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Cloudflare TV

blog.cloudflare.com

71–80 of 270 posts

Re: Cloudflare TV

#71
post #56

I'm a generally technical person and I'm simply flat out uninterested in video content - the stuff that will be on this sounds broadly interesting to me but I'd rather read it in article format. I understand video "performs" well in a lot of contexts (and thus is of particular interest to marketing people) but I am always surprised when content targeted broadly towards the technical community is done in a video-first…

I've noticed certain communities that live on the edge of tech-savvy do this a lot. In particular emulator and jailbreak communities for video game consoles refuse to keep up-to-date text guides on things. Everything is done on YouTube which is such a terrible format when you need to follow 30-step lists and pause to click on many links throughout the process to download software, firmware and exploits.

Re: Cloudflare TV

#73

I'm wrong about all sorts of things, but I have a funny feeling that we're going to look back someday and see this as the first of many companies of a significant size launching something that looks just like a TV station. I can't emphasize how incredibly brilliant this is: it appears to be a perfectly curated combination of pure marketing webinar, tutorials, educational lectures and who knows what else. This is an e…

Agree. But would you pay for it?

Re: Cloudflare TV

#74
post #69
post #56

I'm a generally technical person and I'm simply flat out uninterested in video content - the stuff that will be on this sounds broadly interesting to me but I'd rather read it in article format. I understand video "performs" well in a lot of contexts (and thus is of particular interest to marketing people) but I am always surprised when content targeted broadly towards the technical community is done in a video-first…

I'm a dev and enjoy my articles too, but I'd say I perform better with videos in some domains. The first one to come to mind if mechanic work. If I want to learn how to change a mass inflow sensor, it's way easier to watch the job be performed than to read a description, even with pictures.

This is a good point, I think youtube has the potential to bring back DIY repair because its much easier to watch someone do and describe each step of a task than it is to decipher a service manual. Our language is severely deficient in ability to precisely describe physical, tactile, geometrical relationships of small parts and manual tasks.

Re: Cloudflare TV

#75
post #56

I'm a generally technical person and I'm simply flat out uninterested in video content - the stuff that will be on this sounds broadly interesting to me but I'd rather read it in article format. I understand video "performs" well in a lot of contexts (and thus is of particular interest to marketing people) but I am always surprised when content targeted broadly towards the technical community is done in a video-first…

I’m pretty much in agreement with everything you said, but all I can think about is how even the worst video is almost certainly better than someone’s slideshow from a technical talk shared online with no transcript or other context. I’ve seen these shared quite frequently from tech conferences, and I fail to see how anyone gets any value from those things.

Re: Cloudflare TV

#76
In general I prefer to read than watch technical content. When you read you can go at your own pace, reference a paragraph/graphic from earlier in the article, reread parts, go fast or slow. Whereas a video it's hard rewatch by rewinding. Limited to 2x max otherwise can't hear a word.

Video is more limiting.

Re: Cloudflare TV

#77
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a dev and enjoy my articles too, but I'd say I perform better with videos in some domains. The first one to come to mind if mechanic work. If I want to learn how to change a mass inflow sensor, it's way easier to watch the job be performed than to read a description, even with pictures.

This is a good point, I think youtube has the potential to bring back DIY repair because its much easier to watch someone do and describe each step of a task than it is to decipher a service manual. Our language is severely deficient in ability to precisely describe physical, tactile, geometrical relationships of small parts and manual tasks.

Yeah, it really does. There's also a lot of nuance in repairing something and I think most people gloss over things they've learned over the years. They forget all the details when writing out how to do something but the video preserves it. You see tricks they don't even realize they're doing.

Re: Cloudflare TV

#78
post #56

I'm a generally technical person and I'm simply flat out uninterested in video content - the stuff that will be on this sounds broadly interesting to me but I'd rather read it in article format. I understand video "performs" well in a lot of contexts (and thus is of particular interest to marketing people) but I am always surprised when content targeted broadly towards the technical community is done in a video-first…

Why for the last 10 years we’ve invested so much in https://blog.cloudflare.com. I’d think of this as supplementing that, and allowing you to interact live with many of the blog’s authors, rather than replacing it.

Re: Cloudflare TV

#79
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a dev and enjoy my articles too, but I'd say I perform better with videos in some domains. The first one to come to mind if mechanic work. If I want to learn how to change a mass inflow sensor, it's way easier to watch the job be performed than to read a description, even with pictures.

This is a good point, I think youtube has the potential to bring back DIY repair because its much easier to watch someone do and describe each step of a task than it is to decipher a service manual. Our language is severely deficient in ability to precisely describe physical, tactile, geometrical relationships of small parts and manual tasks.

I think ifixit.com does a pretty good job for all the electronics (okay, mostly laptops) that I've repaired so far.

> I think youtube has the potential to bring back DIY repair

This might depend on who you hang out with. I'm a tradesperson in the steel fabrication and construction industry, and I think a lot of people in this area have a propensity to want to fix and / or build pretty much everything themselves. From this perspective, with YouTube and online written guides, DIY repair is stronger than ever.

Re: Cloudflare TV

#80
I (not a Cloudflare employee) am actually being interviewed on here along with a friend, Thursday at 1pm EST: https://cloudflare.tv/schedule/2tGlq0ue3jrGuAegeq60fD

Two doctor friends and I collaborated to make a site that matches PPE donators with hospitals/nursing homes/fire departments/etc that need PPE ( https://maskaherony.com ) . Over 30,000 masks have been donated so far. It’s all volunteer-run and no money changes hands. We host it with Cloudflare Workers Sites (I built it in Jekyll). I assume that much of the interview will be my friend focusing on the medical match aspects and what she’s seeing in hospitals. I’m just the lowly tech guy, she’s the one doing the hard work and saving lives. Check it out if you can!

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