# Youtu.be links next to topic titles - how?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 6, 2018, 8:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871 "2018-10-06T08:26:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2018, 8:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/1 "2018-10-06T08:26:51Z")
Hi everyone.
This is probably really obvious but I’ve searched and searched and can’t find the answer.
Every topic here has a Youtube video in the first post. What causes some of the topics to have a ‘youtu.be’ link next to them and the bulk of them not!? 😕
> 
Is this a setting on the video itself, rather than something in Discourse?!
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2018, 8:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/2 "2018-10-06T08:30:23Z")
Create a new topic, paste the link in as the title.
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/3 "2018-10-06T15:57:04Z")
Posting a URL in the topic title would have _never_ occurred to me!
Thanks Jeff 👍
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2018, 4:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/4 "2018-10-06T16:25:39Z")
Having thought about it some more, is there a reason _all_ topics with a youtube video in the first post don’t have that ‘youtu.be’ link presented next to them? 🤔
We have several hundred topics in our ‘videos’ category and only four have this ‘youtu.be’ link visible 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/5 "2018-10-06T18:58:32Z")
> [@Richie](#):
>
> Having thought about it some more, is there a reason _all_ topics with a youtube video in the first post don’t have that ‘youtu.be’ link presented next to them? 🤔
Yes.
When a topic is mainly about a link, you can paste it on the title and make the link more prominent in the UI.
That said, many topics have links (or multiple videos) in the OP and no need to highlight one in particular.
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/6 "2018-10-06T19:25:11Z")
> [@Richie](#):
>
> Having thought about it some more, is there a reason _all_ topics with a youtube video in the first post don’t have that ‘youtu.be’ link presented next to them? 🤔
The link takes the user off-site, so having them there isn’t always helpful - after all it takes focus away from the community, rather than encouraging them to watch the video via an embed.
Usually communities share such links to discuss them, which makes the embed preferable. If anything there’s a case for an option to not link off-site to things which can be embedded locally.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 5:47am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/7 "2018-10-07T05:47:07Z")
> [@Richie](#):
>
> Posting a URL in the topic title would have _never_ occurred to me!
Really? Because it says so right in the topic creation form..
Of course, users [never read any words on the screen](https://blog.codinghorror.com/teaching-users-to-read/), as we well know. No need to prove a point that’s been proven zillions of times.
This is a “reddit-alike” feature, to make it easy to start a topic along the lines of
> Holy cow! Did y’all see this _crazy_ article on this _crazy_ website?!
Try going to reddit and ‘starting a topic’ – they’re usually based on links from other sites. This way it’s faster to start a new topic with just a link.
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/8 "2018-10-07T19:54:51Z")
> [@Falco](#):
>
> That said, many topics have links (or multiple videos) in the OP and no need to highlight one in particular.
Yes, very good point, every single topic in our Videos category would have the highlight otherwise - not much point in doing that really 😊
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> Usually communities share such links to discuss them, which makes the embed preferable. If anything there’s a case for an option to not link off-site to things which can be embedded locally.
Agreed - especially in our use case 👍
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Of course, users [never read any words on the screen](https://blog.codinghorror.com/teaching-users-to-read/), as we well know.
Amen to that my brother 🙂
Thanks for the link too, interesting that fourteen years after [your blog post](https://blog.codinghorror.com/teaching-users-to-read/) every word still stands true today 👍
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/youtu-be-links-next-to-topic-titles-how/98871/9 "2018-11-06T20:08:32Z")
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.