A simple request for the site to adopt a way to convert on the site to make videos easier to store for some people.

Instead of just relying on the base videos format it was uploaded in when you hit the big red download button, how about a big red download button that opens a 3 options?
Download:
As WEBM (Source)
As MP4
As GIF

I keep a lot of e621 content downloaded incase the site or wifi goes down, but I have to convert the WEBM files into MP4's if I want to keep potential personal edits / make personal compiliations. My editing software simply will not accept WEBM as a format.

We do have mp4 samples already, including one that matches the original source.
They aren't available on the newer posts right now due to a background process that is going on, but that should be resolved later this week.

However, indiscriminately converting webm uploads to GIFs is simply a terrible idea.

akros_the_speeddemon said:
A simple request for the site to adopt a way to convert on the site to make videos easier to store for some people.

We prioritise keeping the uploads as close to the source as possible for preserving quality, barring limitations due to unsupported file types or file sizes.
If users wish to convert videos, there are many other methods (both online and offline) where a user can do it by themselves.

Instead of just relying on the base videos format it was uploaded in when you hit the big red download button, how about a big red download button that opens a 3 options?
Download:
As WEBM (Source)
As MP4
As GIF

Not viable and unconventional, I don't think I have seen any imageboards that maintain three different file formats for their videos.
The most that we already do is keep MP4 samples for easier & faster viewing, i.e., original WEBM/MP4 for download and various MP4 samples when you click on the dropdown bar next to the download button.

Having the site convert the original to both WEBM, MP4 and then GIF would put an unneeded strain on the servers, especially for large 100MB videos.
Moreover, we would need multiple smaller samples of that too, as we need to both keep the original file and the two other converted formats in its "original quality".

In the end of the day, we'd have three different formats of various quality that we would need to process, store, and deliver on demand.
Even exclusive animated video sites like Rule34video.com or Naughty Machinima only allow videos to be downloaded in MP4 format only, in various qualities.

I keep a lot of e621 content downloaded incase the site or wifi goes down, but I have to convert the WEBM files into MP4's if I want to keep potential personal edits / make personal compiliations. My editing software simply will not accept WEBM as a format.

Try using Avidemux to convert the video to your desired format, then using it for your personal edits later.

cinder said:
We do have mp4 samples already, including one that matches the original source.
They aren't available on the newer posts right now due to a background process that is going on, but that should be resolved later this week.

However, indiscriminately converting webm uploads to GIFs is simply a terrible idea.

There used to be an option to change the file from .webm to .mp4 to get an mp4 file, that does not seem to be possible anymore. Is there a reason for it?

I'm asking mainly because some platforms don't handle .webm well thus cannot easily embed links from e6. Instead gotta download a wanted animation, convert it and then send it out.