This topic came up in chat the other day.

![OMGPEARS][omgpears]

**Is it good form to insert a related, but ultimately unnecessary, animated gif, picture, or some other form of media (say, a YouTube video) into someone else's post?**

I don't feel it is good form. If the OP wants media in their post, I of course don't mind viewing their pictures -- many of them are really enjoyable. But I feel it's up to the OP to place media in their post. Some users, myself included, prefer a neat text-based question (Although I, too, have occasionally put an image in one of my posts.). To inject unwanted media into an OP's post is, I believe, poor form and unnecessary. Yes, perhaps there is the *rare* instance that added media will enhance the post, but I don't believe this is true most of the time.

I may be alone in my take on this. But if I'm not, is there some sort of etiquette we can  talk about, maybe gauge how the community feels about this? 

I'm not proposing we establish a rule or anything like that, but I also don't think it's at all appropriate to say to the protesting OP, who has just been media bombed, "That's what rollbacks are for." That kind of smacks of *neener neener* to me. Why should I be responsible for policing other users, and for keeping their unwanted media out of my post, when there's no need for media to begin with, only to be blithely told, "If you don't like it, too bad. Take it out yourself"? I rarely have time to check my inbox to begin with and I can *never* find the rollback option (Yeah, yeah, I know ...).

I know we're a collaborative community and that we all muck around in each others' posts, editing, formatting, improving, etc. But I wonder if media should be treated a little more delicately. For example, in a recent *Harry Potter* question, an answer was given from book canon; someone inserted an animated gif from one of the movies into the OP's answer that directly contradicted book canon. That *could* have been damaging to the OP's answer and cost him/her upvotes.

**How should we treat media? Is it okay to insert unsolicited media into another user's post or answer?**

![enter image description here][1]

![enter image description here][2]

Oh really?

![Educational Decree - Computer][3]

![Snape, Snape, Severus Snape - Potter Puppet Pals][4]

![Harry and Voldemort - Spaghetti][5]

Because I can too :>
[omgpears]: https://i.sstatic.net/Xwv31.jpg


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/C9BMK.jpg
  [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/8dmdr.jpg
  [3]: https://i.sstatic.net/WhAbK.jpg
  [4]: https://i.sstatic.net/5UNgp.jpg
  [5]: https://i.sstatic.net/827Ea.jpg