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I've talked about this before- but for me, the ban on self-linking is the most important rule of the site.

I can't claim it's an original invention. We stole the philosophy from Metafilter.

What we're attempting to do is remove self-interest from the submissions here. That means that in most cases- if a a video is submitted, it's not because the submitter is looking for publicity or trying to get noticed. It's submitted because the Sifter honestly thinks it's great- and wants to share.

On a day-to-day basis, you might think BFD, that's not really going to change anything.

I'd like to submit VideoBomb as exhibit A. There's a site structured very similarly to VideoSift. They actually launched about 2 weeks before us (I was pissed) and got a great deal of publicity and media attention.

The biggest difference between VideoSift and VideoBomb is that there is no restriction on self-links over there. Go on over and spend 15 minutes on the site.

I'm not comparing us to be mean to a rival site - but I think the self-link rule is one of the big reasons why we attract the the real video experts, librarians, film nuts and other passionate people. (Thanks MeFi).

Hmmm... might be time to start using Firefox full time and open up a Gmail. I take it I'm not worth 30 cents per email? Oh, I am SO going to Videobomb.

It would be nice if we could incorporate our channels and voting into the player. Although I haven't really ever seen any statistics suggesting that it is widely used.

We've contacted them in the past but because videobomb was essentially a competing website they were pretty cold toward us.

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Just to clarify, VideoBomb isn't built on Pligg - I think it's a custom Ruby on Rails CMS.

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Sorry, is it time for that debate again? I forgot to mark it in my calendar this month.

At the risk of sounding overly precious - I think the elemental "essence" of sifting is giving to others. whether it be votes, kudos or a thanks for effort. It's not about "look at my awesome video!"

If people want to get their stuff posted, they should become part of the community, befriend fellow Sifters and get their stuff out that way. These kind of "drive-by" dump and scram postings are exactly what we don't want.

VideoBomb, which launched a few weeks before us - with a lot more initial PR and fanfare - accepts self-links. (ahem).

That's not to say that we won't have things like the Sift-Off from time to time to highlight unique original work from Sifters.

I luvs ranch tooth. We need for Lucky to code a *banal invocation . . .something with a exhausted, sighing sound effect and a puff of smoke.

But *banal should only be invoked to criticize failed tagocomedy or weak com-com . . .the moment that people here start using the word "banal" to describe Sifts will be the moment that I take the money that VideoBomb has been throwing at me to find content.

**EDIT - Oh yeah, I see now why that invocation will never work. Sorry, James.

Ant clearly goes to Videobomb for the Panty videos.

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Oh ... well ... if VideoBomb jumped off a cliff - would you do it too?

Ant - we don't care what VideoBomb's parents let it do. We don't allow you to link because we love you and want to protect you.

Now go to your room. Your mother and I need some "alone" time.

How come VS can't do links? VideoBomb.com can do links beside embedding.

Here ye! Here ye! Angry mob gather 'round!

Lay your anti-DOS-pitchforks and torches down!

It looks like the terrible latency everyone is experiencing is not a result of a dirty DOS attack on us or a slow server. The lag which is ever-so-irksome seems a result of YouTube's videos loading with extreme prejudice (I don't know what that means, but it sounds dramatic). Maybe they are experiencing an attack by the Croatians or VideoBomb.

In any case, please remain patient or try sticking with non-YouTube videos until they clean up their act. I mean, really, you'd think a Billion and a half dollars'd give us some better free service, right?!

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It's our arch-nemesis - the crafty VideoBomb. Quick, all hands prepare to repel DOSers, man the reload buttons.

(not really - though possibly some people in Croatia?)

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I think it gets right down to the bedrock of the philosophy of this site. Not to be too precious, but it's what sets us apart from sites like VideoBomb that are all about people posting stuff they want to get noticed for. If you have a good video, is it really that hard to contact a sift-buddy to post it for you? At the very least it promotes a social attitude to get people working together.

That being said - I think the rate of self-linking is only going to increase. We're looking at ways to mitigate this now, that will still keep the Sift "pure".

Yuck. I don't like the design. When I go to video sites, I want to see new promoted ones like here and VideoBomb. VideoBomb is starting to degrade a lot with a lot of dumb new videos like sexy ones. Bah.

"VideoBomb has the same problems too"

they actively solicit media from publishers though, where as we frown upon it. VideoBomb has deprived themselves of a response mechanism to such issues. Really we have maybe one or two of these a month. We just like to make a big deal out of it so that we can appear tough on crime during the elections.

You know what's funny? VideoBomb has the same problems too. A lot of lame sexy videos and votes.