Mormon Messages Site Refused as A Resource on LUWS

[aebrown]

Perhaps dmaynes viewed a cached copy of LDS.org when the link was still there...?

No, it was most definitely there for some period of time. I had actually never seen the Mormon Messages item on the front page of lds.org when I went there during the previous discussions. But I went there just a few minutes after dmaynes said it was back, and indeed it was back. And then when zaneclark said it was not, I checked, and indeed it was gone again.

The good news is that neither dmaynes nor zaneclark is crazy. The bad news is that this item seems to come and go from the front page of lds.org, so it's tough to draw conclusions. Is the Church just rotating messages on the front page? Or is there some sort of tug-of-war over the presence of that message on the front page?

At this exact moment, there is only one item in the bottom middle section of the front page (one about the Draper Temple open house). I don't recall ever seeing only one item in that area -- it seems that there have always been three items there. That's odd....

[dmaynes]

No, it was most definitely there for some period of time. I had actually never seen the Mormon Messages item on the front page of lds.org when I went there during the previous discussions. But I went there just a few minutes after dmaynes said it was back, and indeed it was back. And then when zaneclark said it was not, I checked, and indeed it was gone again.

The good news is that neither dmaynes nor zaneclark is crazy. The bad news is that this item seems to come and go from the front page of lds.org, so it's tough to draw conclusions. Is the Church just rotating messages on the front page? Or is there some sort of tug-of-war over the presence of that message on the front page?

At this exact moment, there is only one item in the bottom middle section of the front page (one about the Draper Temple open house). I don't recall ever seeing only one item in that area -- it seems that there have always been three items there. That's odd....

It is a little strange because when featured items are retired from the main page, they usually show up in the Past Features page. I did a search for "MormonMessages" and no hits were returned.

But, when I used the Google site search <<+site:http://www.lds.org MormonMessages>> I found the news release dated today announcing MormonMessages and MormonNewEraMessages on YouTube:

Church Shares Gospel Messages on YouTube (in the Newsroom)

Church Shares Gospel Messages on YouTube

There is also an announcement on the News Around the Church page:

Around the Church

I wonder if there is a problem with the main page. I don't think this announcement is supposed to appear and disappear.

[zaneclark]

It's back.........

[amc79]

I'm offended as much as the next person by ads and promoted videos that frequently show up on youtube. However, I no more consider the church's use of youtube to be an endorsement of that platform than do I see the broadcasting of general conference on cable tv to be an endorsement of a particular cable company or of cable television in general with all of its questionable advertising and immoral content.

Recognizing that this forum is supposed to focus on technical aspects rather than matters of policy, I will try to focus my reply on the technical aspect of what is going on.

Youtube as a platform provides functionality that does not currently exist on the videos.lds.org web site. Although the newsroom section of lds.org has been innovating with sharing tools (bookmarklets, widgets, etc.) the best we can do with most of the pages on lds.org is to email a link to that page. Sharing multi-media content from lds.org currently involves copying and pasting the url from a specific media asset and emailing or posting that link somewhere.

On youtube I can mix these videos into playlists, send them to others, make comments on them, embed them in a personal website / blog, post it to a social networking site, etc. This functionality is simply not built into the lds.org web presence nor the mormon.org web site for that matter.

Although I think it is possible that people using the word "mormon" in their web search queries may stumble upon these videos being produced by the church, I think it highly more likely that people with encounter these well-produced short-form videos if you get active members of the church talking about them, posting them, sharing them, ranking them, etc. Are there any other options besides youtube that provide this functionality?

[marianomarini]

dmaynes has show us how to include youtube video without leaving the site.
So, lds.org can shows them to members directly from the site.
This way lds.org doesn't link to youtube and its other contents keeping it safe and clear.

[sterlingb]

dmaynes has show us how to include youtube video without leaving the site.
So, lds.org can shows them to members directly from the site.
This way lds.org doesn't link to youtube and its other contents keeping it safe and clear.

That's not entirely true. Once a video has finished playing, YouTube will display a list of related videos, all of which are accessible from within the embedded window. So you're no safer with the embedded video than you are directly on the site.

[douglas.a.hatch-p40]

That's not entirely true. Once a video has finished playing, YouTube will display a list of related videos, all of which are accessible from within the embedded window. So you're no safer with the embedded video than you are directly on the site.

Actually, you can tweak the embed code (showinfo=0) so that the related videos do not show up after the video finished playing. See http://www.mormonsmadesimple.com/watch/ ... church.php for an example.

[russellhltn]

Actually, you can tweak the embed code (showinfo=0) so that the related videos do not show up after the video finished playing. See http://www.mormonsmadesimple.com/watch/ ... church.php for an example.

True. But I found that if I click on the video while it's playing (perhaps too impatient with a slow start), I'm taken from your site to YouTube with the same video - with all the issues previously discussed.

[douglas.a.hatch-p40]

True. But I found that if I click on the video while it's playing (perhaps too impatient with a slow start), I'm taken from your site to YouTube with the same video - with all the issues previously discussed.

Bummer. I just noticed that. And unfortunately there's no way to disable the redirect. Does anyone have any good suggestions for a YouTube alternative for hosting and embedding video? I like YouTube's "Insight" analytics tool. Are there any other free services out there that are comparable?

[techgy]

Bummer. I just noticed that. And unfortunately there's no way to disable the redirect. Does anyone have any good suggestions for a YouTube alternative for hosting and embedding video? I like YouTube's "Insight" analytics tool. Are there any other free services out there that are comparable?

There are methods of downloading the videos and storing them in "flv" format.
However, I'm not sure of this, but it's possible that anyone who chose to host them would need permission to do so.