Pro-tip for Videos forum and avoiding duplicates there

[Dennis Donovan]

As you probably know, most YT videos posted outside of the Videos forum (I believe the Lounge doesn't auto-import videos) will auto-import into that forum, creating duplicates of the same video - sometimes many duplicates - depending how many posts you place the YT video in. This can make the Videos forum clunky as you might be duplicating the same video multiple times in a row, effectively burying other video content.

I've found a workaround if you want to post your YT video in multiple forums but have it show only one time in the Videos forum:

-Create your post in whatever forum you want and post without the YT video placed in the post.
-Immediately re-enter the post you created and then edit to add the YouTube link and update the post.
-This will prevent the YT video from auto-importing into the Video forum, not creating duplicates of the same video and keeping the Videos forum much cleaner.

Of course, there is no rule regarding duplicates in the Videos forum, but it makes the forum much more user-friendly as it keeps other users from having to scroll down for other content. If you want to include your video in your OP (in GD, LBN, etc) there's nothing wrong with that - this is just about keeping the Videos forum itself streamlined and keep the same content from duplicating multiple times (DU only allows for 2 Videos forum pages from displaying at any time, so they can get filled pretty quickly).

This is just a trick I discovered because there are many times I wan to include a YT video in more than one OP, but don't want all of them to auto-import to the Videos forum (creating duplicates of the same video).

Personally, if I want a YT video to display in the Videos forum, I'll go directly to the forum and post it under the headers (Cable News Clips or Liberal YouTubers) provided in the forum. Some videos don't fall under those headers (like political ads) so I'll post it one time in GD and let it import into Videos because it's still worthwhile content for that forum. But if I post the same video in another forum, I'll use the trick of "create post->publish post->re-enter post->edit and add the YT video" so the video doesn't show up a second time in the Videos forum.

Just a trick I discovered because I'm not particularly fond of not having control of whether a YT video I'll post in GD or LBN or even Music Appreciation to also show in the Videos forum. Just a personal preference of mine. YMMV...



On edit: This doesn't mean your video won't be included under the "Greatest Videos" column on the right side of the Videos page - those videos (with enough recs) will still be pulled from all forums on DU, not just the Videos forum.