cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/22423685
EDIT: For those who are too lazy to click the link, this is what it says
Hello,
Sad news for everyone. YouTube/Google has patched the latest workaround that we had in order to restore the video playback functionality.
Right now we have no other solutions/fixes. You may be able to get Invidious working on residential IP addresses (like at home) but on datacenter IP addresses Invidious won’t work anymore.
If you are interested to install Invidious at home, we remind you that we have a guide for that here: https://docs.invidious.io/installation/..
This is not the death of this project. We will still try to find new solutions, but this might take time, months probably.
I have updated the public instance list in order to reflect on the working public instances: https://instances.invidious.io. Please don’t abuse them since the number is really low.
People can always just stop using YouTube. It’s getting laughable the level of Stockholm syndrome-like addiction people have for that shit service.
The problem is, there’s just no (good) direct competition. The audience will follow creators once enough of them switch to the same alternative platform. But as long as there’s no platform with a comparable amount of money behind it, most people will continue to use Youtube.
There doesn’t need to be direct competition. Just stop watching YouTube. If someone cannot do that- they have an addiction, and ads are not their biggest problem.
Because there’s absolutely no valuable information that exists on YouTube, right?
Youtube is my main source of entertainment. I don’t watch regular TV, and I barely watch any movies or series. Doesn’t have anything to do with an addiction, it’s personal preference lmao
Eh, there are some competitors:
- Nebula - costs $5/month; can get a discount if you find a creator’s discount code (I used NotJustBikes, can check out LegalEagle, HalfAsinteresting, or any of the others if you want; I got 50% off a year sub)
- Odyssee - pretty much the OG alternative to YT - I follow a few there
- Rumble - much better funded, but caters to conservatives and far-right, but there are some more moderate videos there (I like Glenn Greenwald, except for anything related to Russia); I think it’s funny that it has been blocked by some countries for allowing pro-Russian content, while also being blocked by Russia (this year) for not removing content
I sub to some channels from each (as well as Twitch and YT) though Grayjay, which seems to work pretty well. I’d say about 50% of my video watch time is on YouTube, 15-20% on Odyssee, 20-30% on Nebula, and a little on Rumble. I try to watch Nebula videos on the Nebula app so creators get credited with watch time, but I honestly prefer Grayjay.
I’ve been trying to cut down on how much I watch anyway, so hopefully I’ll be able to slowly eliminate YT from my life.
I know about Nebula, but you have to admit, the barrier to entrance is a lot higher for most people because of the subscription fee, so it’s not necessarily a direct comparison. Some of my favourite content creators are on there.
Didn’t know about Odysee. As far as I can see, that platform uses crypto for payments, which could also act as a deterrent to some people.
As for Rumble: Personally, I wouldn’t touch anything related to JD Vance with a ten foot pole (he’s a pretty big investor). And one of their biggest channels seems to be by Andrew Tate (ew). To be fair, I couldn’t tell you for sure that Youtube doesn’t take money from any of them in some form. But they seem to be more of an equal opportunity offender lol.
Rumble - […] I think it’s funny that it has been blocked by some countries
Rumble is blocked here in Brazil, not because Brazil blocked it (although there was once a strife between Rumble and Brazilian Supreme Court due to a half dozen far-right influencers) , but because Rumble themselves blocked us.
That’s a fair point. There’s a million things you could do, and watching videos on YT is just one of them. Watching videos online has become a large part of peoples lives. Surely it has a lot to offer, but we should probably not forget it also replaces a lot of things, things we would spent are time on otherwise, if we didn’t have YT as an easy time-drain, and those other things are presumably equally rewarding or more so.
Youtube isn’t just a thing people use to waste time, but a source of educational content. That actually matters, and there isn’t a good alternative to much of it.
That being said, I agree that people could at least drop it (or reduce their usage) if they are just using it as a time waster.
As someone who does a lot of DIY what are my options? I can’t learn from reading and have nobody to show me how in person. Other platforms are so incredibly limited I can’t ever find any content helping me learn something. What other platform is seeking to ACTUALLY compete with YouTube by offering fair compensation and exposure to the masses? It’s so incredibly expensive to try that nobody is.
Don’t know what to tell you. I’m Simply saying that I personally refuse to support any product that I would actively complain about online in social media posts. And if I’m willing to yell at people online about how shitty something is- yet continue to not only use it- but contribute to the financial success of said company-
I’d have to admit that I was a hypocrite.
Because “there is no other option for me to watch a video” isn’t a good reason to support a platform that treats its content creators like utter garbage, and alienates its user base seemingly daily.
I don’t really think Stockholm syndrome applies here. I don’t watch YouTube out of some irrational bond with the platform. I watch YouTube because it’s literally the only place the creators I watch upload. I would absolutely follow the creators I watch to whatever platform the content is available on. Until then, I’m stuck with YouTube and ad blocking extensions.
I’m not saying it’s exactly the same. But there are definitely people that whine all day and night about it, and then go pacify themselves by watching even more YouTube videos.
If I hate something as much as people seem to hate YouTube, I can easily stop using it. But then again, I have enough strength of conviction to do so. I’m certainly not going to financially support them by patronizing their service. And this futile attempt to circumvent their add service was is only making them more clever about blocking people from doing so.
YouTube will always win this.
Period. End of story.
The only way to beat them is to not play. I guarantee you if the lose 50% of their viewers. They’ll change their tune.
I pay for Nebula and, although there’s a lot to watch there, skimming through the boring stuff is horrible.
Same. I mostly watch a handful of channels:
- various TLDR channels
- Morning Brew - not a fan of the hosts, so I’ll catch maybe one/week
- LegalEagle - anything not about celebs
- the Friday Checkout
- NotJustBikes and other city infra-related channels - they don’t post often though
- RealLifeLore
- Wendover/HalfAsInteresting - the host annoys me a bit, but the content is usually pretty good
There’s a ton of nonsense there that I don’t like, but now that I found a set of channels I do like, I mostly just look in the “library” tab so I don’t have to see the other crap.
Knowing better and Philosophy Tube are both rather good as well. I do miss Casual Criminalist from YouTube, otherwise Nebula has my bases covered.
I also hate the UI tbh. I want the front page to be my subscriptions. Instead you get a weird horizontal scrolling panel on a secondary tab. I wish I could get an inbox, RSS style, so I could either watch them or skip/mark as watched.
Nebula also suffers from the homepage being cluttered with old videos that are no longer relevant. For example I don’t care to watch news and tech videos from 2022.
People should learn to live without YT, instead of making an existential drama about it (about its ads, really).
This is the way. Let those content creators sucking up your time be the background noise they were always meant to be.
tell me you don’t work in IT without telling me you don’t work in IT.
YT is more than just thots in shorts and fake scumbag competition game show hosts.
there’s a whole community of educators and creators that are genuinely useful and is the core of what YT used to be used for.
I have a BSc in CompSci and an MSc in Cybersec & Dig. Forensics and I’m actively employed as a mid level engineer in the field on a fully employer-sponsored Skilled Worker Visa, doing everything from vulnerability management and triage to GRC for ISO27001 to advising product and engineering teams on implementation details for best practices and compliance for a multinational org to DR&BC tabletops etc etc. I think this counts as IT.
Perhaps even more impressively though: I use Vim btw (to program in C).
I am not necessarily trying to brag very much, only to establish my own perspective, I don’t consider myself particularly talented or intelligent or successful - otherwise I’d have gone into research, but I am currently (and kinda always) studying to improve my skills and stay up to date.
Just recently I decided to take a look into pentesting to learn the l33t side of things more as my education only ever briefly touched on it, I started in August as something to keep my brain sane during studies for the settlement visa (Life in the UK) test, and I’ve made it to Hacker Rank on HackTheBox a week ago or so. I think I watched a grand total of one Ippsec video, the rest of everything I read.
I don’t know where you got the “game show hosts” from my comment, and I’m not aware of this if it exists as some broader trend. I don’t see YouTube shorts it’s all long blocked for me since release haha.
Yes YT tutorials and whatnot are good, but they are only good as broad introductions to a topic, personal opinions, or a particular historical narrative (Dr.Chuck on C’s history for instance). Those are few good nuggets between an endless sea of scams selling you a course or some other grift.
At a certain point you should start going a bit more in depth and reading - actively engaging with the material, move beyond simply knowing or purely copying and pasting terminal commands and understand why things work the way they do.
You don’t become an electrical engineer or something by watching electroboom, you learn what it’s about yes, but the rest you learn by reading and making, even basic arduino/breadboard projects will teach you more.
The best thing about YouTube is how good it is as background noise.
25 years in IT and I didnt need youtube.
BUT, I prefer learning by reading, not videos.
i absolutely despise youtube. these fuckers are putting ads on paused videos now, and then this.
they will never get better. only worse. we need regulations badly.
Works for Albania.
Its not like google fucking earned that money anyways. You don’t earn billions of dollars.
Think about it. If you earned a million dollars a year, you’d be set for life. If you lived for a full hundred years you’d have only made 1/10th of a billion dollars. Despite the fact that its still more money than either of us will probably ever see.
The people who operate google have billions with an s at the end. Think about the hardest working person you’ve known. Think about how little money they made.
Now ask yourself, what did the people with billions do to earn that money? How hard did they have to work to justify it, and how is that level of work even humanly possible? How would a bunch of spoiled overgrown trustfund fratboys find it in themselves do that work?
They fucking don’t. The only people who get that rich do it by cheating, and stealing, and fucking people over. Those fuckers owe us a lot more than video streaming services.
Your math is off. You said one million per day, but your 1/10 of a billion would have it as one million per year
They’re a monopoly that relies on users to produce content. You see, in a functional capitalist system, when one supplier deliberately hinders competition through unfair trade practices, they are made to change their methods in order to foster competition.
When that system is corrupted and fails to act in a timely manner, all bets are off.
You know where else you can go to find the billions of videos users have uploaded? No. How did it get that way? Just, luck? No.
Yes, we want regulations on ads in YouTube, and it’s an ignorant and arrogant position to call that “entitled”.
Competitor with no content, users is not a competitor. Youtube should be forced to share content they do not own. Just for the sake of competition.
I’d like to move to PeerTube, but I mostly just post stupid memes, and game clips on my YouTube. And as generic as that is I don’t really know what instance to go with. Most instances seem to either focus on tech, or education. And that’s good to have but I want a more general instance from a uploader pov.
Paying Nebula subscriber here 🙋♂️
Pony up or your call for a competitor doesn’t mean anything. People don’t want ads? Fine. There has to be another revenue stream. Server capacity costs money, making a website and app cost money, and video creators need to eat.
I do pony up for other services (not YT Premium because I won’t give Google any money) and support a significant number of creators via Patreon, giving them more money by far than they’d ever see from me from ads. And I’ve spent thousands of hours on my own dime making written content and giving it away for nothing with no ads or tracking. So yes, I agree.
Wow all this bullying is really convincing me to go back to their shitty platform.
If i can’t access my fav creators anymore itl just motivate me to do sm productive, like building web3
If i can’t access my fav creators anymore itl just motivate me to do sm productive
YT literally does not care. You may not, but I suspect MANY more people will go back to watching ads or signing up for Premium. Just like when Netflix canceled password sharing and everyone complained but their revenue went up by 15%.
I don’t judge people who give in to the oppressor. Life is hard and you have to pick your battles, more important stuff then blocking ads for “normal” people.
For me its largely a disability/accessibility thing. The whole site is not usable.
Its not that i want to die on this hill its that corporate bullshit is measurably detrimental to my health. My hill is the only one i can exist on.
I don’t judge people who give in to the oppressor. Life is hard and you have to pick your battles
I mean yes and no. There’s giving in because it’s too hard and you have bigger problems, then there’s not giving a single fuck, and then other the other end of that spectrum are the fucking bootlickers who will come out and berate you for choosing not to give in.
Haven’t you heard? web3 is going great so far!
Oh no, the execution and information thus far has been horrible. You are alluding to blockchain are you? When i look at the website you post i see absolutely nothing that i even recognize as web3 its all cryptostuff.
I don’t get why everybody is so hell-bend on blockchain based internet (sure its decentralized but come on, we’re creative enough to do better). Its like people don’t get the point of “user owned” and are expecting companies to build a better internet for them without serving their own interests.
No, we are going to need to do this ourselves, self host our own data and services, open source everything.
Lemmy and the fediverse are the closest i have seen to being proto web 3 in spirit and there are also still far from perfect.
I have read the “What is web3” from that site and could not disagree on the definition more. I would not be suprised if both the blockchain cults and this website are part of the propaganda machine that is stopping a free internet from happening.
My web3 is aligned much more with this: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/user-liberation-watch-and-share-our-new-video
Start asking your favourite content creators to post on PeerTube.
And while we’re at it, stop calling them ‘content creators’
EDIT: to clarify, my stance on this is that ‘content creator’ devalues the human endeavour behind a piece of work (or content, if you will). Instead it’s just slop for the machine, and who cares what it is as long as it gets numbers, right?
What is the alternative name for someone who creates content for a platform?
Well, we start by referring ta work not as “content”, but as what it actually is. Then work from there. For instance, one could ostensibly call Ahoy a filmmaker or a documentary maker.
Do we need a general term? Someone who uploads their videos to a video platform is probably a “video producer”.
To answer the “why”, it’s because the word “content” is kinda meaningless. Instead of making films, documentaries, talk shows, reference guides, cartoons… it’s all just this generic “content” slop that’s just there to feed the machine
And how are they going to make a living to keep producing videos?
I’d say ask them to join Nebula.
That depends. If they only make a living with YT ads, then it’s going to be hard.
I guess I forgot things like Patreon which could be a valid option. Although I’m neither a fan of subscribing to specific creators nor am I particularly fond of Patreon.
With Nebula my perception is that I pay a monthly fee and they can figure out who gets what depending on whose videos I watched. I don’t need to be particular in my action on who to support.
About half the ads I see on YouTube are already within the videos they post. I wonder what the overall ratio is of YouTube ad revenue versus in-video ad revenue.
Nebula is cool and all, but at the end of the day, it’s still a commercial platform, and those do tend to enshittify and depend a lot on externalities.
As creators grow more dependent on Nebula, Sam and the team of original Nebula creators can wield more power and change the rules.
They already dictate the kind of content that is allowed - for example, Second Thought, one of the original creators behind Nebula, was asked to leave as he doesn’t agree to change public stance on Israeli-Palestinian conflict (he is pro-Palestine). This has suddenly left him without a source of revenue necessary for the production to expand, and has put him into debt.
Solution? Probably independent sponsorships that would go both on YouTube and PeerTube videos. Or a creator reward system like in Lbry/Odysee. Something that would allow to reward creators without going full commercial.
Remember when people posted on YouTube for fun? It’s only when it became a viable business that the platform turned to shit.
Ah yes, youtube now is just one big ad and sponsorship cesspool flooded with clickbait and misinformation and with highly privacy invasive protocol. Its a souless capitalisic corporate machine. I dont know why people would still use it. Just let youtube die.
Same way they do on YT. Viewer contributions + sponsor spots + merch. They only miss out on ad revenue (which I concede is not insignificant).
Nebula is ok but I took 1 look at their privacy policy and passed.
So you want them to take a huge pay cut? To what benefit, just YoUTubE bAd?
What are your criteria for a good instance? I host one myself, so genuinely curious.
The age limit yeah I think the peertube instances on their site follow the gdpr
Tilvids.com is a good start. Fx The Linux Experiment is there.
Otherwise, I host peertube.wtf.
And then watch the peertube instance die. See also: https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/issues/5783
