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

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

#191

Post by BeetleB » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:38 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…

Here's my dilemma:

The Youtube experience has always sucked for me - right from the first year Youtube launched. I just don't like the interface, web site, layout, etc. It's why I didn't have a Youtube account until I needed to share a video with someone, and even then, I never log into it (so I don't follow[1], rate, etc).

And then over the last few years, the ad situation has gotten astronomically worse. I'm not exaggerating when I say that old school cable TV with its ads was a significantly better experience.

I do a search for something specific. I start clicking videos to see if it has the content I want. But very often, on my Roku or similar device, I won't be able to see anything of the video unless I watch 15-60s of ads.

Only to find out the video is not useful for me. Click next video. Repeat the pain.

I think this is what leads a lot of people to just plain hate Youtube. It's what leads me not to care if suddenly no one can make money on Youtube (even the folks I like). It's why I want Youtube to just die.

If they made the site much more pleasing, and found a way to allow 3rd party interfaces (while still serving ads), and weren't anywhere near as annoying with the ads, I'd like the platform.

Regarding monetization: For the folks who have well established viewers, and who make most of their money via embedded ads in the video, I don't think they'll lose anything by switching to Peertube - as long as the Peertube infrastructure can handle the load. The major fans will know where to find the content.[2]

The real problem with Peertube is discovery. How can a new content creator be noticed? And then how can they show accurate viewership numbers to get those sponsors?

[1] Well, I may follow via other means: Manually, or via RSS, etc.

[2] Incidentally, some of the "popular" content I watch on Youtube exclusively gets monetized via embedded ads. Youtube demonetized that whole category a while ago. So embedded ads is totally viable.

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

#192

Post by aembleton » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:43 PM UTC

fsddfsdfssdf wrote: post #101

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…

> As a professional YouTuber Well, there's your problem. You want the numbers that come from mass consumption, which means catering to the lowest common denominator thus producing shit with gold plating while then complain the gold plating is bloody expensive. Some people just are knowledgeable and want to share with the rest of us mortals like say someone like Terrence Tao. Putting someone like him on "YouTube" is a…

> which means catering to the lowest common denominator

At some point that becomes saturated, and you're better off catering to a niche that is poorly served.

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

#193

Post by aembleton » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:44 PM UTC

WarmWash wrote: post #36

CM30 wrote: post #15

It's a promising system, and I'd probably use it over a non-federated video hosting system if I wanted to run a video hosting site of some kind. Yet it's currently hard to find a real usecase for it, since neither the content you want nor audience is there on PeerTube at the moment. If you're interested in open source software or data privacy you might find something here or there, but topics like gaming, music, spor…

Creators get 60% of youtube's ad revenue from youtube. What does Peertube pay? There is your answer. If people want good stuff, there needs to be money flowing to the source of it. The internet desperately needs to shed this "everything good is totally free" mindset, because what it actually manifests as is "I love taking without the requirement of giving".

Peertube pays 100%

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

#194

Post by AuthAuth » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:45 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.

The commies are a smaller voice these days and can be easily filtered out.

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

#195

Post by BeetleB » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:47 PM UTC

djaro wrote: post #58

paxys wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Online video sharing doesn't have to exclusively mean professional "creators" who make content with hollywood-like budgets and expect massive returns. There are 100+ million accounts regularly uploading on Youtube and only around 2-3 million of them are in the partner program. The overwhelming majority get nothing.

The problem is that all of those accounts that don't earn money don't earn money because they get no views, because they make videos no one wants to watch. I don't know the exact statistics but a simple Google search says that 3% of videos on YouTube get 95% of the views. Remove the top 3% of creators, you remove 95% of views. The top channels get all the views because they're the only ones making videos people want…

> The problem is that all of those accounts that don't earn money don't earn money because they get no views, because they make videos no one wants to watch.

That's an absurd statement.

Every video I've uploaded has gotten some views. Very few videos get zero views.

People forget that historically, Youtube wasn't a place for "content creators", but really just for people to share stuff with friends. Easily 95% of uploaders are not trying to make any money.

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

#196

Post by fwip » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:47 PM UTC

dotwack wrote: post #139

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…

Really? Thats the main issue? What about when they upload child porn and some of it ends up on your computer and they break down your door and you spend the rest of your life getting bungholed by Darnel. I would rate that higher than monetary rewards. Decentralized system rely heavily on how much you trust other humans, I do not, so I hear them.say Decentralized and I run.

Darnel? Am I missing a reference?

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

#197

Post by BeetleB » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

CM30 wrote: post #15

It's a promising system, and I'd probably use it over a non-federated video hosting system if I wanted to run a video hosting site of some kind. Yet it's currently hard to find a real usecase for it, since neither the content you want nor audience is there on PeerTube at the moment. If you're interested in open source software or data privacy you might find something here or there, but topics like gaming, music, spor…

> Yet it's currently hard to find a real usecase for it, since neither the content you want nor audience is there on PeerTube at the moment.

The same use case as Youtube in its early years.

You upload a video, and send your friends a link (or post/embed on your blog).

That's good enough. It's totally OK if search is not useful.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the cost to run one of these servers...

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

#198

Post by BeetleB » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:53 PM UTC

jesse_dot_id wrote: post #18

I like the idea of all of these federated services but why does the UX always feel like an afterthought when it is the most important factor for adoption?

It'd help if you explain the problems you see in the UX.

I picked a random instance and played a video - did not see any problems.

And Youtube: I've hated their UX since they launched. It shouldn't be hard to make something with better UX than Youtube.

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

#199

Post by djaro » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:53 PM UTC

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #151

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…

"As a professional YouTuber, the main issue I instantly see with this is lack of monetization." As a computer user I see that as the main advantage No third party intermediary No advertising Computer users need peer-to-peer options for sharing video with each other that do not use third party advertising companies, e.g., posing as "search engine" or "social media", to transfer the bits Whether PeerTube works well, I…

The problem with this is that creating the content you watch costs a lot of money and labor.

As a user I would see a grocery store where everything is free as an advantage... utill the products inevitably run out and no food supplier is willing to stock the shelves for free.

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

#200

Post by aembleton » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:58 PM UTC

butz wrote: post #102

Personally, I find the lack of videos to watch on PeerTube a huge plus. I tremendously reduced my weekly video watching time and I don't feel like missing out on something important. My favorite instance is makertube.net, but I visit few others too.

Thank you, I'd not come across makertube.net. Is there some website that collects all of these instances together? I thought peertube.tv would do that, but there are loads more content on makertube.net so clearly not.