Live data from Hacker News

Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

blender.org

411–420 of 444 posts

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#411

The comments here are more interesting than the article itself. Looks like the real issue was a UX snafu on YouTube's part that support had trouble resolving for too long. Let's hope YouTube does better in the future. However, if you read the comments here, they paint a sinister portrait of YouTube that has nothing to do with Blender's issue. Some examples: - ads are required for big channels (false) - demonetization…

@ariwilson you work at google. since we're on the topic of truth and the actions of your corporate sponsor.

but again i get it, you got some stock and you gotta protect that bottom line.

"We might as well change Hacker News from an article based format to a [corporate sponsor] based format if everyone is just going to . . . [support their company in] every discussion."

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#412

The comments here are more interesting than the article itself. Looks like the real issue was a UX snafu on YouTube's part that support had trouble resolving for too long. Let's hope YouTube does better in the future. However, if you read the comments here, they paint a sinister portrait of YouTube that has nothing to do with Blender's issue. Some examples: - ads are required for big channels (false) - demonetization…

People might be upset because it's emotionally painful to watch a property that was once a middle finger to "the man" become wholly co-opted. And to see channel after channel with interesting and unique content get disappeared due to misalignment with establishment priorities. The cases which may not apply here, like requiring ads, are real issues that don't get the visibility that the victims deserve. So when a high…

This is a very common occurrence on HN where some minor incident involving Amazon/Elon Musk/Google/feminism or GDPR becomes an opportunity for all manner of commentators to gather and exult together in your standard Two Minutes Hate [1]. All of the issues that get brought up during this Hate either (a) have no basis in reality or (b) wholly irrelevant. And so we get another thread full of people complaining and hating about things which literally don't exist. (What's particularly humorous are all the elaborate conspiracy theories in this thread. At least nobody mentioned the Jews... yet.)

> People might be upset because it's emotionally painful to watch a property that was once a middle finger to "the man" become wholly co-opted.

Of course this is just more of the same. Calling YouTube -- a service that spends tens of millions of dollars a year spreading information, entertainment, and news around the world for free -- "co-opted" is beyond stupid. But it's just this sort of black-and-white, "good vs evil" thinking which rules.

> That and the number of coincidental "mistakes" in this story requires serious suspension of disbelief. One wonders whether any of those mistakes would have been caught had the channel been lower profile.

And there's the conspiracy. Baseless speculation without evidence, scare quotes, and a total failure to admit error when proven wrong.

I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done. There's a certain logic at work here that poisons thread after thread. I say logic and not ideology because it's really a style of thinking. It's a kind of general extremism-cum-conspiracy that has been well and truly normalized. The people that will rush in to rage about the latest news from Tesla or Google don't even understand how insane they sound.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#413
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people upset when a service that is run by a for-profit entity decides to change how it runs? No one is entitled to make money off of YouTube channels, even if you made a lot of money last week. YouTube can change the rules whenever they want. If you don't like how they change it, support a different service instead. Continuing to patronize it as they implement changes you disagree with, and then kvetching on…

> Why are people upset when a service that is run by a for-profit entity decides to change how it runs? I don't know, maybe because it leads to destruction of valuable content, regardless of whether it is legally ok. The notion that just because something is legal, it can't be upsetting is absurd. What about if the government decided to use eminent domain to acquire your land? It would be legal, but probably still up…

Always expect for-profit organizations will take the most profitable path at your expense.

Your choice is to try to avoid having anything that will get in their way or set up your life to not rely on their services.

Recently Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and others are showing the dangers of for-profit data monopolies and are pushing many people to open federated alternatives like PeerTube, Mastodon, Riot.im etc. This is a much healthier and censorship resistant direction for the internet to take, IMO.

Keep right on being negligent and profit-seeking YouTube. The internet will be better off in the long term.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#414
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people upset when a service that is run by a for-profit entity decides to change how it runs? No one is entitled to make money off of YouTube channels, even if you made a lot of money last week. YouTube can change the rules whenever they want. If you don't like how they change it, support a different service instead. Continuing to patronize it as they implement changes you disagree with, and then kvetching on…

> Why are people upset when a service that is run by a for-profit entity decides to change how it runs? I don't know, maybe because it leads to destruction of valuable content, regardless of whether it is legally ok. The notion that just because something is legal, it can't be upsetting is absurd. What about if the government decided to use eminent domain to acquire your land? It would be legal, but probably still up…

I'm not saying don't care because it's legal. I'm saying it's inevitable. How new are you all to living in a capitalist society? Stuff doesn't exist for your enjoyment, it exists for someone else's profit.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see an update saying the quote is incorrect, or that the problem has been resolved - the only update I see on the article says their videos "have been blocked worldwide without explanation" Are you looking at a different article to me?

"Last night the Youtube Support team contacted Francesco Siddi by phone. As we understand it now it’s a mix of coincidences, bad UIs, wrong error messages, ignorant support desk staff and our non-standard decision to not monetize a popular Youtube channel."

"Woopsie, we totally just accidentally blocked all your videos and then demanded payment via monetization. Total goof after you posted our demand to the internet. Yup, just the fault of that support person whose name you don't remember."

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#416
post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why are people upset when a service that is run by a for-profit entity decides to change how it runs? I don't know, maybe because it leads to destruction of valuable content, regardless of whether it is legally ok. The notion that just because something is legal, it can't be upsetting is absurd. What about if the government decided to use eminent domain to acquire your land? It would be legal, but probably still up…

I'm not saying don't care because it's legal. I'm saying it's inevitable. How new are you all to living in a capitalist society? Stuff doesn't exist for your enjoyment, it exists for someone else's profit.

Which, again, does not mean you can't be upset about it. Just because someone happens to live in a certain type of society doesn't mean they have to agree with all the society does, in fact it is unhealthy if they do.

There are many things in life which are "inevitable", as you say, like war, death, you/friend of yours getting fired, but some of these things will probably make you upset nonetheless.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#417
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, that only happened because advertisers learned that the "independent" creators were all assholes. Like this started after advertisers started pulling out when PewDiePie didn't just apologize and admit he was wrong with the Nazi stunts. He threw a fit and advertisers realized that YouTube isn't really as good as they thought it was.

I honestly don't believe this. I think YouTube used this as an excuse to crack down on channels they didn't like, for whatever reason. (And also a lot of other channels, because the flagging is poorly done. I know some people who run a very popular skateboarding instruction channel, and they've had huge problems with demonitization. The content is utterly inoffensive.) I think if all you were concerned about is adver…

Why would YouTube willingly run fewer ads? They were hardly profitable as it was, it doesn't make sense for them to "crack down" on channels all of a sudden by continuing to host them, but not running ads on them.

Not to mention part of the problem was YouTube not enforcing their content guidelines to begin with. Hate speech has always been against their content guidelines, they just never actually enforced it.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#418

The comments here are more interesting than the article itself. Looks like the real issue was a UX snafu on YouTube's part that support had trouble resolving for too long. Let's hope YouTube does better in the future. However, if you read the comments here, they paint a sinister portrait of YouTube that has nothing to do with Blender's issue. Some examples: - ads are required for big channels (false) - demonetization…

Demonetization of content creators and anti-trust are related if your intention is to protest the platform.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#419
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People might be upset because it's emotionally painful to watch a property that was once a middle finger to "the man" become wholly co-opted. And to see channel after channel with interesting and unique content get disappeared due to misalignment with establishment priorities. The cases which may not apply here, like requiring ads, are real issues that don't get the visibility that the victims deserve. So when a high…

Why are people upset when a service that is run by a for-profit entity decides to change how it runs? No one is entitled to make money off of YouTube channels, even if you made a lot of money last week. YouTube can change the rules whenever they want. If you don't like how they change it, support a different service instead. Continuing to patronize it as they implement changes you disagree with, and then kvetching on…

> Why even read the comments if you're just going to get a bunch of unrelated opinions on the topic.

Some of us may not appreciate this "expectation" of absolute topicality; comments are supposed to be a free-for-all. That's why we call them comments.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#420
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is potentially the real story here, IMO. Ton has a track record of doing amazing things with impossibly small amounts of money. Given that his interests are in (video) content production, I'm not sure YouTube really thought through how this could play out...

Actually the timing (near EU upload filter laws) seems to indicate they didn't dare do this before, and fully realized this danger.

Not sure what the EU filter laws have to do with anything here?
Post reply on HN