3 ms·

Yeah, it's pretty simple. When I go to YouTube.com, I have access to all of the videos on that platform, sorted based on what I'm subscribed to and other things

Yeah, it's pretty simple. When I go to YouTube.com, I have access to all of the videos on that platform, sorted based on what I'm subscribed to and other things like what I watch. The first thing I see are videos. I'm off to the races. When I go to https://joinpeertube.org https://joinpeertube.org, I'm met with a double hero section that tells me about PeerTube, which is ultimately meaningless to 99% of the population. When I get to actual content on that page, it's not an aggregate of all of the most popular videos across the federation, it's a description of the types of videos you can find on federated sites with links to the sites and not video embeds. You're telling me on the front page that I have to do legwork to find the videos I want to watch. You're already not competitive. You already lose. Creators go where users go. If you don't build the platform to attract users, you will not get the volume of content that is required to hold people's attention. There's a reason why people come to YouTube, Reddit, Hacker News, Reels, etc. There are almost no clicks between the user and the content, and the content is plentiful. Every time I try to use PeerTube, I have to try to find where to find the videos. As someone who's been chronically online since 1995, it's not that big of a deal. I can find them eventually. But that UX sucks, even for me, so it's probably utterly untenable for the vast majority of casual users. You are trying to compete with slot machines by inventing a machine that makes the user read a bunch of stuff between each pull of the lever. It's not super difficult to see why that is a competitive disadvantage.

underlipton 3mo ago
And the thing is that you don't even necessarily need to make a new slot machine to compete with the old slot machine. A lot of people hate the slot machine-ness of the old slot machine. They hit a button on their Chrome extension/Greasemonkey remote to turn off the flashing lights and loud attention-grabbing sounds and whatnot. So, if your new machine doesn't have those, maybe that's all for the better. Maybe your new machine gives players more control over how they play, and doesn't try to trick them into never getting up to get some water or go to the bathroom or whatever. Maybe there's no jackpot, just a chill or educational time. Maybe you get rid of the randomness of the outcomes, so that it's easier for people to just find what they're looking for. I dunno. There are a lot of ways it could go. But, boy, I do know this: when I sit down, I better be able to just pull the lever and start.
ndriscoll 3mo ago
This is like complaining that when you go to nginx.org, you aren't shown a bunch of websites or a search box to discover anything, so this web thing is garbage UX compared to the Facebook app. There's no "the federation". There are various sites that run peertube, some of which are federated with each other. Others have nothing to do with each other. Some are probably completely private. An example of federation might be that a bunch of universities run their own instances where they post colloquia, and they federate with each other to make it easy to subscribe to departments in your field from another university, or to comment on their videos. IMO state universities should be posting their material online like this, and on a platform that does not require the public to watch ads (something fundamentally against the mission of an educational institution), or agree to some random company's terms.
- jesse_dot_id 3mo ago
  I agree with you, but I was speaking to PeerTube's own claim that it is an alternative to YouTube, rather than the narrow use case you're describing. For the vast majority of the people on the planet, it is not an alternative to YouTube because it's very difficult to discover content. When I go to YouTube, I can find videos immediately. If I want to find videos via PeerTube, it's a journey. It's the same journey that has shifted the majority of Internet users away from forums to aggregators. PeerTube feels like a bygone way to do things.
  - ndriscoll 3mo ago
    > An alternative to Big Tech's video platforms > PeerTube is a tool for sharing online videos developed by Framasoft, a french non-profit. > PeerTube allows you to create your own video platform, in complete independence. I think it's pretty clear that it's software for running your own video sharing platform? Sure, people are used to monopolies and consolidation now, but surely you can wrap you head around the idea that some people might want to host their own site? Like why are you here and not on reddit? Is this site a bygone way to do things? Or is it just... its own thing? As I said above, I think entities tied to governments should be using something like this, not youtube. The obvious place to look for e.g. recorded meetings from your city would be your city website. Likewise with schools. And government functions like that absolutely should not be monetized and should not have ads attached.
ssl-3 3mo ago
I tried to find some videos by starting at the URL you linked. I clicked on "Browse content", because that's exactly what I wanted to do: I wanted to browse content. All I got from that was a needless introduction to an entirely unnecessary cuttlefish named Sepia, and a search box. There was no content to browse; I was lied to. But there's a note at the bottom about "Peertube instances" with a literal "CLICK >HERE<" cursed-abomination-style link. That click lead to a list of... 25 "Peertube platforms", in one column on the right, even though I clicked >HERE< for "Peertube instances". There's a written suggestion that I can add filters to find more of these, but that's exactly the opposite of the way that filters have always worked in my world: Filters are reductive, not additive. Finally, in the left-hand column, is another CLICK >HERE< style link that is supposed to take me to "videos or channels" -- you know, the stuff I'm looking for. That link brings me back to the stupid page with Sepia, the iconic cuttlefish, and a search box. Having been lied to twice (thrice?), I gave up. At this time, I have not yet seen any videos.

underlipton 3mo ago

And the thing is that you don't even necessarily need to make a new slot machine to compete with the old slot machine. A lot of people hate the slot machine-ness of the old slot machine. They hit a button on their Chrome extension/Greasemonkey remote to turn off the flashing lights and loud attention-grabbing sounds and whatnot. So, if your new machine doesn't have those, maybe that's all for the better. Maybe your new machine gives players more control over how they play, and doesn't try to trick them into never getting up to get some water or go to the bathroom or whatever. Maybe there's no jackpot, just a chill or educational time. Maybe you get rid of the randomness of the outcomes, so that it's easier for people to just find what they're looking for. I dunno. There are a lot of ways it could go. But, boy, I do know this: when I sit down, I better be able to just pull the lever and start.

ndriscoll 3mo ago

This is like complaining that when you go to nginx.org, you aren't shown a bunch of websites or a search box to discover anything, so this web thing is garbage UX compared to the Facebook app. There's no "the federation". There are various sites that run peertube, some of which are federated with each other. Others have nothing to do with each other. Some are probably completely private. An example of federation might be that a bunch of universities run their own instances where they post colloquia, and they federate with each other to make it easy to subscribe to departments in your field from another university, or to comment on their videos. IMO state universities should be posting their material online like this, and on a platform that does not require the public to watch ads (something fundamentally against the mission of an educational institution), or agree to some random company's terms.

jesse_dot_id 3mo ago
I agree with you, but I was speaking to PeerTube's own claim that it is an alternative to YouTube, rather than the narrow use case you're describing. For the vast majority of the people on the planet, it is not an alternative to YouTube because it's very difficult to discover content. When I go to YouTube, I can find videos immediately. If I want to find videos via PeerTube, it's a journey. It's the same journey that has shifted the majority of Internet users away from forums to aggregators. PeerTube feels like a bygone way to do things.
- ndriscoll 3mo ago
  > An alternative to Big Tech's video platforms > PeerTube is a tool for sharing online videos developed by Framasoft, a french non-profit. > PeerTube allows you to create your own video platform, in complete independence. I think it's pretty clear that it's software for running your own video sharing platform? Sure, people are used to monopolies and consolidation now, but surely you can wrap you head around the idea that some people might want to host their own site? Like why are you here and not on reddit? Is this site a bygone way to do things? Or is it just... its own thing? As I said above, I think entities tied to governments should be using something like this, not youtube. The obvious place to look for e.g. recorded meetings from your city would be your city website. Likewise with schools. And government functions like that absolutely should not be monetized and should not have ads attached.

ssl-3 3mo ago

I tried to find some videos by starting at the URL you linked. I clicked on "Browse content", because that's exactly what I wanted to do: I wanted to browse content. All I got from that was a needless introduction to an entirely unnecessary cuttlefish named Sepia, and a search box. There was no content to browse; I was lied to. But there's a note at the bottom about "Peertube instances" with a literal "CLICK >HERE<" cursed-abomination-style link. That click lead to a list of... 25 "Peertube platforms", in one column on the right, even though I clicked >HERE< for "Peertube instances". There's a written suggestion that I can add filters to find more of these, but that's exactly the opposite of the way that filters have always worked in my world: Filters are reductive, not additive. Finally, in the left-hand column, is another CLICK >HERE< style link that is supposed to take me to "videos or channels" -- you know, the stuff I'm looking for. That link brings me back to the stupid page with Sepia, the iconic cuttlefish, and a search box. Having been lied to twice (thrice?), I gave up. At this time, I have not yet seen any videos.