If I create a Playlist as a server owner, I want the ability to publish them for my users. For example, a doctor who smart Playlist that includes the specials and possibly the spin offs, and will remove episodes as my users watch them. I have that Playlist myself and I feel that a few of them would like to use them.
Also. Include playlists in on deck and continue watching!
It would also be nice for user created playlists to be able to be made available to the server owner (at the user’s discretion) to be published for all server users to use (at the server owner’s discretion). For example, if user A creates a Playlist and checks “allow this Playlist to be used by server owner” or something, it would let the owner see the Playlist, and then from there, I could click “Publish” and it would allow all users to see it and watch it.
While not a native function as you describe, you can get this done using the WebTools plugin. I did exactly what you’re describing, but once you copy it to or from the other users they exist as separate user-side playlists. (Yes, it’s bi-directional.)
The problem with your user-created playlists being actively shared back out is that a playlist may contain content from more than one server, and one server owner may not have access to all the same content as their users.
Now, this isn’t a problem with “smart playlists” because, unlike regular playlists, they can only contain content from a single library. Forget about multiple servers. To be honest, I’ve been running PMS for YEARS and never knew about smart playlists. A quick search did reveal that copying a smart playlist with WebTools will result in a dumb playlist at the destination.
I’m not sure what the actual use-case would be for your example Doctor Who list. I have a playlist that I painstakingly assembled of all the modern Who w/spin-offs according to the Doctor’s timeline. I only update the playlist at the end of each season, because anyone who’s keeping current will have new episodes show up in the On Deck until then.
