I think it is the responsibility of the video submitter to decide on using the new embed, BUT things could be done to encourage a submitter to do that. What if the submitter was emailed when a backup was provided for one of their videos? They could then check it and choose to swap it in.

I had a similar request when we first got custom thumbnails. I wanted to be able to replace the thumbnails for other people's videos (if they hadn't provided a custom one). But it was shot down (and probably rightly so), that it should be up to the owner. You know, people could have created thumbnails that might have been visually nicer and attention grabbing, but spoiled a joke for example.

But yeah, somehow notifying the owner of a new embed, must be the easiest form of encouragement.... unless we want a *backupandreplace=... invocation?

That would be great but often I find that the sifter of a video with poor quality is just no longer with us for whatever reason.

And that puts us in a bind.
Either we allow better quality dupes or we fix those vids where they are needed.

VS is a community we just have to decide whether or not we cut our neighbors grass while they are away.

I have done this myself a couple of times but I always feel hesitant for that very reason.
Should we or shouldn't we? It would be nice if it was officially done with a *invocation in my opinion.

Some of the apparently no-longer-with us folks are actually still lurking in the shadows, and for the rest I see no reason not to do *backup= and then replace embed. For added sift brownie points you could add the original as a backup at that point in case the newer and shinier ones goes dead.

A way to have the backup embed be the primary straight away would save two steps in this case.
>> ^ctrlaltbleach:

That would be great but often I find that the sifter of a video with poor quality is just no longer with us for whatever reason.
And that puts us in a bind.
Either we allow better quality dupes or we fix those vids where they are needed.
VS is a community we just have to decide whether or not we cut our neighbors grass while they are away.
I have done this myself a couple of times but I always feel hesitant for that very reason.
Should we or shouldn't we? It would be nice if it was officially done with a invocation in my opinion.

You can embed a backup, then refresh the page, and click on the backup link (under alternate embeds) and then select the Replace Current Embed with this Backup link (shown at top of video).

That way you're not killing the original embed... even though it may be crappy, it's nice to have a backup.