User blog:Sarah Manley/Updates to the Related Videos Module

Hi All!

Last year, we began experimenting with some video features on a certain set of test wikis. Our goal was to gauge our visitors' interest in watching videos. Our findings were not surprising: people love to watch on-topic videos.

The main tool we used to test this was the Related Videos module (which you can see in the right rail). It was built as a proof-of-concept feature and we knew it wasn't scalable to launch on many more wikis. We've reached the point in our Video project where we're confident enough to turn on for more wikis (release plan TBD). However, this requires some functionality changes.

How it used to work
The module was customizable on a page-level. For example, for the "Janitor" article on Scrubs, I could add many videos solely about the Janitor on the Janitor article. They would not appear on any other article. All modules would use a global "backup" list so they wouldn't be empty on other pages.

How it works now
We've changed the button so it posts all videos directly to the global list. The existing page-specific video lists are still being respected and only appear on that specific page. I am posting this because this behavior is going to change.

How it will work as of Oct 3rd
The page-specific video list will be merged into the global list. That means that anything you have programmed specifically to a page will be seen not only there, but accessible from the Related Videos module on every page. We will no longer offer page specific videos. The RelatedVideos pages will become non-functional pages and anything you add there will not be seen in the Related Videos module. Some people have customized their modules on their wikis and we appreciate their hard work. The lists of pages that have page specific video programming are still accessible by visiting Special:AllPages?namespace=1100 on your wiki. You can copy the videos listed there and paste them in a gallery on the related article.

How it will work in the near future
The module will automatically pull in high quality, licensed, relevant videos from the Wikia Video Library and automatically add them to your module so you will have the latest and best video content from our content providers. Only Admins will be able to edit what appears in the Related Videos module so you can remove what you feel is not appropriate. The "add a video" button will remain so that you can continue to encourage your community to contribute relevant videos to your wiki.

Why are we making these changes?
We're shifting the module to perform as a discovery mechanism like the rest of the right rail. Our statistics show that people are six times more likely to watch videos that are embedded into articles than they are to watch videos in the Related Videos module. This is true of images and links as well. If you have videos related to an article, we encourage you to add them directly into the article.

Thanks and please let us know if you have any questions.