this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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So YouTube has a lot of problems, there's no denying that. Frivolous and selective (not to mention automated) copyright enforcement, bureaucratic termination appeal system, COPPA idiocy, the whole clusterfuck that is monetization, etc?

In contrast, Odysee is this open-source video platform that fixes many of these problems. It took of, like, I dunno, a year ago? Thing is, it's still very inactive and dead. A lot of YouTubers have pined for a massive exodus from YouTube, which might sound familiar for many of us Lemmings here. Yet, the majority of them can't seem to let it go, since YouTube/Google pretty much exercises a monopoly on the online video sharing industry.

What worries me is that Reddit alternatives, such as Lemmy, Mastodon, or kbin, could see a similar fate to YouTube alternatives like Odysee or BitChute. I'd love to see people quit Reddit en masse and hopefully find a "safe harbor" some place like here, but I'm hearing about realistic concerns regarding even the viability of this site's databases, so I feel like the actual outcome will be more of a small dent than a massive crater.

Which is exactly what Huffman wants and he knows it.

Ugh, I hate this awful corporate creativity-stifling timeline.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I would love for a youtube alternative to take off, but there is definitely more challenges to that than creating a reddit alternative.

The reason you go to youtube is to watch videos by your favorite creators, which are on the platform in the first places because they are getting payed. And there in lies the problem of a decentralized video platform. There is no central way of monetizing creations, hence alternate ways of monetization such as patronizing and sponsorships would be a must. But then even after all that, there actually has to be an audience to make it worth the creator's while. There's no creators cause there's no audience, and there is no audience cause there are no creators.

Secondly, as it stands now, most youtube alternatives have bad reputations. It's either youtube but shittier, youtube but right wing conspiracies, or youtube but all scams and all crypto. A lot of creators don't go off youtube unless they have to, which usually means they got banned. Hence they will go to a platform that will tolerate their behavior, or that is completely unregulated.

We may see a youtube alternative take off, but I think we might sooner see a decentralized Tik Tok or Vine gain traction faster due to the lower barrier of entry of those platforms. Long form videos can cost money to produce which weeds out most hobbyists, but any teenager with a phone can make a tik tok.