3 ms·

I think that's mainly because PeerTube itself is software, not a platform. It'd be like complaining "The Thunderbird website doesn't show me how to get an e-mai

by jchw 2y ago

I think that's mainly because PeerTube itself is software, not a platform. It'd be like complaining "The Thunderbird website doesn't show me how to get an e-mail account." Granted, they can and should do a bit better here by giving people who searched "PeerTube" some directions to go in (including, clearly, adding app downloads.) That said, it's somewhat understandable that it's not a focus: I reckon 9 times out of 10 when someone finds PeerTube in the wild, it's from a PeerTube instance itself. Besides that, having a specific place to go defeats the purpose of federation somewhat.

_ache_ 2y ago
Like, "joinpeertube" ? The first result if I type "Peertube" on Google (I'm french, it may be different in USA). https://joinpeertube.org/en_US https://joinpeertube.org/en_US
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- jchw 2y ago
  Checking again, I've made a realization: that's the same landing page. Which does actually have the operative information on it, but it's acting half as a landing page for what PeerTube is and half as a call-to-action for where to go. I think this is a bit disorienting: the two different purposes should be split into different pages and possibly even different websites in my opinion. It'd be ideal if what you got as a user was a couple sentences explaining what PeerTube is and then just an interface to find an instance. I also think a big CTA for "Download App" would be a good addition to the credit of the root comment of this thread.
  - tpoacher 2y ago
    The top of the page has "What is Peertube • Browse Content • Upload video" I mean, it could be a bit more visible, I guess, but it's not exactly invisible. I get the point that maybe have browse content as the main page ... but given that the point of peertube is the network not the videoclient, the current page also makes sense to me.
wat10000 2y ago
This is more like complaining that the Thunderbird web site doesn’t have links to download Thunderbird.
- jchw 2y ago
  Thunderbird is a desktop app. PeerTube is software you install on a server. The app is just a client.
  - wat10000 2y ago
    I don’t understand. Thunderbird makes a client and has a prominent download link for it. Peertube makes a client and has no download link.
    - jchw 2y ago
      Thunderbird is a client, and that's all it is. PeerTube is a lot of things, and that makes it hard to have a single coherent landing page. I still agree with putting the damn button on there realistically (please note that I already agree to that in my first comment, and no, I didn't edit it in after the fact), but if anything I think they need more than one landing page in either case.
immibis 2y ago
That's why software loses to platforms. Platforms are convenient, and software isn't. Businesses know this, but open source developers don't really, and they don't have money to commit to running platforms anyway. You couldn't make a new email today with any degree of popularity - and many attempts were made, from XMPP to Matrix to the Fediverse.
- jchw 2y ago
  The thing that leads to confusion is thinking about things in terms of winning or losing, but open source devs rarely actually care about what's most successful in the market. At best, success in the market is merely a means to an end for open source developers. The real goal of most open source developers is merely to produce the software. For some things, this actually is okay. Like for example, market-wise, Discord has dominated online chat. Does anyone still using XMPP or IRC care? Nope, because as long as there are networks to chat on and more than one person the network works. At worst, the main pain felt by market dominance is that the rooms may be smaller than they could be since people are less wont to join. But in practice, the quantity often isn't that big of a problem. I had some of my best conversations and met people I still know today in an IRC chat that never had more than 50 users online at any time and was inactive most hours of most days. The market can do whatever it wants as far as I am concerned.
  - immibis 2y ago
    I thought the point of free software was to change the world somehow, not merely to prevent writing software from becoming illegal.
    - jchw 2y ago
      Free Software as a movement started by Richard Stallman and the FSF has inherent political and ideological goals. Open Source was coined to contrast with this, and this term was endorsed by a lot of people working on open source software at that time, including Linus Torvalds. So, the goal of open source software is not to change the world. The goal of open source software is to produce software that is open source. (The goals of "free software" are out of scope.)

by jchw 2y ago

_ache_ 2y ago

Like, "joinpeertube" ? The first result if I type "Peertube" on Google (I'm french, it may be different in USA). https://joinpeertube.org/en_US https://joinpeertube.org/en_US

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jchw 2y ago
Checking again, I've made a realization: that's the same landing page. Which does actually have the operative information on it, but it's acting half as a landing page for what PeerTube is and half as a call-to-action for where to go. I think this is a bit disorienting: the two different purposes should be split into different pages and possibly even different websites in my opinion. It'd be ideal if what you got as a user was a couple sentences explaining what PeerTube is and then just an interface to find an instance. I also think a big CTA for "Download App" would be a good addition to the credit of the root comment of this thread.
- tpoacher 2y ago
  The top of the page has "What is Peertube • Browse Content • Upload video" I mean, it could be a bit more visible, I guess, but it's not exactly invisible. I get the point that maybe have browse content as the main page ... but given that the point of peertube is the network not the videoclient, the current page also makes sense to me.

wat10000 2y ago

This is more like complaining that the Thunderbird web site doesn’t have links to download Thunderbird.

jchw 2y ago
Thunderbird is a desktop app. PeerTube is software you install on a server. The app is just a client.
- wat10000 2y ago
  I don’t understand. Thunderbird makes a client and has a prominent download link for it. Peertube makes a client and has no download link.
  - jchw 2y ago
    Thunderbird is a client, and that's all it is. PeerTube is a lot of things, and that makes it hard to have a single coherent landing page. I still agree with putting the damn button on there realistically (please note that I already agree to that in my first comment, and no, I didn't edit it in after the fact), but if anything I think they need more than one landing page in either case.

immibis 2y ago

That's why software loses to platforms. Platforms are convenient, and software isn't. Businesses know this, but open source developers don't really, and they don't have money to commit to running platforms anyway. You couldn't make a new email today with any degree of popularity - and many attempts were made, from XMPP to Matrix to the Fediverse.

jchw 2y ago
The thing that leads to confusion is thinking about things in terms of winning or losing, but open source devs rarely actually care about what's most successful in the market. At best, success in the market is merely a means to an end for open source developers. The real goal of most open source developers is merely to produce the software. For some things, this actually is okay. Like for example, market-wise, Discord has dominated online chat. Does anyone still using XMPP or IRC care? Nope, because as long as there are networks to chat on and more than one person the network works. At worst, the main pain felt by market dominance is that the rooms may be smaller than they could be since people are less wont to join. But in practice, the quantity often isn't that big of a problem. I had some of my best conversations and met people I still know today in an IRC chat that never had more than 50 users online at any time and was inactive most hours of most days. The market can do whatever it wants as far as I am concerned.
- immibis 2y ago
  I thought the point of free software was to change the world somehow, not merely to prevent writing software from becoming illegal.
  - jchw 2y ago
    Free Software as a movement started by Richard Stallman and the FSF has inherent political and ideological goals. Open Source was coined to contrast with this, and this term was endorsed by a lot of people working on open source software at that time, including Linus Torvalds. So, the goal of open source software is not to change the world. The goal of open source software is to produce software that is open source. (The goals of "free software" are out of scope.)