PeerTube - Decentralized, Free, Ad-Free Video Hosting | Hacker News Reader

PeerTube - Decentralized, Free, Ad-Free Video Hosting

joinpeertube.org

I do not understand this idea of replacing social media sites with open software but then exposing/forcing users to choose an instance. Unless you're strictly trying to make your social media site for devs this makes no sense. Any common user will see this 'instance' choosing option and exit really fast.

I guess instances are required for federation? What is federation? Why do I care? Why do I need to "Get Started" rather than just a search function like youtube? Why can't these instances exist on the backend and you just provide a front-end ui that combines them for users?

I do not understand federation and neither do your non-dev users (98% of the market).

It's really cool to see things like this from the libre point of view.

However, the decentralized bit was confusing to me when I tried out Mastodon. It was like I was trying to figure out whether I should join the North American Combine or the Paneuropean Federation _with the catch_ that geography was not really a factor. So did the decentralization make things easier for everybody or harder? I know I never really got into Mastodon after trying it twice, though I'm open to trying it again.

I'd honestly rather just swim with the whatever the tide is in such cases unless I'm applying for a literal passport. Point me to a popular way of accessing the thing and using it, and I'll give it a shot. Any given community with a good amount of traffic ought to self-sort to allow me to find what I like.

Several discussions about PeerTube in the last year:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17386609

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18013705

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18220475

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17347560

As an advertiser, can I work with creators to play my ads before or during their videos?

Could creators have a 'subscription' that allows consumers to bypass my advertisements?

Or maybe the 'subscription' allows early access, or extra content hidden to regular viewers?

Without some localized incentive (money) for creators, this won't work. I know there is the "Support" button, but that doesn't really do what a creator needs. Hoping for money isn't a business model (and major content creators run businesses, regardless of the image they project).

I don't think it is intended to be a business or business model. I think its just about the technology. It aims to provide scalable distribution of video without a huge youtube-size infrastructure. Maybe you can build a business model on top... or maybe you just host your own videos and use the federation tools to share the files with others.

I think what I've described is possible given the API documentation.

An application on top of this would be interesting, I think.

https://docs.joinpeertube.org/api.html

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