There have been many occasions where I've watched some embedded videos on other sites. So, I've been conflicted about any response I might make in this thread. Until now, that is.
Five or six years ago our patron, Rich Lucibella, went on a crusade to get rid of some of the really stupid stuff some people do. One that really peeved him was the tendency of people to paste a link or an entire article and make no effort to direct the conversation of the thread they just created. To be fair, people would do the same thing in responding to another member, as if the link or cut-n-paste article was all that needed to be said. Rich coined the term,
"Drive-By Cut and Paste Post" (click on the link for an explanation of what this is).
Back when the old Legal & Political forum was still active, Dave (the Bluesman) and I had had so much of this activity, that we made it a forum specific rules violation. This rules violation was carried over to the new Law and Civil Rights forum.
That helped the L&P and L&CR forums, but folks were just hitting the rest of the board harder and harder with these types of posts. Bud, over in the General Discussion forums, began using the "Drive-By" rules Dave and I had set up.
Finally, we arrived at the point where all the mods were blocking these posts, so it became a General Forum Rule.
Now, in taking a hard look at other forums, and their use of embedded you tube videos, what I saw was the same thing. Post an embedded video with not much more than a "
Hey! Look At This, Guys!"
...sigh... Classic Drive-By, +90% of the time.
No, instead of allowing the embedded videos, I'll vote to continue just allowing the link with the appropriate commentary by the person who posts it. Just like any other link or partial pasting of articles, anywhere else on the Firing Line.