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PeerTube v2

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11–20 of 159 posts

Re: PeerTube v2

#11
post #6

Does anyone know of a successful server-based peer-to-peer project other than TOR and cryptocurrencies? I'm all for breaking free of the stranglehold of centralized proprietary platforms, but it also seems to me that most of the open source projects that ever really succeed at competing against entrenched proprietary incombents are the ones where a centralized service is being provided by a non-profit (e.g. Wikimedia…

Nextcloud. Or depending on how you define a server, Bittorrent.

Re: PeerTube v2

#12
post #2

can anyone tdlr peertube vs lbry?

Peertube is a feration protocol for YouTube-like video hosts to interact with eachother. Or more precisely, it's an implementation of ActivityPub, like Mastodon, focused on video hosting.

LBRY appears to be some kind of cryptocurrency thing. I don't know. Looks shady.

Re: PeerTube v2

#14
post #5

Great work! This is a good YouTube alternative I can get behind, however after reading a little bit I kind of frowned at this line on the plugin paragraph. > You could also imagine plug-ins to sort videos in reverse alphabetical order, or to add a Tipee, Paypal or Patreon button below videos! Please don't consider or be tempted by those three proprietary platforms, I would much rather prefer donating using Liberapay…

I think you can add any plugin you want, which can include all kinds of payment buttons.

Re: PeerTube v2

#15
post #6

Does anyone know of a successful server-based peer-to-peer project other than TOR and cryptocurrencies? I'm all for breaking free of the stranglehold of centralized proprietary platforms, but it also seems to me that most of the open source projects that ever really succeed at competing against entrenched proprietary incombents are the ones where a centralized service is being provided by a non-profit (e.g. Wikimedia…

Napster was so successful that the RIAA filed law suits to shut it down.

Re: PeerTube v2

#16
post #5

Great work! This is a good YouTube alternative I can get behind, however after reading a little bit I kind of frowned at this line on the plugin paragraph. > You could also imagine plug-ins to sort videos in reverse alphabetical order, or to add a Tipee, Paypal or Patreon button below videos! Please don't consider or be tempted by those three proprietary platforms, I would much rather prefer donating using Liberapay…

Unfortunately, there is no alternative. Everybody uses PayPal or Stripe on the backend...

Re: PeerTube v2

#17
post #9
post #6

Does anyone know of a successful server-based peer-to-peer project other than TOR and cryptocurrencies? I'm all for breaking free of the stranglehold of centralized proprietary platforms, but it also seems to me that most of the open source projects that ever really succeed at competing against entrenched proprietary incombents are the ones where a centralized service is being provided by a non-profit (e.g. Wikimedia…

E-Mail

Right, and web servers too - neither had much competition when it launched though, so the point about no being able to beat incumbent proprietary solutions still stands. Not to mention the majority of people get their email hosted by a proprietary service these days.

Re: PeerTube v2

#18
post #6

Does anyone know of a successful server-based peer-to-peer project other than TOR and cryptocurrencies? I'm all for breaking free of the stranglehold of centralized proprietary platforms, but it also seems to me that most of the open source projects that ever really succeed at competing against entrenched proprietary incombents are the ones where a centralized service is being provided by a non-profit (e.g. Wikimedia…

Napster was so successful that the RIAA filed law suits to shut it down.

Wasn't Napster based on a central server and then a bunch clients who found each other via that server and then connected p2p? (And since the central server was the weak link that law enforcement could go after, Bittorrent evolved to get rid of the need for it). If so it actually further underscores the point about a central server providing ease-of-use and not being able to expect 'normal' people to set up servers themselves.

Re: PeerTube v2

#19
post #3

The peer-to-peer storage and sharing of video files isn't the hard part: it's the ability to search for and discover content that makes YouTube compelling in my opinion. Are any of these p2p YouTube replacements presenting a compelling way to search/discover content in a distributed way? Or if the search index is centralized, do any of them have a compelling model for staying funded without selling everyone's search/…

> Are any of these p2p YouTube replacements presenting a compelling way to search/discover content in a distributed way?

Being "distributed" over p2p/federated architecture opposes the end-user convenience of search/discovery/ranking/recommendations because of speed-of-light limitations. I wrote a previous comment about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17578332

Also, the previous last reply by posting2fast of a partial-centralized server doesn't really replace Youtube because his proposed idea creates new problems of spam videos and untrusted/fake videos. E.g. the central index of metadata says "www.johndoehomeserver.com" has a tutorial video for Algebra but when you actually stream the video from "johndoehomeserver.com", you get a spam video for Viagra instead of math instruction. Therefore, users will naturally gravitate toward the centralized servers that have both the metadata and the actual video content. This emergent group behavior of preferences would end up recreating another "Youtube"-like clone.

p2p architecture and torrents works well for things like pirated Photoshop or ripped Marvel Avengers movies because the users already have the content's title _preloaded_ in their brain and therefore a centralized index for discovery/serendipity of unknown content isn't necessary.

Re: PeerTube v2

#20
post #3

The peer-to-peer storage and sharing of video files isn't the hard part: it's the ability to search for and discover content that makes YouTube compelling in my opinion. Are any of these p2p YouTube replacements presenting a compelling way to search/discover content in a distributed way? Or if the search index is centralized, do any of them have a compelling model for staying funded without selling everyone's search/…

Well that's the real problem when you start competing with Google and the like. They're data behemoths. As long as you don't have as much data collected, they'll have a significant advantage. The solution to this is really simple and hardly conceivable at the same time: make competitively important data public. In this case, that's anonymized video browsing/viewing data. Market competition would flourish, the big guys would lose the monopoly.
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