All right.  So zch offers something people might not be used to... the option to embed flash into your posts.  This provides an alternative to linking offsite for flash videos which causes multiple other windows to be opened (which are unnecessary) and also opens the possibility of picking up something nasty (depending where the link goes to).

A lot of sites offer options for embedding video.  They generally contain the html code for doing it.  What I want to post here is a simple translation for putting it into posts here.  We'll start with YouTube.

So you find a flash video you like such as

Urban Ninja	Small | Large

.

Next to the video there's a box called "Embed" with the text:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D2kJZOfq7zk"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D2kJZOfq7zk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

That looks a bit imposing, but the bits you need are these:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D2kJZOfq7zk"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D2kJZOfq7zk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

You can take those bits and put them in like this: [ flash=425,350 ]http://www.youtube.com/v/D2kJZOfq7zk[ /flash ] and get:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/D2kJZOfq7zk" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/D2kJZOfq7zk</a>

This works with any flash site.  You just need to put the bit after the "embed src" in between the [ flash ] tags and use the [ flash = width,height ] format.  You can get width and height from the embed link.  It's really not much harder than that.  The "preview" option can be used to make sure it works.

If you have any questions or any other flash embeds you want to post, but aren't sure how please post them here and I or someone else will be happy to help.

All right, everyone... I've got a new one for you.  As most of you may know Photobucket now offers video hosting.  When you put up a video it gives you a pre-written embedding link in the "TAG" section.  A common one will look like this.

<embed width="352" height="308" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://vid4.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/the_sinic/CheeriosandAww.flv"></embed>

Now the useful bits are as follows:

<embed width="352" height="308" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://vid4.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/the_sinic/CheeriosandAww.flv"></embed>

Take that info and whip it into:

[ flash=352,308 ] http://vid4.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/the_sinic/CheeriosandAww.flv [ /flash ]

and you get

<a href="http://vid4.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/the_sinic/CheeriosandAww.flv" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://vid4.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/the_sinic/CheeriosandAww.flv</a>

Throwing the [ center ] tag around it puts it in the center of the post for those who want to format it that way.

Embedding Google video:

The embed link from the page gives you this:

<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-266401846574257420&hl=en	Small | Large

"> </embed>
       
The useful bits are:

<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-266401846574257420&hl=en	Small | Large

"> </embed>

Which you put in like so (with spaces removed):

[ flash=400,326 ]

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-266401846574257420&hl=en	Small | Large

[ /flash ]

To get:

<a href="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-266401846574257420&amp;hl=en" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-266401846574257420&amp;hl=en</a>     

hm... The problem is that the swf is their general video player, and the code after is telling it what to play. I'm not sure how to embed it properly, but that would be wh the video is random.