Hi! sorry for the random topic 😅

Youtube keeps getting more and more annoying. Is there a good other platform where to migrate? If people were to migrate, where would they go?

the thing I liked about youtube is the massive amount of content, and knowing that if I upload a video, it’s really easy to watch by others. I like the ability to follow channels too.

  • TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a free to use alternative to YouTube to exist. The project itself was never profitable, and now that they’re really struggling to give people ads they’re introducing these anti adblock measures. It simply costs too much in resources to store and send out high quality video content for free.

    • kalipike@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Absolutely this. As much as I’d love a free (and preferably FOSS) alternative to YouTube that’s just as good, I don’t see a realistic way for that to happen. Video is expensive.

      • eric5949@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think it’ll happen on some level eventually. Storage costs are only going to go down over the long term. Sure, higher resolution video is bigger, and they’ll probably keep going even higher, but most people don’t care past a certain point. It won’t happen soon, but give it 10 or so years I could see it being more viable.

        • kalipike@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          Possibly, and hopefully! And it is true that storage will only get cheaper, and theoretically bandwidth will be too. But for now, bandwidth is expensive and (fast) storage is also expensive, despite being much more affordable than it was not too many years ago.

    • Elle@lemmy.worldM
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a free to use alternative to YouTube to exist…It simply costs too much in resources to store and send out high quality video content for free.

      I agree, and at the same time I think this raises the great question of, why did anyone think it was a good idea to put all of this on a single site to begin with? Ideally it sounds great, courtesy of its convenience and…I’m sure there’s more but I’m blanking on other qualities that don’t seem to lean on presumptions of benefits from a singular site’s operations.

      Realistically it was almost always going to be a better idea to distribute the load of high density media like this across different operators to ensure a variety of video production, better redundancy through no single point of failure, reduced operational costs as a lower volume of data has to be stored & processed, and so on. Of course, the problem remains by & large the network effect in terms of getting any large group of people to disperse or move anywhere else, because it’s not like there haven’t been alternatives attempted, nor alternative technologies to enable alternatives to exist.

      However, there’s also the problem of any alternatives or competitors framing themselves as an alternative or competitor to YouTube to begin with. That’s a losing approach from the start, instead they need to frame themselves as themselves, not a different YouTube, but an independent video host with xyz unique features.

      If you don’t believe that could be a successful approach, then you’re simply ignoring the brief popularity of Vine and the rapid success and continuing popularity of TikTok.

  • hactar42@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There is Nebula, but it requires a subscription. However, all of the creators on it are part owners, so you know they get a better deal than whatever YouTube is giving them. Well worth the $50 a year to me.

    • zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Since hosting videos is expensive and many youtubers rely on youtube for income, I think paying to watch makes sense, especially if it’s reasonably priced with a large cut going to the creators like with nebula. The main downside is that it’s hard to imagine most people switching to a subscription based service, so creators will still have to rely on youtube for discoverability.

    • spaduf
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      1 year ago

      I really think this sort of youtuber coop + fediverse is the best long term solution.

    • zlatiah@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Second this, as of right now Nebula is the only service I know which is even remotely comparable to Ytb’s scale… unfortunately is behind a paywall and is mostly only for infotainment content. Peertube is getting there but not yet. And ofc we don’t talk about the O site.

      • Aggy@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        If a creator is on YouTube and nebula I’ll always watch on nebula because they themselves say they make so much more per view. Plus, no sponsors. So same video but they cut that part of the video. Legal eagle’s videos end with extra final thoughts and a thank you for watching on nebula instead of a sponsor segment.

  • rockhandle@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Being realistic here, there’s no worthwhile competitor to youtube at this point in time. You have some stuff like odysee, LBRY, peertube etc. However, the amount of content on them is basically nothing compared to youtube and there’s little incentive for creators to move there due to how difficult it would be to monetise your content in those places.

    My best pick would be invidious which is a private & ad-free yt frontend that uses it’s own API and doesn’t need JS. I already use it all the time. It’s good.

    • lemmy_see@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      TT frontend that uses its own API And doesn’t need JS

      How is any of that possible? Can you explain?

      1. how can it deliver content from YouTube without accessing their APIs?
      2. how can it be a functional website without JavaScript?
      • ethLabsAlpha@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I am not sure but possibly the HTML5 features such as the video tag are sufficient to let the browser offer basic media playback capabilities without requiring JS.

    • perviouslyiner@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      iirc, one of the few alternatives actually endorsed by content creators [Wendover is the only name which comes to mind right now, probably because they are involved in creating it] was Nebula

  • mightyfoolish@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    As @mizu@lemmy.world said, the software PeerTube exists. However, due to the extreme costs of video hosting, a general purpose PeerTube instance does not exist. It would cost alot for video storage and more importantly moderators to ensure content is not illegal.

    Maybe if we all paid @ruud@lemmy.world like $20/month we could get PeerTube.world

    • Sam@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It would be nice if peertube had an integrated subscription/payment method so you could support and subscribe to content you enjoy.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What we need is for PeerTube to use ActivityPub for the searching and listing, but something like Bittorrent to distribute the load of the content delivery.

  • cakeofhonor@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Lots of good suggestions already, but if you have to stick to YouTube, you could always use a third party client. FreeTube for desktop and Newpipe for Android. They function great. You don’t need an account and can organize and export your history and subscriptions, it’s a much better way to interact with YouTube than the official methods. Newpip even allows for background playing.

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Yes! It’s wonderful!

        It also kills reddit adds in the official app. That said, I’m not sure how much I’ll use it at this point… Still, I like having the option loaded up!

      • Invalid@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I use it every day. Works pretty well if you patch with the recommended version, but it’s not perfect. Still good enough to daily drive tho.

    • nodiet@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately, freetube development has gone stale and i keep getting random errors every now and then. I started using piped recently, but all their instances are now rate limited… so hopefully someone will pick up freetube development again (or release a similar client for desktop, perhaps based on the pipeextractor)

      • cakeofhonor@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Aw I didn’t realize that. It still works fine on my end. I get warning notifications in my windows VM, but everything still works. On Linux everything runs smoothly no errors. I think newpipe on Android is my most preferred implementation of a third party YouTube viewer so I’d love a desktop version of that.

    • Richard@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s unfortunately the truth. Hosting any kind of competitive video platform requires millions of dollars to handle these huge quantities of data. We won’t have a serious FLOSS YouTube replacement any time soon.

  • alexthelion335@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Odysee is probably the biggest one, with a lot of creators having their youtube synced with it. Peertube is also an option, but I’ve never used it.

  • Mononon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m sure I’ll get roasted for this, but just get YouTube Premium. As much content as people tend to consume on YT, I don’t know why it’s the only platform people seem so against paying for. YTP views are worth more to content creators. There’s no ads. And you can get YT music with it too. Honestly, it’s just a massive amount of content and nothing even comes close. I know the joke is “who would pay for YT Premium”, but, at least in my house, it gets like 10x the use of Netflix and Hulu.

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      YTP views are worth more to content creators. There’s no ads.

      This is false, and I would argue that YTP generates significantly less revenue for content creators than even a dollar donation would over hundreds of videos.

      YTP, when I had it, was still serving ads AND using trackers, which is not something I want to pay Google for.

      For context, I have a YT channel with 3+ million views and tens of thousands of subscribers. YTP generates 1% of YouTube revenue, while ads make up the 99% difference.

      Most people will have a handful of content creators that they regularly watch. If you took the YTP amount and split it between those creators as donations, you’ve made them far more than YouTube ads or YTP ever could.

      That’s my advice, as a content creator.

    • xio@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The only problem with this is that more and more channels are adding native ads to their vids, and YT Premium doesn’t bypass those ads

      • FierroGamer@vlemmy.net
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        1 year ago

        That’s on the creators tho, not the platform I feel like it’s not an argument against paying for the platform, at least not when there are plenty of videos that don’t do baked in sponsor ads.

        Edit: if you exclusively watch content with baked in ads, I can see it from a purely consumer end point of view.

        • scarrtt@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          SponsorBlock is brilliant. It’s also integrated into the excellent SmartTube app for Android and Android TV, which also hides the normal ads, even if you don’t have premium

        • xio@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Oh yeah I was referring to YouTube on TV. Gotta try smarttube next, last I checked it didn’t exist then

      • Mononon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. Streaming services aren’t cheap. That being said, if you get a majority of your daily entertainment from something, like a lot of people seem to with YT, then I think it’s worth the money. Like, it’s easy to think of YT and Google as these evil corporations, and they totally are, but at the same time, hosting video at the scale that YT does isn’t a charity, you know?

    • PlaidDragon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The vast majority of content my wife and I consume are on YouTube and Twitch so we get a ton of value out of YouTube Premium. I’m the only one I know irl who pays for YouTube Premium, but I also don’t subscribe to any streaming platforms except Spotify. I have Netflix free through T-Mobile but rarely use it.

      As someone who was hesitant about YouTube Premium at first, I would recommend it, although I do wish they had a cheaper ad-free-only option (I don’t use YouTube music since I have Spotify). My motivation that put me over the edge was getting sick of seeing ads on my smart tv, since you can’t use an ad blocker on those.

  • laurel@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    https://odysee.com/ is blockchain-based, built on LBRY. It appears to have similar features for discovery, interaction, etc. as YouTube. Still testing it out personally to see how it actually performs though!

  • Pyro@pawb.social
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    1 year ago

    One thing to keep in mind beyond hosting cost is the uploader making money. YouTubes partner or paid channel things work (there are complaints) it’s a LOT harder to replace those freeas add revenue pays them

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’ve never used it myself, but the TL;DR is that it’s supposed to be basically like Patreon, except that:

          • it is itself a non-profit organization that funds itself via donations to its own account instead of taking a cut of the payments to others,
          • its software is Open Source, and
          • it only allows donations to creators (i.e., creators aren’t allowed to provide rewards in exchange for the payment – apparently, this is at least in part to avoid having to charge VAT).
      • Pyro@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        sadly does not help smaller creators or starting creators. Want you to think if you paid 1-3$ per creator you watched. you would be less likely to watch as many. sadly adds/commercials work.

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Might want to check out YouTube Vanced, It’s a super easy to install app that accesses YouTube but blocks all ads and everything annoying and you can control everything and play with your screen off and all that. So just do that until youtube becomes unusable and then we’ll go to the alternative once when we have to.

      • ZeroCarbon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Revanced or Revanced extended is the new thing. It’s really great, no more shorts, no ads, no in-video ads (thanks sponsorblock). Shit’s fire

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I have had zero issues with it so far going on four months now. I am interested in being prepared though, what issues have you had?

        • Zeps@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Some days it works. Other days only shorts work. Then there are days when pretty much nothing works

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            haven’t had any problems with it so far, works perfectly every day. What os are you using it on?

        • Zeps@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Some days it works. Other days only shorts work. Then there are days when pretty much nothing works

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            haven’t had any problems with it so far, works perfectly every day. What os are you using it on?

        • Zeps@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Some days it works. Other days only shorts work. Then there are days when pretty much nothing works

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I haven’t had any problems with it so far, works perfectly every day. What os are you using it on?

        • Zeps@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Some days it works. Other days only shorts work. Then there are days when pretty much nothing works

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            haven’t had any problems with it so far, works perfectly every day. What os are you using it on?

        • Zeps@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Some days it works. Other days only shorts work. Then there are days when pretty much nothing works

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            haven’t had any problems with it so far, works perfectly every day. What os are you using it on?

        • Zeps@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Some days it works. Other days only shorts work. Then there are days when pretty much nothing works

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            haven’t had any problems with it so far, works perfectly every day. What os are you using it on?

  • magikmw@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I know at least one creator that started posting to Utreon, both public and for paid tiers. I haven’t went after them yet, but if Utreon would create something like Twitch Prime and pay creators for views, plus a bunch od other creators I follow would start posting there, I’d be happy to drop youtube for most dedicated (not-random-scroll-consumption) content. In favour of Utreon.

  • pumpsnabben@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I use Odyssey most of the time, they make it very simple for creators to mirror their YouTube content so I like to support the ones who have.