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I'll play devils advocate here, and say that I could potentially see this idea working. The difference between this and the plethora of different video service

I'll play devils advocate here, and say that I could potentially see this idea working. The difference between this and the plethora of different video services, is that the product here may not be the actual video service, but can be seen as a way to support the various video creators. Most of the creators on Nebula are already drawing in pretty large followings on Patreon, so it's clear that they are able to retain dedicated audiences that will pay for content. Even as someone who doesn't watch much Youtube, I can recognize a lot of great channels, like CGP Grey, Lindsay Ellis, Crash Course, etc. Also, I can totally see the advantage of having a service like this compared to youtube for kids. It's a bit scary how fast children are being exposed to the internet nowadays. All that being said, it's clearly very difficult and risky to start a video service nowadays, but I think this has a slightly higher probability of being sustainable compared to many of the other offerings I've seen.

notatoad 7y ago
The biggest mark against this site is that it's basically what YouTube has been trying to do for years, and had failed at. If YouTube and their huge install base can't do it, I'm skeptical that nebula can.
zrobotics 7y ago
As someone who supports multiple youtubers on patron, I am really sceptical of these alternative services. For instance, I really enjoyed motortrend's roadkill series, but haven't bothered once they moved to motortrend.com. One huge advantage, and one of the reasons I canceled Netflix, is that I can easily see in one place what is new. If I have a half-hour to kill, I don't want to have to check 8 different sites, I'd rather just open up my subscriptions tab. Perhaps what is actually necessary is a RSS equivalent, since I fully understand how YouTube is screwing creators. But this (and the equivalent projects, like LinusTechTips' floatplane) just seem like they are destined to follow vimeo.
- Bukhmanizer 7y ago
  The problem is that a lot of creators already have RSS feeds, but almost no one uses them. Also, RSS doesn't address the problem of having a sustainable business model. As much as people may criticize youtube, it's really the only service that has come up with a long-term business model for video creators. It's a massively flawed model, but it's still a model.
jonheller 7y ago
> I'll play devils advocate here, and say that I could potentially see this idea working. This gave me a chuckle as it describes Hacker News to a T I do agree though that I recognize some channels here that I really like and figure if there's even one or two more like those, i'd be quite happy.

notatoad 7y ago

The biggest mark against this site is that it's basically what YouTube has been trying to do for years, and had failed at. If YouTube and their huge install base can't do it, I'm skeptical that nebula can.

zrobotics 7y ago

As someone who supports multiple youtubers on patron, I am really sceptical of these alternative services. For instance, I really enjoyed motortrend's roadkill series, but haven't bothered once they moved to motortrend.com. One huge advantage, and one of the reasons I canceled Netflix, is that I can easily see in one place what is new. If I have a half-hour to kill, I don't want to have to check 8 different sites, I'd rather just open up my subscriptions tab. Perhaps what is actually necessary is a RSS equivalent, since I fully understand how YouTube is screwing creators. But this (and the equivalent projects, like LinusTechTips' floatplane) just seem like they are destined to follow vimeo.

Bukhmanizer 7y ago
The problem is that a lot of creators already have RSS feeds, but almost no one uses them. Also, RSS doesn't address the problem of having a sustainable business model. As much as people may criticize youtube, it's really the only service that has come up with a long-term business model for video creators. It's a massively flawed model, but it's still a model.

jonheller 7y ago

> I'll play devils advocate here, and say that I could potentially see this idea working. This gave me a chuckle as it describes Hacker News to a T I do agree though that I recognize some channels here that I really like and figure if there's even one or two more like those, i'd be quite happy.