Around 2012, YT's shittiness level reached OTA TV levels and that's when I peaced out. My rule: it's not worth using YT, TikTok, or any other corporate behemot

Around 2012, YT's shittiness level reached OTA TV levels and that's when I peaced out. My rule: it's not worth using YT, TikTok, or any other corporate behemoth with your attention as their product. So if a form of media runs ads, I'm out. There's nothing particularly defensible about YT's readily commodifiable service and indefensible business model except the power law distribution of a monopoly. YT's closest competitor/alternative was once Vimeo. The problem was their founders made a critical error of taking venture funding and, later, going public, leading to poor decisions driven by the board that gradually wrecked it. YT is allowed by the market to be shitty because there is no viable competitor in their space. The biggest touted contenders aren't much of a threat: TikTok started as a copy of Vine, so it's unsuitable for substantive, long-form content. Instagram is TikTok plus pictures. Twitch is pigeonholed for specific uses: gamers and ear-licking models. Reddit Live isn't for persistent, on-demand content hosting. There isn't much else except tiny startups, some of which may well be better for both viewers and creators. To be a YT competitor I'd want to use: Charge content creators and viewers a modest subscription fee so they don't have to have ads AND have engagement and monetization tools for the creators. Don't spam me with ads for viral cat videos.