Participatory Culture Foundation

Recently, a gray icon with three white dots has started appearing in the thumbnails for Amara video pages, with no explanation as to its meaning. Its URL is http://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.userdata.www.universalsubtitles.org/video/thumbnail/b6d97d811689195c6f9e08898230ae33042613cd_jpg_120x90_crop-smart_upscale-True_q85.jpg.

Unfortunately it is the same icon that appears in thumbnails when a video page does not work because its YouTube original has been removed or made private. URL: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9cwQ2UbsN0s/default.jpg. So the Amara thumbnail gives the impression that the video pages on which it's being used don't work either.

Examples of the Amara gray thumbnail: presently http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/teams/newshour/  (archived with WebCite in http://www.webcitation.org/6AWbRfP3r )and http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/search/#/?q=president+dnc (WebCite won't archive this page due to the ? in the URL, so see attached gray_icon_Obama_DNC_search.jpg screenshot), both for "Watch President Obama's DNC Speech: 'I Have Never Been ..."

Examples of the YT-originating gray thumbnail: in http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/search/#/?q=assange, e.g. for

Who Is Julian Assange? ...  and  Julian Assange Challenges The Internet Generation.

 

As the Amara version of the icon not only is misleading, but does not convey any information, could its use be dropped, please?

Hi Claude,

I can imagine it might be confusing to some, however, since the thumbnail has been taken from YouTube directly, much in the same way every other thumbnail for video shows up,  it's not something we are controlling or can establish on our end.

 However, any user when they notice this on their videos, can chose to upload a different thumbnail image so translators and subtitlers are not  discouraged or confused.

Hi Jules,

Sorry I was not clear: nothing against the http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9cwQ2UbsN0s/default.jpg youtube-originating thumbnail for Amara video pages that don't work because the YT original video has been removed or made private: as in the Assange videos mentioned before.

The problem is the identical, amazon-amara hosted thumbnail http://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.userdata.www.universalsubtitles.org/video/thumbnail/b6d97d811689195c6f9e08898230ae33042613cd_jpg_120x90_crop-smart_upscale-True_q85.jpg, which the software bangs as thumbnail to represent perfectly working video pages in listings - team home page, results of a general search.

The use of the same icon as the YT one gives the impression the video is not working, when it is. And this might discourage people from trying to translate the subs, for instance.

The issue continues. Though the video in Watch President Obama's DNC Speech: 'I Have Never Been More Hopeful About America' still works perfectly, it is still represented both in the NewsHour team's home page and in Search Results for president dnc by a gray icon with three white dots, identical to the one YouTube generates when a video has been removed or made private, but hosted on the Amara Amazon server (1). See also the dated screenshots attached

This continues to be misleading for users who might give up viewing or subtitling the video, thinking it does not work. Can developers please do something to prevent the software from replacing the original thumbnail by this misleading icon?

(1) In the NewsHour team home page, its URL is http://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.userdata.www.universalsubtitles.org/video/thumbnail/b6d97d811689195c6f9e08898230ae33042613cd.jpg.
In the search results, it is http://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.userdata.www.universalsubtitles.org/video/thumbnail/b6d97d811689195c6f9e08898230ae33042613cd_jpg_120x90_crop-smart_upscale-True_q85.jpg.

Hi Claude, 

We understand your concern, and it has been added to the queue. However, since we are in the process of doing major changes to Amara,  it might be that this will continue while our developers focus on different areas or fixing other bugs. Thank you for your patience!