4 ms·

I think YouTube might be the exception to this because of how expensive video hosting is. Mastodon is actually doing a great job funding itself but it and Lemmy

I think YouTube might be the exception to this because of how expensive video hosting is. Mastodon is actually doing a great job funding itself but it and Lemmy/Kbin are all text based protocols. The only other sites even close to YouTube’s scale that served videos anyone could upload used to be maybe adult video sites, but even then that’s not really true anymore because of the (good) new verification policies that exist now to help curb abuse and also the second category is far more profitable per video than YouTube is. Something like 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every second and I’m not sure if donations would easily cover the costs at that scale.

COGlory 3y ago
How much of that video doesn't need to be uploaded to Youtube though? If costs are distributed among hosters and viewers directly, the entire creator-viewer relationship is going to change, and a ton of useless, low quality content is going to disappear.
- pawptart 3y ago
  That works both ways, though. Content that is high quality but is lacking broad appeal will go away as well. Full disclosure,I don't know what the right answer is here but it certainly isn't as black-and-white as this.
  - COGlory 3y ago
    Will it? If the creator is really passionate, and the few people that consume the content is passionate, it seems like the opposite will happen. Look at Patreon and Floatplane, for instances of that.
  - jtode 3y ago
    It won't go away though, as long as it has a community that wants it. What goes away is things that get entrusted to capital. Netflix will run a show for two months and then remove it from the universe because it saves them taxes or something. The internet has passed around documents containing knowledge since way before the capitalists showed up and built their silos. We are still a society that is half comprised of people who are only capable of thinking of the internet as a better television, with a ruling class willing to do whatever it takes to give them that, but it has never been that and it will never be that. YouTube is just as doomed as the rest of the Free Money Era corporations.
- Shawnj2 3y ago
  A lot of video uploaded to YouTube is stuff like “Dorothy’s first school play” or “Epic UFO sighting” or “Josh’s 5th birthday” that gets >1000 views, the stuff that you actually see when you browse YouTube as a viewer is in the minority of content actually uploaded to the site. To the people uploading the video and a very small number of people they know having the video on YouTube is very important, but to almost everyone else it doesn’t matter. I think everyone has a few videos that they like for personal reasons that aren’t massively popular so it really depends on your definition on what needs to be uploaded to YouTube and what is quality content. By YouTube’s metrics Mr. Beast videos are of higher quality than the royal institute’s since they make the site more money so quality is also entirely subjective here.

COGlory 3y ago

How much of that video doesn't need to be uploaded to Youtube though? If costs are distributed among hosters and viewers directly, the entire creator-viewer relationship is going to change, and a ton of useless, low quality content is going to disappear.

pawptart 3y ago
That works both ways, though. Content that is high quality but is lacking broad appeal will go away as well. Full disclosure,I don't know what the right answer is here but it certainly isn't as black-and-white as this.
- COGlory 3y ago
  Will it? If the creator is really passionate, and the few people that consume the content is passionate, it seems like the opposite will happen. Look at Patreon and Floatplane, for instances of that.
- jtode 3y ago
  It won't go away though, as long as it has a community that wants it. What goes away is things that get entrusted to capital. Netflix will run a show for two months and then remove it from the universe because it saves them taxes or something. The internet has passed around documents containing knowledge since way before the capitalists showed up and built their silos. We are still a society that is half comprised of people who are only capable of thinking of the internet as a better television, with a ruling class willing to do whatever it takes to give them that, but it has never been that and it will never be that. YouTube is just as doomed as the rest of the Free Money Era corporations.
Shawnj2 3y ago
A lot of video uploaded to YouTube is stuff like “Dorothy’s first school play” or “Epic UFO sighting” or “Josh’s 5th birthday” that gets >1000 views, the stuff that you actually see when you browse YouTube as a viewer is in the minority of content actually uploaded to the site. To the people uploading the video and a very small number of people they know having the video on YouTube is very important, but to almost everyone else it doesn’t matter. I think everyone has a few videos that they like for personal reasons that aren’t massively popular so it really depends on your definition on what needs to be uploaded to YouTube and what is quality content. By YouTube’s metrics Mr. Beast videos are of higher quality than the royal institute’s since they make the site more money so quality is also entirely subjective here.