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Case-sensitive resource identifiers such as video IDs are much harder to pronounce, memorize and to write/type off.

Of course, they add more possible combinations per character in the video ID, but why not just add one case-insensitive character?

I'd rather have 7 case-insensitive characters than 6 case-sensitive characters.

Also, just a few characters offer a semi-eternally abundant number of combinations.

Just eight characters of 0-9 and Aa-Zz (insensitive) offer 36⁸=2.821.109.907.456 combinations. YouTube does not nearly have this many videos.

Also, an URL collision should not ever happen.

for instance thankfully uses case-insensitive video IDs. Unlisted videos deliberately use longer IDs (18 Base36 characters after fixed initial letter “k”), for being unguessable.

BitChute is also case-insensitive (although their URLs have both uppercase and lowercase characters, altering the letters still leads to the same video instead of 404). But their ID length of 12 letters (last time I checked) is a bit exaggerated.

Also,

### Case-sensitive resource identifiers such as video IDs are much harder to pronounce, memorize and to write/type off. Of course, they add more possible combinations per character in the video ID, but why not just add one case-insensitive character? I'd rather have 7 case-insensitive characters than 6 case-sensitive characters. Also, just a few characters offer a semi-eternally abundant number of combinations. Just eight characters of 0-9 and Aa-Zz (insensitive) offer 36⁸=2.821.109.907.456 combinations. YouTube does not nearly have this many videos. Also, an URL collision should not ever happen. ---- [Dailymotion](http://dai.ly/x3Sexy8/) for instance thankfully uses **case-insensitive** video IDs. Unlisted videos deliberately use longer IDs (18 Base36 characters after fixed initial letter *“k”*), for being unguessable. BitChute is also case-insensitive (although their URLs have both uppercase and lowercase characters, altering the letters still leads to the same video instead of 404). But their ID length of 12 letters (last time I checked) is a bit exaggerated. Also, [dashes in ID strings are no smart idea.](http://archive.is/JndnB)

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Have you sought professional medical help for this?

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Umm… no?

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For the best, I wouldn't trust those quacks, either!

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I don't think it relates to the resource indentifiers.

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"Unlisted videos deliberately use longer IDs "

If an unlisted video is supposed to be private, then this is a bad practice.

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According to their , Dailymotion has a “xID” (public) and a “kID” (private).

Private videos also have an xID, but that's only accessible to the uploader. The URL with the kID acts as unlisted.

Dailymotion also once had a pID (for password-protected videos) that had 30 to 40 characters after the initial letter “p”, as a temporary token for watching a password-protected video after entering the correct password.

But they no longer use that system since ~October.