Your length tolerance for video content

[Valka D'Ur]

Full disclosure so that this isn't taken the wrong way: this thread is inspired by, but not meant to rag on, this thread. I was initially interested in watching the video in the OP, but when I saw the seven something minutes runtime I immediately stopped. If it was below four I probably would have.

Then I realized that when searching content on the internet, including guides and tutorials, I would often be annoyed when the results were a video instead of text.

Am I the only one who cannot be bothered to look at web videos instead of text? How much time would you invest? Am I simply old-fashioned, or is video often mis- or overused on the internet? Or is my problem my limited attention span instead?

Edit: added a poll. "Compelling context" basically means the OP somewhat summarizes the video and gives a specific reason to watch it. Select this option if it influences your answer.

I watched the entire video, not because I was that interested in what the politician was saying (I don't know enough about UK politics to care), but because I was interested in the location where he was.

You should have linked to the "Ask an Atlanteologist" thread. There are FIVE videos there, all at least an hour long, and apparently I'm the only person on the whole forum (other than the OP) who bothered to watch them. If anyone ever finds that guy, drag him back here and tell him to answer my questions. That's over 5 hours of my life I sacrificed on that pseudoscience garbage, and he took off before I'd finished all of them.

Note to anyone posting videos: If you post one and want people to discuss it, have the courtesy to stick around to participate in the discussion and answer questions if anyone asks. Especially do that if it's something more than 15 minutes long (which can seem like an eternity if it's something outside the viewer's normal viewing preferences).

I get irritated when a video is used in lieu of a written explanation or discussion. "Just watch the video" is not going to make me happy when when I'm someone who retains information better when it's presented in written form (unless it's something I need to know how to do and the written instructions are unclear). For example: Game walkthroughs. Within the last year or so I started trying out "Time management games" and can figure out most levels... but there are some that I just can't get. So I found out that most of these have walkthroughs posted online, explaining the steps needed to get through the levels. I was having an extremely frustrating time with one of these a few weeks ago, and when I went to look up the walkthrough, all I found was one posted on YouTube. The instructions were unclear and everything went so fast, I couldn't tell what was going on. So it didn't help at all. Hopefully someday someone will write it up in step-by-step paragraphs, and in the meantime, I'm stuck on that level.

How can you even tolerate TV in the background ? :x
It'd just drives me insane.

I used to have the TV on in the background, when I was working on a craft project. But now, the TV comes on only when there's something specific I plan to watch and when the show is over, the TV is shut off.

 

[Antilogic]

Given that I post from public places (and previously from work), I almost never watch videos in an OP.

If I'm at home, I trust the poster, and there is good context, then I'm more willing to watch it, even up to hour-long stuff if it interests me.

 

[Daw]

How can you even tolerate TV in the background ? :x
It'd just drives me insane.

I mean, either I'm actually watching the thing, and paying attention, or I'm not and then turns it off. But having this incessant background irritating noise... Ugh, it's like having an itch.

Are you my long lost twin?

 

[Akka]

Dunno. Do you hate noise with a passion and feel like punching people if you hear the basses of their music through the walls or their dogs barking throuhg your windows ?

 

[Daw]

Yeah, I hate noise with a passion, but it's not about feeling like punching people. It's rather about feeling like giving them [an advise to buy themselves] a headset so that they enjoy their basses without involving me in the process. Alternatively I feel like moving out and going to the country (and leasing my apartment out to someone REALLY nasty, to return the favor).

Edit: But that passion needs to grow. If the noise is moderate enough I may hardly notice to start with and only after some time it gets me to be , and then

Practically, it takes time long enough for the noise to stop before I get violent and become socially unacceptable.

 

[Leoreth]

Have you guys looked into SPD before?

 

[Daw]

What's SPD?

No, I tend to think it's just a narrow input channel that is too easy to be blocked with irrelevant noise. A perception feature (bug?).

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I almost never watch videos posted here. I'm just not interested - I come here to discuss what people think, not watch what random people on the internet have to say.

The few occasions when I do watch them are when they are brief reporting videos of something happening (i.e. not someone making an argument, just a report or video of an incident ) or when someone posts a space-related video.

 

[Akka]

Have you guys looked into SPD before?

Nah, my sensory input are fine, I just can't stand useless noise.

 

[Samson]

If the OP has a good summary of the video, and it sounds interesting, and there is a reasonable question to discuss then there is a chance that I will watch a short one. 5 mins is stretching it, if there had been an option for 3 or 4 I would have gone of that.

When the post is Video, Discuss, there is zero chance I shall watch it. I think such posts, or at least thread starters, should be banned to improve the quality of this forum.

 

[PhroX]

If the video is the content...zero minutes. However, if it's a decently written post that covers the core points of the argument but with a video that goes into more detail on the subject for those interested (such that you can partake in the discussion without the video), then probably around 5 minutes or so. I won't click every video like that, but if the post interests me, that's the sort of length I'd like to have to learn a bit more.

 

[Evie]

If there isn't a summary, anything longer than 20-30 seconds is no-go.
If there is a summary, I might go for 1-3 minutes.
In any case, I prefer text.

The only longer video that I watch are the ones I'm actually interested in watching to begin with.

That's about where it sits at for me. I'll spend upward of an hour reading an article, but don't make me sit through more than 5 (preferably 3) minutes of an information video (other than a professional documentary on a topic of interest)

 

[JollyRoger]

You have to watch the video to get my answer:


Link to video.

 

[Daw]

You have to watch the video to get my answer:

Done. The answer is "less than 10 seconds" (which was what took me to scroll and make sure there's nothing to watch there in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end).

Correct?

 

[LucyDuke]

I click on random videos almost never. There are some people whose videos I'll usually click, and maybe something will catch my interest once in a while, but mostly random videos are noisy and I can't skim them so I avoid them.

I didn't realize so many other people were annoyed that so many things on the internet are video instead of text now! We should complain more.

 

[Leoreth]

You have to watch the video to get my answer:

"I may have gone too far in a few places." - "It's stylistically designed to be that way, and you can't undo that, but you can diminish the effects of it."

 

[Tee Kay]

If the OP gives compelling context and I'm convinced by that that it's something that I would benefit from, sure. I'd watch the video regardless of length.

Well, actually, if it's more than an hour long I might hesitate.

On the other hoof if what I got from the OP was "this is a video full of people saying stupid and hateful stuff without any merit" then I probably wouldn't watch it no matter how long it is, no.

 

[danjuno]

Length is not a deterrent to me so much as the level of interest of the story, though if OP doesn't do a good job of summarizing, I may not watch it.

 

[SLAAKMAN]

Longest video on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FvHiLLkPhQE#t=69

That video is worthy of fantastic silliness. Ill leave it running for the next few days.

 

[Zelig]

For anti-Google privacy reasons I don't allow embedded videos, so I'd have to open my Google-browser and inspect the source of the page to find which video is being referred to.

Plus I don't particularly care to watch video content (rather than text) anyway, it's too inefficient for most stuff.

So I don't watch anything on youtube.