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.
the issue is the cost of storage. I hope Google and their services burn to the ground already, but I just don’t see Peertube instances being able to handle the amount of videos that gets constantly uploaded on Youtube. hell, Mastodon instances were having issue with the first big waves, and that’s mostly a text-based platform.
I don’t think that peertube can offer the same amount of video storage to newcomers, that yt does. But it should be easy to host peertube with a fraction of the income (from patreon, in video adverts) that big creators have.
But maybe we’re wrong and it will work, there’s plenty of servers out there that anyone can upload to.
It just puts smaller creators into a part that they won’t be able to upload and that’s the great thing about YouTube or most other Video Platforms is anyone can create. If the only people that can release content are the Elites then how will they be replaced in the future when they get burnt out, die or just want to move on?
I don’t have a perfect solution. They either have to find a server that gives them a home or they have to figure something else out. At the moment there are lots of servers and not a lot of uploaders.
Also it is possible to host peertube from home. With yunohost, it’s pretty easy. New people will only get a couple of views which is doable with a home connection.
They could still start on yt, like today. But if they have a following, they might not like all the YT restrictions.
This isn’t as much a reply to you as it is to everybody:
The fediverse isn’t meant to be centralized with big instances bearing the brunt of the load.
It costs less than 5€ a month for a cheap VPS, as you say it’s pretty easy to set up (If you can reformat a computer, you have the skills to set up a plethora of federated platform). That includes 200GB storage and 32TB of outbound traffic, and one could even set up a home “CDN” PeerTube to share the load.
I don’t want big creators making clickbaity content just to make money. I don’t want the fediverse to be commersialized. I want enthusiasts and those willing to make an effort to be more free.
For some that means setting up their own systems. For some that merely means making a Mastodon account (big step for some people, believe it or not).
It takes some effort, it takes some learning. It might even mean that people won’t get disgustingly rich. But we can make a new internet.
Let’s not being the old ways there.
Thank you I was surprised by the negative reaction here. I thought people on lemmy were interested in alternative solutions to big tech