Fun Feature Friday: Embeddable Media In The Comments

I got wind of this yesterday in the comments to my SoundCloud post. You can now put a link to media that is embeddable (tweet, image, video, audio, etc) and Disqus will attach the media to the comment. Jim leaked the news in this comment.

So we are going to have some fun with this new feature in the comments. Leave a comment that includes a link to embeddable media and let's see what happens.

I will get us started with some music from David Bowie and James Murphy that I found on SoundCloud this morning. But you are going to have to go into the comments to hear it.

#Weblogs

Comments (Archived):

  1. fredwilson

    here’s david bowie and james murphy having some fun togetherhttps://soundcloud.com/davi…

    1. Kirsten Lambertsen

      That. Was. Awesome.

    2. Richard

      The tech startup scene has a lot in common music with the music startup scene. Bowie was the the serial Entreprenuer of music.

      1. JimHirshfield

        No money.No fame.No audience.Lots of vision, drive, expression, and attitude.

        1. Richard

          Before there was a VC, there was the record label. Talk about term sheets!

        2. Anne Libby

          A related blog post — and also an experiment to see if the video embeds.http://annelibby.wordpress….

          1. Anne Libby

            (I saw video in the comment box when I was writing the comment, but after hitting post just got the link…)Here’s the video:http://www.youtube.com/watc

          2. JimHirshfield

            Sometimes it takes a minute. #beta

          3. Anne Libby

            Also wonder if it’s how I made the original post at wordpress.com — I didn’t post it as “video” but embedded in an ordinary text post… The Buffy gif I posted elsewhere in comments was pulled up from the direct link to a tumblr post.

          4. awaldstein

            Hey JimPreviously you could embed graphics but I could never figure out how to remove the graphic.Can media be deleted as you edit a comment?

          5. JimHirshfield

            What you could do previously (and can still do) is upload an image. That hasn’t changed. Those images can not be removed by the commenter once they have been posted to a comment.The embeded media that you see all over the thread today is done by analyzing the URL a commenter posts in a comment. So, if you edit a comment and remove the URL, the media should disappear.Related: All the media in the comments here are not in place because the commenters took the embed code from the respective sources and pasted the embed code (a bunch of html). The user experience is as simple as pasting a URL in the comment. Disqus takes it from there.

          6. awaldstein

            Really helpful.

      2. JoshGrot

        The modern movie and television industry may have even more parallels with the startup world:…a few people pitch new ideas and write spec scripts; they get initial interest and then refine the ideas with studio execs to arrive at workable (“minimum viable products”) in the form of production scripts for new movies and shows; they receive development funding; they bring together larger teams for a few years at a time to produce the offering, during which time the offering changes and adapts to the market (as actors and directors and other externalities influence the initial idea, and as audiences (of television shows) react to characters and plots)); etc; there’s no real M&A per se: all “exits” tend to be IPO’s; ultimately, teams disperse and re-form on future shows.

      1. bobmonsour

        Hilarious!

      2. JamesHRH

        Never liked Gervais / Merchant humour.

  2. fredwilson

    here’s my tweet about the david bowie james murphy trackhttps://twitter.com/fredwil…

    1. fredwilson

      this is cool because its an embed of an embed.

      1. James Ferguson @kWIQly

        It’s also cool – because its brilliant music πŸ™‚ (retweeted)

      2. Brett Goldberg

        Did the embed of the embed work? Doesn’t seem to be here. @jimhirshfeld it will be interesting to see how spammers try to take advantage of this, I know this won’t change nofollow links, but I am sure peoples wheels are turning.

        1. JimHirshfield

          Interesting thought. My initial reaction is that spam is/can be handled at YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, etc IOW at the source…before, during, and after it’s embeded here.My other thought is that it will be handled the same way that trash is handled to-date. Crowd and blogger moderated.But we’ll see, ’cause as you say “wheels are turning”

          1. Brett Goldberg

            FYI – On mobile Fred’s embeded, embed did not show up, but now on a desktop I see it.

          2. JimHirshfield

            I’m seeing it on mobile as I type this on mobile. Could be your bandwidth/connectivity. Or just a delay in rendering.

    2. Donna Brewington White

      I like how you can actually interact with the tweet from the embed (i.e., reply, RT) and the other embedded media is just like you are on the initial site. I like the integrity of that.

  3. jason wright

    are there enough electrons in the universe for this?or enough neurons in my brain for this?

    1. fredwilson

      i am confident in the first answer. less sure about the second πŸ™‚

      1. jason wright

        …you’ll know for sure if i buy a nexus 7

        1. fredwilson

          true πŸ™‚

  4. Anon_reader

    For those using Ghostery extension: SoundCloud plugins may be disabled by default, so just enable it

    1. fredwilson

      well that’s a good reason not to use ghostery. the nerve of them!

  5. Julien

    Looking forward to embeding your blog posts in the comments πŸ™‚

  6. David Semeria

    Here’s one from a recent post by Albert Wengerhttp://media.tumblr.com/3c1…

    1. fredwilson

      oooh, that’s sweet

    2. awaldstein

      i loved this post btw.Made me think of my dad, the physicist, constantly connecting math to life at the dinner table every single day.

      1. panterosa,

        I loved the post too. I do have a really cool way to gamify all this for an integrated play and learning experience. Need to get back to Making!

  7. Mark Cancellieri

    Cool. Now I can insert my own laugh track. :-)http://www.youtube.com/watc…

    1. Mac

      πŸ™‚

    1. panterosa,

      I was hearing about this last night from my journo wasband who has been following it for a long time. The interesting point not yet decided is image use.

      1. JimHirshfield

        Interesting part about image use – I hadn’t heard that. Why would that content be treated any different from text content as regards fair use?

    1. pointsnfigures

      for some reason, on AVC I can’t cut and paste into comments, but on other blogs I can.

      1. JimHirshfield

        I can: “on AVC I can’t cut and paste into comments.”

        1. pointsnfigures

          I type in the links longhand.

      1. pointsnfigures

        That was so on target the net barely moved. From another zip code no less.

  8. Bruce Warila

    Morose I know, but it’s a band I backed, and the song has been featured in multiple films: https://soundcloud.com/jedi

  9. Mark Zohar

    Last night I went to see Eddie Izzard’s new show “Force Majeure” at Massey Hall in Toronto. In addition to mocking our crack-smoking disgrace of a mayor (who isn’t these days?), Izzard brought his usual surrealist Monty Python-inspired comedy to town. Here’s a link to a video of a previous performance of the show from Belgrade. Btw, Izzard is running for mayor of London in the next election. If he wins he will become the first “action transvestite” to hold office. Londoners, let’s make that happen! http://www.youtube.com/watc

    1. JamesHRH

      Eddie is a passionate, energetic guy.I am quite certain he would make a horrible Mayor of London though.

  10. Chris Wargula

    Just found this a couple of weeks ago… hope you enjoy it if you haven’t seen it before.http://youtu.be/bjD9X8pyqdE

  11. awaldstein

    I was going to embed a one minute video of some super 8 film I’m editing of my dad reading to me when 3, but I’ll spare the community even though I was dramatically cute.But–I do love this feature and honestly, I like the new twitter with images a lot as well.

    1. Anne Libby

      Do it!

      1. awaldstein

        not a chance.

    1. sigmaalgebra

      That’s a RIOT!SQL injection strikes again!The school’s Web site written afterreading ‘SQL 101 for Dummies’!I kept reading about the threats ofSQL injection and could never figureout what the heck they meant. Or,how could anyone do something sodumb? I mean, all the way back incomputing, it’s standard to check theinputs for reasonableness before doing work based on those inputs.But, yes, in some ways to programa Web page in front of a SQL database,the user’s input goes to the database,directly, does not pass GO, does notcollect the $100, without checking andin a way that a SQL command enteredby a user can be executed by thedatabase. Bummer.A RIOT!

    2. fredwilson

      that’s great

    3. LE

      One of my favorites. I don’t understand why xkcd doesn’t put xkcd .com (with a logo) on those so when they are embedded people know where they are coming from (separate from any other mention). It’s basic branding and should be wrapped into each and every cartoon.

    4. Vasudev Ram

      How about the xkcd embedded in this post (by me):http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2…Cool, also serves as an embedded media in a comment (as Fred asked us to do), as I can see from the preview, thought I wasn’t sure it would – thanks Disqus team.

      1. Vasudev Ram

        Oops, spoke too soon – it showed the embedded xkcd while I was typing the comment, but doesn’t seem to do so after I submitted the comment – even after reloading the page. Odd.

  12. Seth Lieberman

    Makes the comments far more media driven than the post itself.

    1. sigmaalgebra

      First, since she’s a girl, she’s supposed,very much, to want to ‘fit in’ with the rest ofthe girls. As in D. Tannen, being acceptedby a group of girls is one of the main sourcesof emotional security for girls. There’s morein E. Fromm.Second, being meek is appropriate in traditional marriage “about offspring, security, and care taking”. That is,she’s supposed to be having babieswhere she needs to be cared for, andthere it’s appropriate that she followhis lead and she be meek. Extracredit for knowing the source of thequote.Third, Mother Nature has arranged thatone of the best ways for a girl to be astrong limb on the tree is for her to becute, sweet, meek, pretty, darling, adorable,and precious, a princess-angel. That wayshe ‘elicits protection, support, and care taking’ from parents, especially her father,and she starts doing this still in the cribby using facial expressions to makeemotional connections. Meanwhile theboys are tying to hack the latch on thecrib and write Haskell code to automatethe room temperature. In particular,the face that does so much for herthrough age 9-10 she mostly retainsthrough age 17-18; meanwhile thefaces of the boys change a lot.E.g., commonly by age 4, she hasDaddy wrapped around her littlefinger so that he can nearly neversay “No” to her, and she, and hermother, know this long before herfather does. And Mother Naturealso knows!”Boys and girls deserve equal respectas persons but are not the same.”Getting confused on this point can becostly.Besides, both of those girls are reallycute!

      1. Donna Brewington White

        Oh, Siggie dear, don’t get me started.

        1. sigmaalgebra

          You’d lose, big time!First, with “Siggie dear”, you already are showingyou remember from your teens how to be sweetand meek and ‘fight nice’!Second, you are in HR, although maybe for techbut, still, mostly of, for, and about PEOPLE,maybe people in tech, as you were already good at in your crib.Third, maybe you’re not still a teenage girl, butclearly you have not forgotten the lessons,ones no male can ever learn!Besides, I still have a beef against girls! Inmy school, I went grades 1-8 with hardlya single word from a girl my age in school.Not good. Also left me without 8 years ofunderstanding girls. Only in the 9th gradedid I notice that girls 1-3 years younger were from okay up to really eager to talk to me! But, girls my own age? Not a chance! Bummer!

      2. Anne Libby

        Sigma, if you’re you’re prone to binge-watching, you can find more of these cute girls here: http://www.amazon.com/Buffy… Spoiler alert: you may take issue with their comportment!

        1. sigmaalgebra

          Anne, due to circumstances beyond mycontrol, at one time I had to work to understandgirls. So I tried and learned, always a little late. The result was disaster. Then I kepttrying to understand what the heck had happenedand made more progress. I didn’t really wantto do any of that, but the circumstances werestrong (I was married to her). Actually, for aboy to understand girls that well may not bea totally good idea: Likely of the girls I knew,the one that liked me the best, and would havebeen the best for me, liked me before I kneweven 0.00001 about girls; I was just a boy,doing well in math, machines, etc. and juststarting to understand music; she liked mejust for my being a boy without my understandingenough about girls to ‘cross over’, understandher and her role, and try to lead her to doingwell in her role, i.e., doing her work for her.Besides, she was very pretty, prettier thanthe girls in your comment, and at her 9th grade party wore some sheer, pastel,floral print dress, with an absurdly fullskirt, tied up with satin ribbons and bows,looked like an angel, and otherwise totallybeyond my understanding.But I did get some understanding. Generallyit’s easier for people to ignore the understanding:E.g., my father was able to and did; he justplayed his set role and got by fairly well withit.In the end, my attitude toward girls was correct and appropriate: I liked them andfelt affectionate, romantic, and protectiveand wanted to build a ‘romantic relationship’that would be loving, lasting, and growing.But I might advise boys not to work too hardto ‘build’ such a relationship; instead, it should come naturally; else there is just toodarned much to teach her. If a boy has toteach her to make eye contact, put a hand on his forearm, understand caring, affection, honesty, responsiveness, communications,trust, etc., then that’s too much to teach thatshe should have learned at home.But, Anne, as in your comment, I still know a cute girl when I see one!

        2. sigmaalgebra

          > if you’re you’re prone to binge-watchingI’ve watched next to nothing in TV for years andknow next to nothing about Buffy the Vampire Slayeror some such. To check spelling, at Google I justsaw a link toBuffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series 1997–2003) -IMDbSo, maybe back then I saw some of some such show.> may take issue with their comportment!That’s related to decorum, right?From when I was a teenager, my view is that thegirls too easily get ‘off track’ and are vulnerable;both close and far I’ve seen too much of thepossible negative consequences of suchvulnerability; I hope the girls have good lives;their doing well on comportment, decorum, etc.should help.

    2. ShanaC

      i love that show before they introduced the fake little sister.

      1. Anne Libby

        They had a good run.

  13. Kirsten Lambertsen

    One of my favorite distractions: Blank on Blankhttps://soundcloud.com/blan…

  14. William Mougayar

    @JimHirshfield:disqus Feature request: embedding a Vine. I tried multiple ways, including embedding a tweet that had a Vine, but no go.

    1. JimHirshfield

      It should work. Do you have a Vine URL to post. Show me.

      1. William Mougayar

        i emailed u.

        1. JimHirshfield

          I know. Doh!

    2. simpsoka

      Vine support is coming – hold tight πŸ™‚

      1. William Mougayar

        ah…and Slideshare too.

        1. Donna Brewington White

          No wonder my slideshare embed didn’t work. Just shows as a link.

          1. William Mougayar

            Yup. I think it might be next. Slideshare and Vine should be popular embeds.

  15. Donna Brewington White

    My favorite vid of Bruce singing one of my all time favorite songs. My only regret is that this doesn’t include E-Street and Clarence but great interaction between Bruce and Patti. https://www.youtube.com/wat

  16. baba12

    55 plus comments thus far.Several with embedded media, each with say an average of 2 minutes even. I just don’t know if I could watch/listen to all that stuff when there are things to do as well.How do you all manage to read/see/listen to all the stuff just here alone let alone elsewhere and manage to get all your work done?

    1. Donna Brewington White

      That’s why it is called Fun Friday.(Although Friday is at times my busiest day so I often miss Fun Friday. Even today, only here for a few minutes here and there.)

  17. kenberger

    This is something I’d dream of doing with my kids if we ever have any:Depeche Mode cover band from BogotΓ‘, Colombia (guy and his kids)http://www.youtube.com/watc…

  18. Donna Brewington White

    let’s try this again

    1. Donna Brewington White

      I was taken with this slideshare from Albert on Math & Beautyhttp://www.slideshare.net/A…

  19. pointsnfigures

    My decision tree for today. I have been making homemade bacon for a while now. Highly worth it.

  20. SubstrateUndertow

    Syncopated Synchronicityhttp://youtu.be/yVkdfJ9PkRQ

    1. panterosa,

      OMG I LOVE THIS!

      1. SubstrateUndertow

        _________________________________________________This exchange makes me think that for a “Fun Friday” it might be an amusing experiment if Fred could do a topical post where all comment are requested to be in the form of a relevant piece of media of a particular type, like only audio or only pics or only video. OK- maybe 1 line relies allowed?Like a audio, music, pic or video node only conversation around a given topic.Perhaps with a suggested duration limit of a few minutes max?

        1. SubstrateUndertow

      1. SubstrateUndertow

        Yup !Imagination grants us the power to orchestrate that universal palette of patterns.I guess that is what makes us dangerous too!Even physical artifacts are virtual extensions of our imaginations as they would not exist without the abstracted synthesis of human imagination.Everything man made exists only in a temporary virtual world projected by human patterns of synthetic informational imagination.Human imagination is the ultimate strange-loop(self-referencial-loop) by which the universe pulls itself up by its own virtual bootstraps.OK – I got carried away yet again πŸ™‚

        1. panterosa,

          geeking out IS about getting carried away in interesting tangents. what fun.

    2. David Semeria

      Totally cool!

    3. Ricardo Diz

      Very cool!

  21. sigmaalgebra

    ‘Chaconne’ of T. Vitali by Heifetz withan unusual organ for accompaniment. It’s very old music but still effective.And it’s a standard for violin.The Bach ‘Chaconne’ is better musicbut harder to listen to at first.Heifetz plays this piece with a lot of’spirit’, i.e., with a lot of ‘violinisticdevices’ to add ‘expression’,sometimes close to the edge ofwhat is acceptable musically.His intonation is spot on, likelyoften accurate to about 1 Hz or so.His tone, when he wants, isjust crystal clear. And no doubthe’s playing one of his two violins, two of the best ever made.His expression, while strong, istightly controlled. This is some ofwhy he is so highly regarded asa violinist. Then, in places listenfor his shifts — they were uniqueand astounding. Practice thosefor a week and then say, “How’dhe ever DO that?”.Once Yuval Waldman explained tome that when Heifetz came to the UShis style of playing was good forthe US sense of art; Yuval wascorrect.The picture is a good, beginning lessonin violin, especially on the crucial pointsof how to hold the instrument at thechin and shoulder, what to do with theleft hand (do NOT hold the instrument!),and how to hold the bow. What Heifetzis showing is a ‘Russian’ way to holdthe bow. The German way has the fingers more perpendicular to the bowstick.http://www.youtube.com/watc

  22. JamesHRH

    It seems we should get this out of the way. Warning, uncouth language. One of the things that is amazing about this joke is that Anthony Weiner & Stewart were college roommates.http://www.youtube.com/watc

  23. Mat Mullen

    Here’s one of my favorites – JJ Grey and Mofrohttp://youtu.be/A_8whcWL0PM

  24. John

    Here is a Time-Lapse of the earth from the International Space Stationhttp://vimeo.com/61487989

    1. SubstrateUndertow

      Great video !Just for fun I went full screen turned off the audio and played Youtube versions of other music as the audio backdrop.John Lennon – ImagineBarry McGuire – Eve of DestructionSimon & Garfunkel – The Sound of SilenceLed Zepplin-Stairway to HeaveKansasDust In The Wind – KansasFighting for strangers – Steeleye SpanBuffalo Springfield – For What It’s WorthSteppenwolf – Born to be wildTen Seconds to Forever – HawkwinBlowing In The Wind – by anybodyMasters Of War – Bob DylanFalling Back In Fields Of Rape – 93 Current – dark dark dark( Is there a way to put in links that remain as simple links i.e. they don’t expand to embed? )I wish Google offered a mashup tool to cross mix segments of audio and video from across all Youtube assets. I think they could get people to pay for that service!

  25. Kasi Viswanathan Agilandam

    These Pretzels are making me thirsty … :-)http://www.youtube.com/watc…

  26. Kasi Viswanathan Agilandam

    trying ….

  27. Vasudev Ram

    Now I’ll try a real embed, not a URL which already had an embed, like I did before in this thread. This one is a presentation I created recently:<iframe src=”http://slid.es/vasudevram/x…” width=”576″ height=”420″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen=”” mozallowfullscreen=”” allowfullscreen=””></iframe>

    1. Vasudev Ram

      Nope, doesn’t seem to have worked – it shows the literal HTML. I’ll leave it there for Disqus people to debug if they want to. The same embed worked fine on my blog, though:http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2

      1. Vasudev Ram

        Maybe it doesn’t work here because it is an iframe.

    1. CJ

      Maybe not.

  28. Guest

    <script src=”http://assets-polarb-com.a….” async=”true” data-publisher=”unknown_publisher” data-poll-id=”137971″></script>

  29. Ray L.

    born slippy.Does this work? To embed a SoundCloud clip, do I just include a link to the Soundcloud page in the comments? Or is there something else required?https://soundcloud.com/mute

  30. jd

    The problem with Soundcloud is that it always jams up. This has been happening forever. Not sure why they can’t fix.

  31. Guest

    …the future of Disqus?

  32. BillMcNeely

    Here is my theme song coming out my Forward Operating Bases Let the Bodies Hit the Floor by Drowning Pool https://www.youtube.com/wat

  33. JamesHRH

    @fredwilson:disqus @JimHirshfield:disqusJust tried scrolling though comments to find Fred’s Warriors / Thunder finish video, b/c it was a horrible injustice (did not show Iggy closing out the Thunder).2 great teams there btw.Scrolling through that thread blew chunks.

  34. Pete Griffiths

    Let’s lighten the mood. :)http://www.theonion.com/art…

  35. ShanaC

    I am going to kill Jim πŸ™‚ I now need to check all the images :/

  36. James Ferguson @kWIQly

    Trying this just to try it (tried medium too)..I just published β€œWaste Not or Wot-not” https://t.co/gGGXCQl9g6β€” James Ferguson (@kWIQly) November 16, 2013

  37. Jaime Kawanskie

    This fuckin discus crashes all the time as i try it on all the devices

  38. awaldstein

    Graphics distract usually or create FB like levels of gestures, not conversations.What’s your opinion of what’s happening to your Twitter stream with lots of graphics everywhere.

  39. fredwilson

    that was the fear when twitter added photos in line. i think the twitter community has largely been respectful in their use of that feature. and i think the disqus community will as well, this comment thread excepted πŸ™‚

  40. awaldstein

    Yup, graphics change the focus and end the conversation usually.Twitter has always been a media site, like Facebook, except that Twitter had our good will. I’ve loved it actually.Will they be able maintain constraint and keep that good will as the pressures for profits build? I hope so–unlikely as no other media site has that I can think of.

  41. panterosa,

    Does this mean you find yourself secondarily visual to primarily a reader?I am primarily visual and so don’t mind the pix….

  42. JimHirshfield

    Valid points guys. As regards conversations herein, I think today is an exception where people are showcasing media as a means of trying out this new feature. I don’t think it will be the norm that most conversations will have a media embed per comment.That said, I think that media inclusion is a form of communication and bolsters expression and elicits response.

  43. panterosa,

    @awaldstein:disqus My sense is the amount of graphics will parallel what my text stream looks like – a picture when its needed, conversation rest of the time. Would you agree?

  44. awaldstein

    Agree….your last statement is exactly why Facebook is what it is of course.

  45. Donna Brewington White

    It’s a new world.

  46. JimHirshfield

    Not as much as I’m hoping it works for you.

  47. JimHirshfield

    More so Instagram. But yeah, we’re on the same page.

  48. awaldstein

    In this community yes, I do agree.I’m a big believer in photos as anyone who knows me knows well. Few here, many on FB, Tumblr and now Twitter. None of the others are platforms for community really by design.

  49. panterosa,

    So if none the other platforms are community by design, or people from this community may or may not follow each other outside here, then posting pix here in your view is misplaced?I find the amount of follows I do already overwhelming, even though I am interested and would like to follow many more often. I’m sure you see the rub of time over interest, spread over many platforms. I find segregating those platforms I would share content on to different memes to even be cumbersome. Not sure of the solution other than to clone myself…

  50. panterosa,

    do you follow Edward Tufte and his almost monastic, John Pawson-esque intolerance of anything other than content on screen? or are you simply in overload.I find people don’t edit well and so I agree a lot with ET. or they don’t present well so there’s not a complete thought.

  51. Donna Brewington White

    There you go. Way to join the party. πŸ™‚

  52. SubstrateUndertow

    Makes me want to get doggie friend !

  53. Donna Brewington White

    And that statement alone deserves whatever they are paying you over at Disqus for the entire year.

  54. JimHirshfield

    XOXOXO

  55. awaldstein

    ‘misplaced’ I didn’t say.The cool thing about communities is that they empower the individual. And the more you empower the individuals the more they become respectful of the community as a whole.Magic. Happens infrequently.

  56. LE

    A part of it also is that to embed things takes effort and any extra step is friction even if minimal.

  57. panterosa,

    “There is no such thing as information overload,” Tufte argues: “There is only lousy design.”http://www.edwardtufte.com/…he animated the history of rock in an iPad format which is stunning.