Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

watchnebula.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 122 posts

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#51

Post by zrobotics »

Bukhmanizer wrote: post #44

I'll play devils advocate here, and say that I could potentially see this idea working. The difference between this and the plethora of different video services, is that the product here may not be the actual video service, but can be seen as a way to support the various video creators. Most of the creators on Nebula are already drawing in pretty large followings on Patreon, so it's clear that they are able to retain…

As someone who supports multiple youtubers on patron, I am really sceptical of these alternative services. For instance, I really enjoyed motortrend's roadkill series, but haven't bothered once they moved to motortrend.com. One huge advantage, and one of the reasons I canceled Netflix, is that I can easily see in one place what is new. If I have a half-hour to kill, I don't want to have to check 8 different sites, I'd rather just open up my subscriptions tab.

Perhaps what is actually necessary is a RSS equivalent, since I fully understand how YouTube is screwing creators. But this (and the equivalent projects, like LinusTechTips' floatplane) just seem like they are destined to follow vimeo.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#52

Post by vorpalhex »

I was checking their ToS to see if they'd allow creators demonetized by youtube and found this clause:

> Refusal to vaccinate your children may result in the termination of your service and, probably, your children.

While I agree refusal to vaccinate your children is dumb, they're starting off on the wrong foot by already setting a very awkward line in the sand. What about hawking fake cures for cancer like vinegar?

Either they need to go full moderation/walled garden, or entirely hands off. Trying to land in the middle is going to end with a bunch of people exploiting their precise ToS and legitimate users being annoyed at lack of clarity.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#53

Post by twiceaday »

jasode wrote: post #14

>No algorithm. A personal observation... On that Nebula site, I see creators like CGP Grey, Wendover Productions, Real Engineering, etc. I learned about their existence from Youtube's algorithmic suggestions . Probably 99% of any channel I watch regularly on Youtube came from algorithms instead of url referrals of HN or reddit. Yes, algorithms have a dark side such as the ElsaGate situation. All I can say is that the…

I am assuming they are referring to YouTube giving up on the old definition of "subscribe" and re-ordering peoples feeds to improve engagement. They want to be YouTube Premium with a guaranteed sequential subscription timeline.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#54

Post by zrobotics »

rfwhyte wrote: post #20

Seems like more and more "content creators" are getting into the platforms business, and I genuinely don't think many, if any of them are going to succeed. If Legendary Pictures, with their Chinese government money and big acquisitions of Nerdist and Geek and Sundry couldn't make their subscription site work, what makes these guys think they'll be any different? As a consumer of content, I don't want dozens of differ…

>> I want one single platform with all of the content.

Startup idea: what is really needed is an aggregation service similar to RSS for video. I agree, I don't want to waste my limited time checking multiple sites, which is the real value of my YouTube subscriptions tab. Trouble is, it's only that one site. Instead of another platform, what would actually be useful is a site which would aggregate my YouTube subscriptions with other platforms. The extra friction of checking an additional site just guarantees I will start ignoring the content.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#55

Post by rland »

stcredzero wrote: post #8

Here's the impression I'm getting looking at that page: It's like YouTube Originals. Curated, safe, sanitized. As an adult, this is like the last thing I'd want in a YouTube-like site, for my viewing. I don't feel like I'm likely to find something unusual or unexpected. On the other hand, if I was a parent looking to distract my very young kids, curated, safe, sanitized, and ad-free is exactly what I'd want. EDIT: Is…

I have to imagine that there is a market out there for SAFE low-ish budget content created to distract kids. I can imagine a "youtube kids" but where every video has actually been vetted by a responsible adult.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#56

Post by sgillen »

cannonedhamster wrote: post #25
rfwhyte wrote: post #20

Seems like more and more "content creators" are getting into the platforms business, and I genuinely don't think many, if any of them are going to succeed. If Legendary Pictures, with their Chinese government money and big acquisitions of Nerdist and Geek and Sundry couldn't make their subscription site work, what makes these guys think they'll be any different? As a consumer of content, I don't want dozens of differ…

There were failed social media platforms before Myspace and Facebook. If you'd have said Facebook would outgrow Myspace people would have thought you were crazy. At some point someone is going to unseat YouTube. It's going to take timing, luck, and a product that delivers something better or different than YouTube. Is this it? Who knows? Most likely not, but that's why you keep trying.

The person you are responding too isn’t saying that youtube will never be overtaken, he’s saying he doesn’t think it will be overtaken by dozens of smaller content platforms, but rather one large one.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#57

Post by Bukhmanizer »

zrobotics wrote: post #51
Bukhmanizer wrote: post #44

I'll play devils advocate here, and say that I could potentially see this idea working. The difference between this and the plethora of different video services, is that the product here may not be the actual video service, but can be seen as a way to support the various video creators. Most of the creators on Nebula are already drawing in pretty large followings on Patreon, so it's clear that they are able to retain…

As someone who supports multiple youtubers on patron, I am really sceptical of these alternative services. For instance, I really enjoyed motortrend's roadkill series, but haven't bothered once they moved to motortrend.com. One huge advantage, and one of the reasons I canceled Netflix, is that I can easily see in one place what is new. If I have a half-hour to kill, I don't want to have to check 8 different sites, I'…

The problem is that a lot of creators already have RSS feeds, but almost no one uses them.

Also, RSS doesn't address the problem of having a sustainable business model. As much as people may criticize youtube, it's really the only service that has come up with a long-term business model for video creators. It's a massively flawed model, but it's still a model.

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#59

Post by ihuman »

twiceaday wrote: post #53
jasode wrote: post #14

>No algorithm. A personal observation... On that Nebula site, I see creators like CGP Grey, Wendover Productions, Real Engineering, etc. I learned about their existence from Youtube's algorithmic suggestions . Probably 99% of any channel I watch regularly on Youtube came from algorithms instead of url referrals of HN or reddit. Yes, algorithms have a dark side such as the ElsaGate situation. All I can say is that the…

I am assuming they are referring to YouTube giving up on the old definition of "subscribe" and re-ordering peoples feeds to improve engagement. They want to be YouTube Premium with a guaranteed sequential subscription timeline.

> YouTube giving up on the old definition of "subscribe" and re-ordering peoples feeds to improve engagement

What do you mean by this? When I subscribe to someone, they show up on my subscription feed page. Hasn't it always been like this?

Re: Nebula: A paid alternative to YouTube, curated by the creators

#60

Post by ihuman »

maxton wrote: post #45
bscphil wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Guaranteeing that subscribers will see their recent content could be a good selling point. Sorry, doesn't Youtube already do that? I subscribe to 20-30 channels, and in my subscriptions feed it simply shows all the videos from channels I'm subscribed to in reverse chronological order - exactly the way people say they want to see these feeds.

Youtube used to do that, until at some point they added the “bell” feature and converted all subscriptions to subscriptions-without-a-bell which means only some videos get put in your feed. Of course, if you go the extra step to click the bell icon you get the notifications like usual.

I thought the bell was just for push notifications vs no push notifications?
Post reply on HN