But the question is, do people really not know how to do this? Or is it just more work than most people can be bothered with?

That's actually a good idea for a poll. I'd do it, but... I can't be bothered.

>> ^lucky760:

4. Start the submission process for a new video or click the "modify video details" link on an existing video.


The option for a custom thumb is missing from the submit video form. It's only on the modify video details form.

^Fixed.

Why don't we make it an incentive basis to provide thumbnails? The only reason why I'm going to use this feature is to garner a bunch of votes to a video if it has a really great looking thumbnail. But if my video has no awesome scene, I don't really care to bother with this whole snap a shot, upload it, blah blah blah.

But if we allow other members to upload thumbnails to my video, they can be rewarded a fancy power point or at the very least one of those ultra cool badges to show off in their profile.

We really need to embrace the mass of users this site has (and get more to sign up) by making it a public effort to have this site running efficiently... much like a wiki.

Half the time I'm on here, I'm cleaning house... putting dead tags and dupeof tags to use. Now that the badge system is implemented, I can silently gloat in front of my computer about my accomplishments of cleaning up and helping.

If there was a way of rewarding others to thumbnail videos, I think a lot of these no thumbnail videos would be obsolete.

@Stingray: Stay tuned for VideoSift v4.2 (to be launched very, very soon).

After trying this out a bit, I have a few comments to make.

1. If you add a thumbnail to a video from a site that doesn't normally have thumbnails, save changes, and then modify the video details again, the initial thumbnail change is lost.

2. I haven't tried this with a lot of videos, but it seems like if the video is from a site like YouTube that already has its own thumbnail, you can't replace it with your own.

3. For Firefox users, there's an extension called Pixlr Grabber that allows you to take user-defined screenshots within your browser and save them to your computer. I've used it a number of times and it's quite easy to use and definitely speeds up the process.

Being able to add thumbnails is a nice feature and I'll be sure to use it more in the future.

>> ^blutruth:

If you add a thumbnail to a video from a site that doesn't normally have thumbnails, save changes, and then modify the video details again, the initial thumbnail change is lost.

FYI, it might seem that way, but it is not necessarily so.

If you go back in to modify immediately after changing the thumbnail, it's possible that you'll still be seeing the old thumbnail because: a) it hasn't yet been updated on our CDN where the image is hosted (this can take as long as 60-90 seconds), and/or b) the old one is still being cached by your web browser and you'll need to do a hard reload (CTRL+SHIFT+reload) to see it as soon as our CDN is ready with the new image.

@lucky760, I assume you know when a video doesn't have a thumbnail from a code point of view, either because your request for a thumbnail failed or somebody hasn't uploaded one? If so, why not put those videos onto a page similar to the dead pool? Thereby allowing people to add thumbs to them and get their badges.

I like to use this screen capture software for Windows based machines:

http://www.fiastarta.com/PrtScr/

It's super easy to use to capture and edit in one click. I use it on a regular basis at work when I need to screenshot an error message or make a how-to doc.

What's the connection between the picture one submits and the image used by siftbot in the according comment?

Siftbot inserts it in the comment as you provided it. Why do you ask?

On several occasions, a different image was used. Examples: #1, #2, #3, #4.

The pictures I submitted are being used as thumbnails, just as intended. But siftbot's comments include different pictures from the same videos, pictures I didn't upload, pictures I didn't even make in the first place.

Wow, that's really, really strange. There doesn't seem to be any way that should be possible... except... hmm...

The only way I think that could happen is if for some reason a video actually has a thumbnail image file stored on our CDN (even though on the Sift it is not being used), then when you update with your thumbnail, siftbot fetches the old one stored at the CDN because their servers aren't ready with your new thumbnail yet.

Assuming that actually is the issue, I've gone ahead and put in a fix so that shouldn't happen any more. Please inform if you see it happen again. Thanks!

Too bad there is not a way to undo a thumbnail add. I realize it would not be very practical but when you are a meathead like me it is easy to upload the wrong pic. Especially when you are on a roll and not paying attention. Ugh.

How do you change the thumbnail of another persons video?

*findthumb will remove the previously added one, then you can add your own the normal way. This only fails in the rare case that *findthumb actually works, but usually you aren't trying to update those ones anyway.

I want to know why sifty no longer accepts the thumbnail url from vimeo.
>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

How do you change the thumbnail of another persons video?

[author flagged as a spammer - redacted]

[author flagged as a spammer - redacted]