Creating a new Mindbody Video Library Subforum

[BruceMC]

Moderator note:
This post is in response to this post in which someone reposted several videos that were already available elsewhere in the site. It led to a series of posts that were off the topic of the original thread, but deserve their own thread, so I have broken them off. This thread is now about how we are replacing our old Video Library addon with a new Video Library Subforum - ideas that will be explained below. --Forest

Bruce's original post follows:
-----------
These along with other videos by Dr Mate are all available in the Media section of this Forum:

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/media/category/dr-gabor-mate.10/

 

[Forest]

Indeed we do. Thanks for bringing that up, Bruce, as I have an announcement to make.

There are a number of serious problems with the software that runs our media library that I have been aware of for years, and we are in the process of replacing it with a subforum.

The reasons why we are replacing the media library are complex. Basically, we made a great effort to make it succeed, but it still only accounts for 1% of our forum traffic. Further, all the good discussions of media items seem to be in threads rather than in media library. In fact, I calculated and the average thread has 47 (!) more comments than the average media item. Also, the software bleeds "PageRank," with two irrelevant outlinks on every page, making it harder for people to find out about us/TMS on Google. Finally, the programmer of the addon software that runs the media library is unreliable and having too many addons makes everything more complex. My hope is that by removing the media tab (unknown software) and replacing it with another subforum (known software), we will help make the software less overwhelming and increase engagement. As a subforum, the media library will also be integrated with our main tagging system and "All Recent Threads" list, which should help increase engagement and improve search engine optimization.

An awful lot of thought went into it. We'll be keeping the old Media tab around for a while, because it will take a while to disentangle it from the rest of the threads, and we're going to do a good job of it, bearing in mind a number of factors.

In the meantime, I hope people enjoy the new subforum. I made it last night and it already has some terrific videos and discussions. I imagine it will get even better as we add more videos and more people start checking it out and contributing to the discussions.

It's listed in the main subforum list. Right under "Laughter is the Best Medicine," you'll find "Mindbody Video Library:"
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/#subforums-on-special-topics.40
Enjoy!

PS
By the way, Bruce, do you mind if I move these two posts into their own thread? It feels like we are discussing a slightly different topic. I'll add a note so people don't get confused.

 

[BruceMC]

elucidate = ex - completely; lucidare - Late Latin vb. meaning to illuminate. IOWs: You've illuminated this matter completely, Forest! I think I get it: The old media library is going to disappear and the items in it are going to be housed in a subforum of the main TMS Forum? Or will the new media subforum start from scratch?

 

[Forest]

The old media library is going to disappear and the items in it are going to be housed in a subforum of the main TMS Forum? Or will the new media subforum start from scratch?

Exactly. It will probably take a couple of months for the old media library to disappear completely, because there are many steps that need to take place in the background to preserve our standing with Google.

Right now, we're going through the somewhat laborious process of reviewing the videos in the old media library, one by one, and turning them into threads. So far, Walt has done this thread and another one about Candace Pert.

Last night I searched through all of the threads in our forum that have YouTube videos embedded in them and moved all of the threads that were really about the videos into the new subforum. As a result, we've already got 42 videos in the new subforum. Thus, it might be that many of the videos from the new library already have a thread in the new subforum, and there may not be that many that will need to be moved over. We'll have to check.

Here's the link if you want to check out the new subforum:
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/forums/mindbody-video-library.44/

Thanks for your support, Bruce!

 

[BruceMC]

I see, Forest. It already looks like there are a lot of YouTube videos in the new Subforum that weren't in the old Media tab. Seems as though people shy away from any place they actually have to navigate to. This new Media Submenu grabs them by their noses or hits them directly in their faces.