cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/5294605

Youtube, for so many years, was just too good. Yes, they changed the 5 star rating system to likes and dislikes and a few years later disabled dislikes altogether, but their algorithm mostly digs up interesting content and it just works for creators and viewers.

This might change soon. Their new strategy to disallow ad-blockers will frustrate a certain kind of viewer. Those who dislike surveillance and like open-source tech, those who use uBlock Origin and know why.

Just like a few years ago mastodon suddenly reached a certain kind of popularity, because twitter had their first big fuckup, maybe Peertube is next. It certainly is the most polished decentralized solution that doesn’t use a blockchain. Creators or fans could easily host their own videos, fans can watch it, without ads.

  • Chozo@kbin.social
    43·
    11 months ago

    PeerTube will be a real competitor to YouTube when the Year of the Linux Desktop happens.

  • sculd@beehaw.org
    23·
    11 months ago

    No, because:

    1. Content creators want to monetize their videos, even if it is shit monetization.

    2. Users and content creators want discoverability.

  • kib48@lemm.eeEnglish
    17·
    11 months ago

    peertube is never gonna be a replacement for youtube, it’s good as a “upload random stuff you made” platform but modern youtube is so detached from that

    • sexy_peach@feddit.deOPEnglish
      7·
      11 months ago

      Mastodon might never replace twitter but it’s still a cool platform with a similar use case.

    • MiddledAgedGuy@beehaw.org
      5·
      11 months ago

      I guess it depends on what you use it for.

      I have two use cases, personally.

      1. How to videos for stuff I don’t know how to do. Like, fix a leaky spigot or something like that.

      2. Following content creators.

      I could see PeerTube being fine for #1, but I don’t see it ever being positioned as a viable option for those who want to generate reasonable profit for their content. Would be happy to be proven wrong though.

  • DuckGuy@mander.xyz
    15·
    11 months ago

    Peertube needs to really federate if it wants a fighting chance. Having to rely on Sepia Search to find videos just won’t cut it for most people.

    • Kichae@lemmy.ca
      8·
      11 months ago

      It also needs some big content producers using it in order to anchor it. And that requires it to enable an intuitive business model for those producers.

      Patreon integration, payment processor integration, and ads management. And that last one is kind of anathema to a lot of people and projects on the Fediverse.

      • ursakhiin@beehaw.org
        2·
        11 months ago

        Not just using it. Using it exclusively. Nobody is going to commit to going to a new patient to watch just some of their favorite creators content.

    • bedrooms@kbin.social
      7·
      11 months ago

      I really tried to visit the main instance regularly, which was hosted by the developer. But the latest video was 1 month old and every video there targeted a niche I don’t care.

    • SamXavia@kbin.run
      7·
      11 months ago

      Yeah I think the only way ‘creators’ will be there is if there is something to move across these larger ones, or at least makes sense to cross-post between YouTube and PeerTube. It’s going to be a hard battle to fight especially with PeerTube limited Space on most instances.

      • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
        7·
        11 months ago

        And I don’t think we can solve this easily. I’ve heard bigger creators say they want to make money with their videos. And Peertube doesn’t do ads, so it doesn’t pay the creators. And we’re kind of going in circles now anyways because your initial suggestion was to switch to Peertube because of the YouTube ads. We can not have them and don’t have them at the same time.

        Maybe the solution is sponsoring. I heard ad revenue had declined anyways and many creators mainly rely on sponsoring nowadays.

        • abhibeckert@beehaw.org
          2·
          11 months ago

          I don’t think it’s an issue. If your content is good, you should be able to find an audience and if you have an audience you’ll be able to find sponsors. That doesn’t have to be by directly reaching out to sponsors themselves, you can work with intermediaries.

          Youtube obviously dominates the space right now but it’s hardly the only viable business model. In fact I think it’s better if content creators have more control than YouTube provides.

          • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
            2·
            11 months ago

            As far as I’m informed YouTube doesn’t treat them well. The creators are completely at mercy of ‘the algorithm’. It decides how much it wants to pay them per 1000 views, how many people it wants to recommend a video to, and there is little to no transparency from YouTube’s side. And if they encounter problems they get to talk to an AI. There aren’t many human contacts to solve an issues even if the creator’s livelihood is in danger.

    • spaduf@slrpnk.net
      8·
      11 months ago

      If interoperability were improved, Mastodon and Lemmy may be able to standin for discovery algorithms in the short term.

    • SamXavia@kbin.run
      2·
      11 months ago

      I’ve just signed up for access to MakerTube but yeah I agree, most Instances won’t be able to host 5+ years of content from users making rather the user or the instance to rather have to delete the content or the user to create a ‘second’ channel to upload more. Hopefully with time, storage get’s better and easier but quality of video files (and there for size) will most likely grow so it’s really a cat and mouse game.

  • Victor Villas@beehaw.org
    9·
    11 months ago

    I’m placing my bets on piped video instead, for now at least. YouTube needs something more tragic, like getting acquired by Elon Musk, before it bleeds for real.

    • flashgnash@lemm.ee
      1·
      11 months ago

      Afaik piped is not an alternative to YouTube just a different client for it.

      If everyone suddenly moved to piped one day both YouTube and piped would probably suffer

      • Victor Villas@beehaw.org
        1·
        11 months ago

        Yes, it’s a client. Well, for better or for worse, no chance that this huge of a user base will move to piped. I don’t understand why it’s not super famous yet, but I guess invidious and piped are simply fringe tech still.

        That’s why I said that YouTube would need a major tragedy to get a real hit, real alternatives like Peertube are going to struggle a lot against the network effect. Nebula has a much better shot given the amount of content creators invested on it, and it’s still a long shot.

        • flashgnash@lemm.ee
          1·
          11 months ago

          Might be an unpopular opinion but I think piped is far worse of an experience than the default site/app

          Doesn’t work half the time, can’t do 4k for some reason , audio is a bit scuffed and no recommendations

          Don’t get me wrong I really want to like it but it has a while to go before it can get mainstream appeal

          If YouTube has a major tragedy and people migrate to piped YouTube will find a way to block piped, it’s their database at the end of the day

          • Victor Villas@beehaw.org
            1·
            11 months ago

            Not unpopular with me at all, my wife also prefers regular YouTube because the video quality tends to be better. YouTube just handles variable connection speeds better, and the buffering and quality switching is very smart. I mostly agree, the watching experience is superior.

            But YouTube ads are among the highest annoyances of my daily life right now, they simply could not be less relevant for me. Because I’m in NA it’s adamant that I buy an EV or an SUV, a bunch of fast food ads, it’s just too much. I’m willing to spend 20 seconds waiting for Piped to buffer instead of 8 seconds of YouTube ads.

            And I’m not really hoping Piped will ever go mainstream, because as you said, if that happens they’re toast. Piped and Invidious have to stay niche to keep flying under the radar - well not really under the radar, YouTube already sent a Cease and Desist to Invidious, but I guess for now they’re not invested in enforcing it yet.

  • Nix@merv.newsEnglish
    7·
    11 months ago

    Not until they make it possible for creators to make money. At least with a patreon type system on peertube itself

    • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      That’s without doubt the worst feature of YouTube.

      The amount of algorithm spam is unfathomable. A web search of “how do I …?” went from one line responses to ten minute videos with an automated voice.

      There last ten years of internet have been a mistake.

      • Nix@merv.newsEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        I use YouTube for blender tutorials and find new tutorials that are straight to the point all the time so I’m not sure what you mean.

        Also if anything that’s a reason for making monetization via a system like patreon even more important instead of an ad based monetization.

    • SamXavia@kbin.run
      2·
      11 months ago

      I think they are Federated, it’s just hard to find users as one of the people on your instance needs to know what the creator is called before you can expand into, finding there content, this TBH kills the PeerTube experience as you need to use other instances or sources to find the creators you want to watch instead of just working like YouTube does.

  • guyrocket@kbin.social
    5·
    11 months ago

    The near stranglehold YT has had on online video could not last forever. I think they’ll be the 800 pound gorilla for years to come, but I hope many smaller guys pick up speed as YT continues to throw its weight around. And I believe YT will continue to shit on users and eventually pay a high price for that.

    How long until YT is totally paywalled?

    • hascat@programming.devEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      How long until YT is totally paywalled?

      Probably never. I doubt they could offset ad revenue with subscription fees.