to choose which videos are in the module; these can include videos added by the community or those accessed from the video wiki. As mentioned previously, we made changes to the module based on your feedback that allow the related videos module to function completely separate from other video modules on Wikia which means that there is no requirement for this community (or others) to allow embedding videos directly in the content space. As we move forward we are working on a few things including building more content partnerships and improving the functionality of the module. I will keep you updated here as we move forward on these initiatives. --Sarah (help forum | blog) 21:23, May 29, 2012 (UTC)