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Agam
Agam

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Posting YouTube-only articles is hurting the quality in Dev.to

I recently saw several authors here post what I call Youtube-only or "ghost" articles. Where they leverage the SEO of dev.to and the community to promote their Youtube (or other external links).

I think that it could be nice if they had to write a textual version in dev to also, and not just link it. It seems like it will add (I dare to say) spammy noise if not tackled.


Ideas I had, I didn't think them though, they are just starting points:

  • Have a voting system to remove content-less articles.
  • Allow posting Youtube only after a certain amount of rep.
  • Force a minimum amount of text if you link YouTube.

Maybe this is only my thoughts, but I wanted to share before this becomes the next medium.com

Top comments (7)

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akashkava profile image
Akash Kava • Edited

Many articles are actually links to Medium which requires us to pay before reading. Cross posting is fine but not paid content. Even if someone posts video, some highlights of video should be written in the post.

It’s not easy to see video while traveling, I can’t put headsets all the time it’s bad for ears, and cant see video with speaker volume as it disturbs other people around when in company.

You can always read without disturbing others and without using headsets.

May be dev.to should create some settings to filter link only and video only posts.

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agamm profile image
Agam

I totally agree, I honestly moved from medium to here because of the paywalls. Imagine StackOverflow adding paywalls?

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jennrmillerdev profile image
Jen Miller • Edited

yeah, I know what you are saying. DEV looks down on posting just external links to other blogs. The entire blog content must also be brought in.

So, I can see why posting with just a embedded video to youtube can be considered similar behavior.

For the one time I linked one of my Youtube videos in a DEV post, I actually wrote a blog about the video topic. It wasn't a textual version of the video. Both the blog and video were the same topics, but I wanted to know different things from the DEV audience...so the content was different. In other words, even if the video wasn't present in the posting, the article itself still holds up. I think those postings should be allowed.

Also, that's a funny profile picture lol

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agamm profile image
Agam

If you are trying to create a discussion then I guess it is more acceptable. But still, we need to add extra value while posting here. I can see how you didn't want to just double post in malice, this isn't directed at your post specifically. But again, the quality here in my opinion should trump the ability to do whatever. Maybe there is a way to include specific posts about discussing a video in a way where it is a different type of post, so as not to be confused with regular articles.

PS, yes I eat a lot of cookies

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stereobooster profile image
stereobooster
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yoursunny profile image
Junxiao Shi

I post almost full text on DEV (except embedded demos that require JavaScript), but keep a link to my blog on the top. I still get some clicks to the blog, even if the readers don't have to do so.

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agamm profile image
Agam

I still think this is ok, and if it helps, why not? you still provided value here that doesn't exist somewhere else. Nothing wrong with that.