PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform • Hacker News Board

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#111

Post by djaro » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

butz wrote: post #106

djaro wrote: post #41

As a professional YouTuber, the main issue I instantly see with this is the lack of monetization. I think people who don't make videos for a living severely underestimate how expensive it is to produce high-quality videos people want to watch. This isn't like writing a tweet or even posting a picture on Instagram. Even a decent 20-minute video can easily take 40 man-hours of high-skilled labor. I have a pretty small…

I heard that main source of income for some professional YouTubers are Patreon and sponsorships. Ad revenue is dead last and very unstable. Also, if you are building your business on single platform, which one day might decide that your content does not adhere to their rules - that's a high risk to take.

Sponsorships are definitely the highest if a youtuber actively engages in them, ad revenue vs patreon depends highly on if you have i.e. a small but highly active fanbase of core fans, versus a wider more general audience that you entertain a bit.

I think people should be more aware of the perverse incentive of YouTubers saying, "my guaranteed source of income is very little and unstable guys, I need you to also subscribe to my patreon" where - could YouTubers perhaps have a reason to act like their ad revenue is very little? In my experience, while ad revenue isn't great, for any decent-size YouTuber its still enough to live on and in any case it always stays a significant income stream.

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#112

Post by pocksuppet » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:12 PM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #31

karmakurtisaani wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lemmy is pretty ok actually. The lack of big user base is more of a feature than a bug.

Has it normalized? When I first tried Lemmy it was mostly communists talking about communism. Then after some Reddit drama it seemed to be a bunch of people complaining about Reddit. I generally like smaller sites, but those topics weren’t exactly engaging for me.

That was one of the first instances lemmy.world. You can ignore that one because it's very drama-filled. Other Lemmy servers are more chill.

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#113

Post by whatever1 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:12 PM UTC

djaro wrote: post #41

As a professional YouTuber, the main issue I instantly see with this is the lack of monetization. I think people who don't make videos for a living severely underestimate how expensive it is to produce high-quality videos people want to watch. This isn't like writing a tweet or even posting a picture on Instagram. Even a decent 20-minute video can easily take 40 man-hours of high-skilled labor. I have a pretty small…

This is exactly why TikTok won. It is so much cheaper to iterate ideas on 10” videos.

You make non interesting 20’ YT video? Well too bad your 80 labor hours & equipment time are lost.

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#114

Post by pocksuppet » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

GodelNumbering wrote: post #30

Youtube has been incredibly frustrating for many many reasons and is evidently evil in many axes now. We really need competition in video hosting.

The problem is that YouTube isn't just a video hosting platform. We have many of those. The problem is that YouTube is a business platform that lets you makes money from your business, as long as your business is mainly comprised of publishing videos. No amount of open-source software quality can replicate thousands of dollars of ad money flowing into your pocket. It's like making a 3D-printable plan of an Indian restaurant, it can't ever become an actual Indian restaurant.

Small or hobby creators, who aren't making money anyway, could use small platforms - but then they forfeit their chance to ever become big and get that money - at best they could become big and not get that money.

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#115

Post by pocksuppet » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:16 PM UTC

dymk wrote: post #63

paxys wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can't shut down the service because there is no single service. They can go after individual servers, and that is fine. The admin is responsible for what happens on their server.

Why would an admin run a server if they might have the feds knocking at their door? Sure, people might run nodes that host only their content, but they sure are disincentivized from running any sort of shared service. This is the same problem as TOR exit nodes and why 3 letter agencies run most of them.

This is the same problem as why an admin would run a forum if the feds might knock at the door, or why an admin would run a website about cats if the feds might knock at the door. It's an overblown fear.

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#116

Post by infamia » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:16 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #57

infamia wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can publish to both and even better your own domain that simply points to your video hosting provider. Long term you want to own your distribution channel as much as possible, while using YouTube as your lead generation tool to drive true believers to your site and premium distribution channel not owned by YouTube. Otherwise, you will always be subject to platform risk via YouTube's whims which has destroyed many…

Realistically, how many viewers will be retained should YT shut the OP down? Right now, that number rounds to 0. Practically speaking, YT is free internet video streaming for long-form videos on the US market. Nobody is going to go to OP's personal site to watch videos. They are going to fire up YT and eat what the algorithm feeds them. The reason PeerTube and Nebula are important is it provides the potential for a t…

> Realistically, how many viewers will be retained should YT shut the OP down? Right now, that number rounds to 0. Practically speaking, YT is free internet video streaming for long-form videos on the US market.

People have been following this strategy of creating their own mini-brands for years and have their own following. YT doesn't even have all of the their content, and YT is just one lead gen channel. Frankly, Ad Revenue from YT is pitiful, and it's an open secret the real money is made as I've described (although it is a long term play).

I don't disagree with you about PeerTube and the like, but it is a two-sided marketplace and you need to prime both sides of that pump (content creators and viewers).

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#117

Post by ndriscoll » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:17 PM UTC

nemomarx wrote: post #104

treesknees wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many people who believe everything must be a grind to get rich. I wish more people stepped back and did things online because they were fun or educational, not because it was monetized.

they need a day job to pay the bills then, which does cut down on the scope of videos you can make if we could have less working hours or cheaper rent or less expensive bills more people could do hobby stuff again ofc. but right now is tricky for that

Generally speaking, that's how hobbies work. You do them for fun or enrichment and do something else for money. People who try to turn hobbies into a day job seem to get this weird idea that they're somehow critical to the hobby when in fact they're just hyper focused on getting attention and crowding out actually sincere people so they can sell stuff.

e.g. this thread. Here you have people making software for themselves to host their own videos without being beholden to the likes of Google. Absolutely nothing to do with OP. So why is OP criticising them? Where in the README does this free software project discuss monetization (other than mentioning it's ad-free)? Why is the topic even slightly germane?

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#118

Post by sleepybrett » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:18 PM UTC

WarmWash wrote: post #39

GodelNumbering wrote: post #30

Youtube has been incredibly frustrating for many many reasons and is evidently evil in many axes now. We really need competition in video hosting.

Then start loading ads. Youtube's biggest threat ever died in the cradle because they foolishly thought users would volunteer money to them. No one with capital and capability looks at youtube, looks at youtube's audience, and says "Yeah, 30-40% ad-blocking and 4.5% paying for premium, these are the people I want to build services for!".

He was on premium, paid for ad blocker.

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#119

Post by zelphirkalt » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:20 PM UTC

WarmWash wrote: post #46

zelphirkalt wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The matter of compensation or donation can be handled completely separately. Creators can be supported on other platforms like Liberapay, Patreon, Kofi, and many creators are supported that way. If we are talking about clickbait and making money from getting unwanted ads in people's faces, no thank you we don't need more of that.

No one donates money. It doesn't happen. Conversion rates across the board are around 1%. And then of those donations, most are the lowest tier/lowest increment. It's the most annoying and persistent counterpoint brought up in these discussions, but it has no grounding in reality. The most popular contingent of viewers are ad-supported, close behind are ad-blocking, then the last 5% are your subscribers and donators.

Counter example: I supported and still support a little a few great creators. So "no one" is already wrong. It does happen. It might not amount to a high monthly salary. Most likely not. That's a point you can reasonably make, but you can only wrongly claim, that no one donates.

(I deem periodic support as donations.)

Re: PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform

#120

Post by bitwize » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:22 PM UTC

djaro wrote: post #41

As a professional YouTuber, the main issue I instantly see with this is the lack of monetization. I think people who don't make videos for a living severely underestimate how expensive it is to produce high-quality videos people want to watch. This isn't like writing a tweet or even posting a picture on Instagram. Even a decent 20-minute video can easily take 40 man-hours of high-skilled labor. I have a pretty small…

YouTubers are now blurring out women's cleavage.

Not bare breasts. Cleavage. Nearly all of Pamela Anderson's notable body of work would need to be censored to avoid risking loss of that precious, precious monetization. It's like fucking Iran.

And of course you can't say "die", "kill", "suicide", etc. You have to talk like a parody of 80s cartoon censorship—literally. (The neologism "unalive" came from Deadpool in an animated series called Ultimate Spider-Man, who realized he was in an animated show but thought it was 80s Saturday morning fare and constantly minced his intent to kill by saying he was going to "unalive" his target.)

Monetization has had a chilling effect on the kind of content people put on YouTube. I do not mourn its lack, at least on alternative video platforms.