Stop publishing conference videos

Of course they should be published! They have a lot of value for people who aren't able to psychically attend the conferences. A better take will be "stop publishing unedited conference videos" & that is still even quite silly as the organisers are trying to make information available for free

I think covid really showed that self produced counter parts to conference videos are usually not as good as the conference videos. I generally did not enjoy recordings from online conferences as much as recording from their in-person counter parts.

I agree that a tripod that captures the projection on screen and presenter is often quite poor (Apple does it quite well) but pycon videos are often excellent, with the speaker in picture-in-picture square in the corner and the bulk being of the screen being recorded straight out of the computers hdmi port.

As for audience question: even if you are there, you usually can't hear the question. Speakers should be instructed to repeat the question before answering.

Nobody is forcing you to watch them. Don't like it, don't watch.

Think it can be done better? Build it.

You sound like a child screaming "I don't like scary movies! They shouldn't be made!"

I'm a bit surprised you spent the time writing the article, and that I wasted my time reading it AND responding.

Ok, closing computer, going to find a life.

My favorite conference videos have two features:

1. The slides are the main view with the speaker composited in a small window in the corner.

2. If there is a Q&A period the speaker repeats the question before answering.

"Something very useful isn't perfect. We must stop."

No, we shouldn't. Conference videos are great. The only alternative that is likely to happen is no videos. Clearly worse.

Not a useful article.

Nope, continue publishing conference videos.

For many people they are the only source of the knowledge that gets shared at those conferences.

Not everyone enjoys having cool bosses that will send them into vacation trips to conferences.

You can publish a conference video and make a more polished version of it too. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

I was pretty surprised to find C++Now's FAQ entry on interruptions:

  Why don’t they just let the speaker speak?

  A common question/complaint concerns how often C++Now speakers are interrupted by questions (and sometime by comments that aren’t even questions) from the audience. Sometimes viewers are thinking, “I’m not watching this to hear you, I’m listening for the speaker.” This results from a misunderstanding about the nature of our conference. C++Now is very much a collaborative conference.

  At most conferences, the assumption (usually correct) is that the most knowledgable person on the subject at hand is at the front of the room. But at C++Now, a speaker may be discussing features that were added to C++ based on proposals authored by members of the audience. The collective understanding of the speaker and the audience is what makes a C++Now session such a valuable experience.

  Questions and comments by the audience are not distractions, they are the reason that C++Now exists and why it is a different experience than other C++ conferences.

It feels very "um actually we know more than you". I think it probably works fairly well in person but it absolutely doesn't translate to recordings. It seems other folks agree (I found it via reddit)[2].

[1] https://cppnow.org/about/faq/

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/wf5g1z/people_who_are_...

Disclosure: I wrote the OP blog post

I think conference videos can be great, but I do agree that people asking questions do need to be recorded or the speaker needs to repeat the question, otherwise people watching the video will be missing key information.

Bad take. Information is still valuable.

One thing I'd like to change is swapping the camera edits between the presenter and the slides. NO. Keep the goddamn slides in place. At all times.

> You could also write … a 30+ tweet Twitter thread.

I think that’s literally the only thing more annoying than a poorly edited conference video TBH.

I certainly hope they’re joking.

The fact that someone’s boss will manually force them to convert all their speeches into Mickey Mouse “exploded presentations” all because of your prissy rant, get real.

I like the idea that every time someone uploads a conference vid, the likelihood increases that the post author will stumble upon it and get annoyed……for some reason