Modifying thumbnails - a couple of suggestions

posted by Hybrid 1 decade 3 years 2 months 4 weeks ago • 1,249 views
I do like adding custom thumbnails to my own posts in order to make them look more appealing on the queue, or hiding the punchline of a comedy visual gag if that becomes the automatically generated thumb. I also occasionally fix up missing thumbs from other people's videos. Two things have become apparent:



1. I would like to be able to set a custom thumbnail when I submit a video. Rather than having to submit the video and then modify it straight after.

2. It would be good if people could edit the thumbnails of other people's videos (even if that video already has a thumb). For say, improving the thumb visually, hiding visual gags or in some cases, fixing videos which think they have thumbs but actually have missing images (like this video currently on the front page: http://videosift.com/video/Robyn-Hyperballad-Bj-rk-Cover)

I know 2 is open to abuse a bit, and there could be cases where the video submitter has gone through the effort of setting their own thumbnail, only for someone else to come along and change it... if that's an issue, it could be limited so that people can only edit other people's video's thumbs if the thumb is still the default?

What say? Number 1 is the biggie for me. If that was there, I'd probably give every new video of mine a custom thumb from the start and hopefully make the queues look better overall.

12 Comments

kronosposeidon says...

Idea #1 - A great idea. That's the way it should be.

Idea #2 - That's a big negatory, good buddy. Editing someone else's valid thumbnail is ripe for abuse. I don't care if the thumbnail is the default thumb provided by the video host, or a custom thumb provided by the member. If it's a default thumbnail, that member has the ability to customize the thumb if they wish, so if they choose not to customize the thumb then they still have made a choice. And of course there is NO way ANYONE should be able to override a thumb that a member took the time to customize.

Once @lucky760 introduced the thumbnail customization feature, I went through about 350 of my videos and updated the thumbs. Most of those had no thumbs to start with, but some others had lame thumbs that I decided to change. My remaining 1070 videos I left as is. Some of the default thumbs aren't that great, but they're good enough for me. I don't want someone else messing with what I've done, and what I've left alone.

Idea #2 is well-intentioned, @Hybrid, but all the same I don't think it should be implemented. Idea #1 is a capital suggestion. Make it so.

Hybrid says...

Yeah, and I occasionally do that. What I'm really after is the ability to change default thumbnails that are basically rubbish and do not reflect the video's contents at all.

Though at the same time, I agree with @kronosposeidon regarding the potential abuse, as well as people not wanting others messing with their thumbs (default or not).>> ^gwiz665:

We can already edit other people's thumbnails if the sift in question doesn't have one.

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