10 ms·

I recently had a similar experience: I watch a lot of YouTube videos and I like reading through the comments. Often, comments quote specific timestamps from the

I recently had a similar experience: I watch a lot of YouTube videos and I like reading through the comments. Often, comments quote specific timestamps from the video and I would find it a pain to keep scrolling between the comment section at the bottom of the page and the video at the top and then find the specific time in the video that the comment was talking about. So, I created a Chrome extension that surfaces YouTube comments that have timestamps right below the video, around the time that the comment contains. And, then disappears it after a few seconds. It was fun to make and in the end, it solved a very specific problem that I was facing. Link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-timed-comments/mfmjnhncafdcdegeiamnjpnjgmmkkaal https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-timed-comm...

TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
Thanks for sharing. You’re definitely not the only person who has this issue. It’s definitely something YouTube could implement if they weren’t content with the minor tyre fix they’ve built.
- lerxst00 7y ago
  You're welcome! The only issue I have now is that I've moved on to using Firefox. So, I can't really use this extension anymore. I guess that sounds like another 'niche problem' that needs solving.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
    You wouldn’t be alone there either.
  - CalRobert 7y ago
    This Firefox user would love a port...
  - hellweaver666 7y ago
    Chrome extensions are quite trivial to port to Firefox these days. One of my colleagues built a chrome extension and had the firefox version working minutes later.
  - mtgx 7y ago
    This might help: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Porting_a_Google_Chrome_extension https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...
    - lerxst00 7y ago
      Oh, I wasn't aware of this. I'm going to try this out this weekend. Thanks for sharing.
thaumasiotes 7y ago
Viki includes this as a regular feature. You can leave comments on timestamps, and those comments flash at the appropriate time (if you have them enabled).
mettamage 7y ago
Downloaded it, installed it. This is fun!
jamesmoss 7y ago
This is awesome, I have the exact same problem. One thing though, when I go to install the extension it asks to read and change data on youtube.com, which makes sense, but also wants permission to access my browsing history. Just wondering why this is? http://shots.moss.io/a67bd6/Screenshot%202019-09-19%20at%2011.34.25%20am.jpg http://shots.moss.io/a67bd6/Screenshot%202019-09-19%20at%201...
- lerxst00 7y ago
  Chrome shows that warning if your extension requests access to the 'tabs' permission. https://developer.chrome.com/apps/permission_warnings#view_warnings https://developer.chrome.com/apps/permission_warnings#view_w... In this case, it is needed to get the url and id of the tab. I'll have to go back and check if I can make do without depending on that because I agree it does not make sense for this extension to need 'access to my browsing history'. Also, I do intend to put the code up and link it in the extension description page soon, so you don't have to take my word for it! Thanks for pointing this out.
acollins1331 7y ago
But when you click the timestamp in the comment doesn't it automatically jump the video to that point? It's worked that way for me for years...
- frosted-flakes 7y ago
  Yes, and then you lose your place in the comments.
  - NoodleIncident 7y ago
    I think the back button might still get you back to your place in the comments, but it is a lot of page refreshes. It also messes with the progress bar you see in the thumbnail if you see the video somewhere else on the site again, you might think you didn't finish watching the video.
- lerxst00 7y ago
  It does. But that also means that you have almost surely navigated away from watching the video.
Crinus 7y ago
I had a similar case... i want to be able to download interesting videos with youtube-dl in case they or me go offline but i found having to copy the url, open a command line, move the proper folder, etc, type youtube-dl and paste the url be a bit cumbersome, so i wrote a Firefox extension to do all that for me. This is extremely specific (and i had to switch to Firefox Developer Edition to do that since the mainline one doesn't allow unsigned extensions) but it was helpful and i got to learn how to make extensions for personal use (though the whole process to call an external program was a convoluted PITA involving adding registry entries, writing Python scripts to parse JSON, etc... meh).
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  This is actually not even that specific. I did the same thing a few years ago and I bet a lot of other people could use it. One lesson I learned was that writing browser extensions is quite cumbersome if you want to do something that's a little outside the normal use case.
- Adverblessly 7y ago
  For a similar usecase I settled on writing a bash script along the lines of PARAM=`xclip -o -selection clipboard` notify-send downloading $PARAM youtube-dl $PARAM And setting a keyboard shortcut to invoke it, so downloading is just CTRL+L (select URL) CTRL+C (copy selection) CTRL+ALT+D (trigger download script)
  - jeegsy 7y ago
    Damn Son! I have had the same issue and your solution is so face palm simple! Excellent.
- rasz 7y ago
  I use tempermonkey for simple stuff like this, takes 2-5 minutes to write something without deploying full extension.
zhte415 7y ago
That sounds very cool. Have you heard of bilibili.com? It's a video streaming website, but where comments are timestamped and scroll overlaid on the video at that timestamp, hugely entertaining, somewhat like sitting with 1000 videojockies at the same time. Mainly Chinese language, as it's a Chinese site. Worth having a look though, similar gist.
- darkwizard42 7y ago
  Nice! This sounds similar to SoundCloud which allows for comments attached to timestamps (great for music, “what a chord”, “the drop here!”)
  - ignoramous 7y ago
    ...and medium blog posts with highlights.
    - qqn 7y ago
      I wish we could combine all this stuff together regardless of media. I'd use it in a heartbeat to curate class notes and recorded lectures! Particularly with a community this would be awesome, harnessing everyone's highlighting to pull out a veritable "best of" the course, without losing any context!
      - ignoramous 7y ago
        If you do most of your research in-browser, you should look at u/burtonator's https://getpolarized.io/ https://getpolarized.io/
        qqn 7y ago
        This program is wonderful, I regularly use it for highlighting and annotating PDFs. Just imagine this with a SoundCloud-like "highlighter/annotator" for AV files thrown in the mix.
      - 7y ago

TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago

Thanks for sharing. You’re definitely not the only person who has this issue. It’s definitely something YouTube could implement if they weren’t content with the minor tyre fix they’ve built.

lerxst00 7y ago
You're welcome! The only issue I have now is that I've moved on to using Firefox. So, I can't really use this extension anymore. I guess that sounds like another 'niche problem' that needs solving.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
  You wouldn’t be alone there either.
- CalRobert 7y ago
  This Firefox user would love a port...
- hellweaver666 7y ago
  Chrome extensions are quite trivial to port to Firefox these days. One of my colleagues built a chrome extension and had the firefox version working minutes later.
- mtgx 7y ago
  This might help: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Porting_a_Google_Chrome_extension https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...
  - lerxst00 7y ago
    Oh, I wasn't aware of this. I'm going to try this out this weekend. Thanks for sharing.

thaumasiotes 7y ago

Viki includes this as a regular feature. You can leave comments on timestamps, and those comments flash at the appropriate time (if you have them enabled).

mettamage 7y ago

Downloaded it, installed it. This is fun!

jamesmoss 7y ago

This is awesome, I have the exact same problem. One thing though, when I go to install the extension it asks to read and change data on youtube.com, which makes sense, but also wants permission to access my browsing history. Just wondering why this is? http://shots.moss.io/a67bd6/Screenshot%202019-09-19%20at%2011.34.25%20am.jpg http://shots.moss.io/a67bd6/Screenshot%202019-09-19%20at%201...

lerxst00 7y ago
Chrome shows that warning if your extension requests access to the 'tabs' permission. https://developer.chrome.com/apps/permission_warnings#view_warnings https://developer.chrome.com/apps/permission_warnings#view_w... In this case, it is needed to get the url and id of the tab. I'll have to go back and check if I can make do without depending on that because I agree it does not make sense for this extension to need 'access to my browsing history'. Also, I do intend to put the code up and link it in the extension description page soon, so you don't have to take my word for it! Thanks for pointing this out.

acollins1331 7y ago

But when you click the timestamp in the comment doesn't it automatically jump the video to that point? It's worked that way for me for years...

frosted-flakes 7y ago
Yes, and then you lose your place in the comments.
- NoodleIncident 7y ago
  I think the back button might still get you back to your place in the comments, but it is a lot of page refreshes. It also messes with the progress bar you see in the thumbnail if you see the video somewhere else on the site again, you might think you didn't finish watching the video.
lerxst00 7y ago
It does. But that also means that you have almost surely navigated away from watching the video.

Crinus 7y ago

I had a similar case... i want to be able to download interesting videos with youtube-dl in case they or me go offline but i found having to copy the url, open a command line, move the proper folder, etc, type youtube-dl and paste the url be a bit cumbersome, so i wrote a Firefox extension to do all that for me. This is extremely specific (and i had to switch to Firefox Developer Edition to do that since the mainline one doesn't allow unsigned extensions) but it was helpful and i got to learn how to make extensions for personal use (though the whole process to call an external program was a convoluted PITA involving adding registry entries, writing Python scripts to parse JSON, etc... meh).

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Ididntdothis 7y ago
This is actually not even that specific. I did the same thing a few years ago and I bet a lot of other people could use it. One lesson I learned was that writing browser extensions is quite cumbersome if you want to do something that's a little outside the normal use case.
Adverblessly 7y ago
For a similar usecase I settled on writing a bash script along the lines of PARAM=`xclip -o -selection clipboard` notify-send downloading $PARAM youtube-dl $PARAM And setting a keyboard shortcut to invoke it, so downloading is just CTRL+L (select URL) CTRL+C (copy selection) CTRL+ALT+D (trigger download script)
- jeegsy 7y ago
  Damn Son! I have had the same issue and your solution is so face palm simple! Excellent.
rasz 7y ago
I use tempermonkey for simple stuff like this, takes 2-5 minutes to write something without deploying full extension.

zhte415 7y ago

That sounds very cool. Have you heard of bilibili.com? It's a video streaming website, but where comments are timestamped and scroll overlaid on the video at that timestamp, hugely entertaining, somewhat like sitting with 1000 videojockies at the same time. Mainly Chinese language, as it's a Chinese site. Worth having a look though, similar gist.

darkwizard42 7y ago
Nice! This sounds similar to SoundCloud which allows for comments attached to timestamps (great for music, “what a chord”, “the drop here!”)
- ignoramous 7y ago
  ...and medium blog posts with highlights.
  - qqn 7y ago
    I wish we could combine all this stuff together regardless of media. I'd use it in a heartbeat to curate class notes and recorded lectures! Particularly with a community this would be awesome, harnessing everyone's highlighting to pull out a veritable "best of" the course, without losing any context!
    - ignoramous 7y ago
      If you do most of your research in-browser, you should look at u/burtonator's https://getpolarized.io/ https://getpolarized.io/
      - qqn 7y ago
        This program is wonderful, I regularly use it for highlighting and annotating PDFs. Just imagine this with a SoundCloud-like "highlighter/annotator" for AV files thrown in the mix.
    - 7y ago