6 ms·

Getting started with PeerTube

151 points by zeograd 8y ago

rwmj 8y ago
I doubt YouTube would ever have been successful if it had required this level of explanation.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- overcast 8y ago
  The fact that there is an entire Medium article on how to "get started" essentially guarantees it's a non starter.
  - yorwba 8y ago
    The presence of a Medium article is not a reliable indicator of anything (except there being someone writing Medium articles about it). Case in point: "Recipe: Medium-Boiled Eggs" https://medium.com/@corey_nelson/recipe-medium-boiled-eggs-7a43b3d363b2 https://medium.com/@corey_nelson/recipe-medium-boiled-eggs-7...
    - thaumasiotes 8y ago
      See, that's why medium-boiled eggs have never caught on. ;D
      - elcomet 8y ago
        https://medium.com/@ouidapetru/perfect-hard-boiled-eggs-ba6c5e966300 https://medium.com/@ouidapetru/perfect-hard-boiled-eggs-ba6c...
- devrand 8y ago
  Or the lack of anyway to monetize your content other than link to a method for accepting donations.
  - robrtsql 8y ago
    Content creators on PeerTube could do in-video product endorsements.. that's already a fairly standard practice on YouTube, which does support monetization.
    - viraptor 8y ago
      It's a bit of chicken and egg problem though. To get in video endorsements, you need to get very popular. To get very popular, you need a more popular platform than peertube.
      - snaky 8y ago
        It depends. You obviously need a millions of subscribers to promote the 'appetite suppressant' lollipops - and you need a TV to promote the new life insurance brand. But to triple the sales of HackRF, a couple of thousands niche auditory is enough.
    - bduerst 8y ago
      Sponsorships are only one form of monetization. The competitive feature for content creators here is ad revenue sharing. The only thing I got from reading this write up is that it will be pretty easy for someone to create their own instance and throw ads on someone else's content.
      - X6S1x6Okd1st 8y ago
        It seems like for many creators on youtube the ad revenue sharing is no longer a notable source of their income.
        bduerst 8y ago
- derefr 8y ago
  Half of the explanation here consists of explaining the very-slightly-different-but-still-entirely-natural ontology of PeerTube, to people who were expecting exactly the ontology of YouTube. For someone who has never used YouTube as a content creator, a "Getting Started" guide for PeerTube would actually be quite short.
  - Erik816 8y ago
    I'm not sure what exact word you're looking for, but it's not ontology
    - Erik816 8y ago
      In trying to figure out what word you were looking for, I realized the word his migrated from philosophy to computer science and changed meaning a bit. So maybe it works in that context. Sorry.
      - gnarbarian 8y ago
        A very cromulent explaination. Thank you.
        jMyles 8y ago
        You mean because the word "ontology" has been embiggened a bit?
    - keithnz 8y ago
      lets go with the Ux concept of "Mental Model"
    - daveFNbuck 8y ago
      paradigm
- lucideer 8y ago
  This website isn't a service, it's the website for a piece of software you can download and host yourself. So it's not really comparable to Youtube. Explanation/documentation is normal for that kind of site. If you want the equivalent to Youtube, take a look at something like https://framatube.org/ https://framatube.org/
  - ealhad 8y ago
    Or any of the instances listed on https://instances.joinpeertube.org https://instances.joinpeertube.org
browsercoin 8y ago
https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube License is AGPL v3.0... tldrlegal shows us this https://tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-affero-general-public-license-v3-(agpl-3.0) https://tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-affero-general-public-lice...
rebornshellfish 8y ago
How little empathy do you have to have to think anyone wants to watch or upload videos on a system so complex.
infogulch 8y ago
This feels like a guide for an early podcast player, the way you connect to different instances and their channels using urls. Kinda refreshing actually.
cyjyar 8y ago
Sadly all of those decentralized / federated app all have this same accessibility issue. Maybe there is some sort of business case, or at least some preliminary solution to get there, that offers a middle ground between "you're only the customer of our SaaS" and "you have to be your own IT department"? something like a standardized cloud-ready deployment, where instead of only d/l the server side app, the site also points you to the cloud providers that also support that app (or this standard) so that you're just 3 clicks away from running your own instance. That'd be nice, not sure it would pay for the team developing that standard though.
- f00_ 8y ago
  I can't think of any projects that use it off the top of my head, but i'm pretty sure i've seen "one click setup" buttons for heroku and digital ocean binder is kinda similar for python jupyter notebooks https://www.digitalocean.com/products/one-click-apps/ https://www.digitalocean.com/products/one-click-apps/ https://blog.heroku.com/heroku-button https://blog.heroku.com/heroku-button https://mybinder.org/ https://mybinder.org/ edit: after looking at the github, they actually have this with YunoHost (whatever that is): https://install-app.yunohost.org/?app=peertube https://install-app.yunohost.org/?app=peertube
Animats 8y ago
OK. So PeerTube doesn't actually host anything, right? You need a streaming server to publish. Maybe someone will let you have space and bandwidth on theirs. PeerTube is just the lookup system. Is that right?
- lucideer 8y ago
  Nope. Peertube is just the software. The linked has no lookup system, it's just a site telling you about the software, linking to sourcecode & documentation, and linking to other sites that host that software. The primary instance references on the site (i.e. the streaming server that they embed their own videos from) is https://framatube.org/ https://framatube.org/
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  It's using torrents through WebSockets, it would be nice if the regular torrent protocol supported them. You just need to download a torrent to stream, or be one of the peers viewing to stream it to other viewers. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerTube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerTube
agumonkey 8y ago
peertube worked fine the few times I tried it, it's not in my mind when I want to see videos but I have to say it never felt a disappointment.. pretty neat for such an effort
MR4D 8y ago
My guess is that none of these things (including things like Mastadon) will become very popular. Then, one day, Amazon will create an AWS instance for it, and popularity will skyrocket. And no, I’m not being sarcastic. I love the idea, but can’t for the life of me think what it will take to make something like this truly popular. (Though I wish I could!)
- elcomet 8y ago
  I keep reading Mastadon in HN, but the real name is Mastodon. Where did you get "Mastadon" from ?
HaHa31 8y ago
I honestly think that article 11 and 13 will grow more decentralized options. Peertube is only federated, so it won't benefit as much as it could, but it will still help. If the platform is responsible for copyright, then it will definitely be easier to just burn that server and then spin up a new one. Just my 2 cents
- ealhad 8y ago
  “only” federated?
- zaarn 8y ago
  Small platforms (ie business under 50 empl, or 10mil € ATO) don't have to adhere the copyright filter at all and are under the previous Notice&Takedown protection.
eafkuor 8y ago
> I have a lot to say because I have a lot to think about. Oh boy.
- DeadSuperHero 8y ago
  Oof. I forgot my description said that. Thanks for the dose of humility.
zaarn 8y ago
PeerTube is very exciting and I've been thinking about running an instance. Only showstopper for me atm is lack of live streaming support, which admittedly is difficult to figure out.

151 points by zeograd 8y ago

rwmj 8y ago

I doubt YouTube would ever have been successful if it had required this level of explanation.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
overcast 8y ago
The fact that there is an entire Medium article on how to "get started" essentially guarantees it's a non starter.
- yorwba 8y ago
  The presence of a Medium article is not a reliable indicator of anything (except there being someone writing Medium articles about it). Case in point: "Recipe: Medium-Boiled Eggs" https://medium.com/@corey_nelson/recipe-medium-boiled-eggs-7a43b3d363b2 https://medium.com/@corey_nelson/recipe-medium-boiled-eggs-7...
  - thaumasiotes 8y ago
    See, that's why medium-boiled eggs have never caught on. ;D
    - elcomet 8y ago
      https://medium.com/@ouidapetru/perfect-hard-boiled-eggs-ba6c5e966300 https://medium.com/@ouidapetru/perfect-hard-boiled-eggs-ba6c...
devrand 8y ago
Or the lack of anyway to monetize your content other than link to a method for accepting donations.
- robrtsql 8y ago
  Content creators on PeerTube could do in-video product endorsements.. that's already a fairly standard practice on YouTube, which does support monetization.
  - viraptor 8y ago
    It's a bit of chicken and egg problem though. To get in video endorsements, you need to get very popular. To get very popular, you need a more popular platform than peertube.
    - snaky 8y ago
      It depends. You obviously need a millions of subscribers to promote the 'appetite suppressant' lollipops - and you need a TV to promote the new life insurance brand. But to triple the sales of HackRF, a couple of thousands niche auditory is enough.
  - bduerst 8y ago
    Sponsorships are only one form of monetization. The competitive feature for content creators here is ad revenue sharing. The only thing I got from reading this write up is that it will be pretty easy for someone to create their own instance and throw ads on someone else's content.
    - X6S1x6Okd1st 8y ago
      It seems like for many creators on youtube the ad revenue sharing is no longer a notable source of their income.
      - bduerst 8y ago
derefr 8y ago
Half of the explanation here consists of explaining the very-slightly-different-but-still-entirely-natural ontology of PeerTube, to people who were expecting exactly the ontology of YouTube. For someone who has never used YouTube as a content creator, a "Getting Started" guide for PeerTube would actually be quite short.
- Erik816 8y ago
  I'm not sure what exact word you're looking for, but it's not ontology
  - Erik816 8y ago
    In trying to figure out what word you were looking for, I realized the word his migrated from philosophy to computer science and changed meaning a bit. So maybe it works in that context. Sorry.
    - gnarbarian 8y ago
      A very cromulent explaination. Thank you.
      - jMyles 8y ago
        You mean because the word "ontology" has been embiggened a bit?
  - keithnz 8y ago
    lets go with the Ux concept of "Mental Model"
  - daveFNbuck 8y ago
    paradigm
lucideer 8y ago
This website isn't a service, it's the website for a piece of software you can download and host yourself. So it's not really comparable to Youtube. Explanation/documentation is normal for that kind of site. If you want the equivalent to Youtube, take a look at something like https://framatube.org/ https://framatube.org/
- ealhad 8y ago
  Or any of the instances listed on https://instances.joinpeertube.org https://instances.joinpeertube.org

browsercoin 8y ago

https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube License is AGPL v3.0... tldrlegal shows us this https://tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-affero-general-public-license-v3-(agpl-3.0) https://tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-affero-general-public-lice...

rebornshellfish 8y ago

How little empathy do you have to have to think anyone wants to watch or upload videos on a system so complex.

infogulch 8y ago

This feels like a guide for an early podcast player, the way you connect to different instances and their channels using urls. Kinda refreshing actually.

cyjyar 8y ago

Sadly all of those decentralized / federated app all have this same accessibility issue. Maybe there is some sort of business case, or at least some preliminary solution to get there, that offers a middle ground between "you're only the customer of our SaaS" and "you have to be your own IT department"? something like a standardized cloud-ready deployment, where instead of only d/l the server side app, the site also points you to the cloud providers that also support that app (or this standard) so that you're just 3 clicks away from running your own instance. That'd be nice, not sure it would pay for the team developing that standard though.

f00_ 8y ago
I can't think of any projects that use it off the top of my head, but i'm pretty sure i've seen "one click setup" buttons for heroku and digital ocean binder is kinda similar for python jupyter notebooks https://www.digitalocean.com/products/one-click-apps/ https://www.digitalocean.com/products/one-click-apps/ https://blog.heroku.com/heroku-button https://blog.heroku.com/heroku-button https://mybinder.org/ https://mybinder.org/ edit: after looking at the github, they actually have this with YunoHost (whatever that is): https://install-app.yunohost.org/?app=peertube https://install-app.yunohost.org/?app=peertube

Animats 8y ago

OK. So PeerTube doesn't actually host anything, right? You need a streaming server to publish. Maybe someone will let you have space and bandwidth on theirs. PeerTube is just the lookup system. Is that right?

lucideer 8y ago
Nope. Peertube is just the software. The linked has no lookup system, it's just a site telling you about the software, linking to sourcecode & documentation, and linking to other sites that host that software. The primary instance references on the site (i.e. the streaming server that they embed their own videos from) is https://framatube.org/ https://framatube.org/
giancarlostoro 8y ago
It's using torrents through WebSockets, it would be nice if the regular torrent protocol supported them. You just need to download a torrent to stream, or be one of the peers viewing to stream it to other viewers. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerTube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerTube

agumonkey 8y ago

peertube worked fine the few times I tried it, it's not in my mind when I want to see videos but I have to say it never felt a disappointment.. pretty neat for such an effort

MR4D 8y ago

My guess is that none of these things (including things like Mastadon) will become very popular. Then, one day, Amazon will create an AWS instance for it, and popularity will skyrocket. And no, I’m not being sarcastic. I love the idea, but can’t for the life of me think what it will take to make something like this truly popular. (Though I wish I could!)

elcomet 8y ago
I keep reading Mastadon in HN, but the real name is Mastodon. Where did you get "Mastadon" from ?

HaHa31 8y ago

I honestly think that article 11 and 13 will grow more decentralized options. Peertube is only federated, so it won't benefit as much as it could, but it will still help. If the platform is responsible for copyright, then it will definitely be easier to just burn that server and then spin up a new one. Just my 2 cents

ealhad 8y ago
“only” federated?
zaarn 8y ago
Small platforms (ie business under 50 empl, or 10mil € ATO) don't have to adhere the copyright filter at all and are under the previous Notice&Takedown protection.

eafkuor 8y ago

> I have a lot to say because I have a lot to think about. Oh boy.

DeadSuperHero 8y ago
Oof. I forgot my description said that. Thanks for the dose of humility.

zaarn 8y ago

PeerTube is very exciting and I've been thinking about running an instance. Only showstopper for me atm is lack of live streaming support, which admittedly is difficult to figure out.