The only real attempt at monetisation that I’ve seen is https://beetoons.tv/, but they use their own crypto - making it like Odysee. Why is that?
Edit: Please, before you answer consider this monetisation doesn’t mean ads!
Why does it need monetisation? Why can’t we have a place online where we aren’t bombarded with adverts or having our data vacuumed to sell to advertisers?
I have no issues with sponsorship in videos or creators plugging their stores/Pateron/Kofi in content. What I mind is pre roll and shoehorned ads partway through content that have no respect for my audio settings or the flow of the content.
Why does it need monetisation?
Hosting costs money. “Monetization” doesn’t mean disruptive ads.
Hosting cost money, so an host can setup a patreon to make money to host his peertube instance.
Monetisation like YouTube-monetisation means ads everywhere because, monetisation on YouTube comes from publicity.
Hosting cost money, so an host can setup a patreon to make money to host his peertube instance.
That’s a type of monetization.
Monetisation like YouTube-monetisation means ads everywhere because, monetisation on YouTube comes from publicity.
OP didn’s ask about “YouTube-like monetization”.
Why does it need monetisation?
Because the number of people who are willing to put in the work and create quality content without any potential reward is too low to be relevant. Without a credible model for monetisation, content creators will always prefer to stay in the closed platforms. If we want the open web to be a real alternative for everyone and not just a fringe thing, we need to be able to attract everyone.
data vacuumed to sell to advertisers?
Maybe I am getting old, but I do remember the time where “ads” did not automatically imply “Surveillance Capitalism”. The problem is not the former, but the latter.
I have no issues with sponsorship in videos or creators plugging their stores/Pateron/Kofi in content.
Easy for you to say, but how many creators do you know that can make a living exclusively off their Patreon? And of those that do, how many managed to get known without putting their content on a closed platform?
the number of people who are willing to put in the work and create quality content without any potential reward is too low
Maybe, but the number of dimwits willing to make sensationalist drivel to make a buck is staggering. Exhibit A, any Youtuber. I prefer not to have that incentive in the Fediverse.
Do you know that story about the pottery teacher that made an experiment by separating students into two groups, one was going to be graded by how many pieces they made (quantity), the other by their best piece (quality), and that in the end the group that worried about quantity ended up producing better work than the ones focused on quality?
It’s the same thing with the internet. You are familiar with Sturgeon’s Law, right? Instead of looking at the 90% of crap (quality), we should find always to churn out as much content as possible so that the non-crap 10% can be of a reasonable number.
I honestly do not care about the dimwits on YouTube, but it pains me that I can not convince someone like @geerlingguy@mastodon.social to leave YouTube to post his content on an open alternative, because that would be the same as asking to stop having the resources to keep doing the amazing work that he does.
Why can’t we have a place online where we aren’t bombarded with adverts or having our data vacuumed to sell to advertisers?
I’ll repeat this again: monetisation does not mean ads. If you believe ads are the only way to monetise something, you have been lied to or are giving in to programming.
Why does it need monetisation?
How do you think content creators survive?
Because anyone with a computer can host a peertube instance. Therefore is you want your videos on peertube it will cost you nothing more than what you already have : a computer running and an internet access.
The only real barrier is having the time and the knowledge to set it up.
Peertube is tech solution to host video, not a way to make money with videos. Monetisation can be done with peertube, but it’s up to creators to set it up.
Peertube is tech solution to host video, not a way to make money with videos. Monetisation can be done with peertube, but it’s up to creators to set it up.
Why should it be up to the creators? On youtube creators don’t have to think about “setting up monetisation”. Upload a video, ads are active, done. Peertube doesn’t have something that simple - and I’m not saying “we need ads”. Monetisation != ads.
Because YouTube wants you to not think, but just provide content and shut up.
Peertube (libre softwares in generals) requires to think about things and to make choices by yourself. It doesn’t try to be more than what it is = a tool for easily host videos.
Peertube isn’t a platform.
Because YouTube wants you to not think, but just provide content and shut up.
What’s wrong with that? When you drive a car, ride a bus, fly on a plane, or use anything in general, do you have to understand the inner workings of everything?
WHY DON’T WE MAKE THIS SHITTIER???
Funny, I said “monetisation”, you heard “ads”. Do you think that’s the only way to monetise something?
Funny, I said “monetisation”, you heard “ads”.
You don’t know what I heard. Please do not speculate.
Do you think that’s the only way to monetise something?
No, but I’ve been around the block often enough to know that “monetization” almost always means “take something away from people and then sell it back to them”.
Ads are best case. I can filter those out. The rest is worse.
You don’t know what I heard. Please do not speculate.
OK, then.
Ads are best case. I can filter those out. The rest is worse.
What other options do you think there are?
A few reasons:
- The userbase on the Fediverse is not big enough to support a donation-based economy.
- The userbase on the Fediverse is not big enough to support an ad-based economy. Even if by some magical powers we got an ethical ad network working here (which didn’t track users and focused solely on paying people by the opportunity of broadcasting their inventory) there wouldn’t be enough eyeballs to attract advertisers.
- The userbase is still anti-business.
- For all its faults, Youtube is hands-down is the platform that pay the most to content creators.
- Content creators are not willing to spend their time building out audiences on new platforms. Principles be damned, they will just go where the money is.
I’ve added support for crowdfunding to Communick earlier this year, and even people who are active on the Fediverse and have a vested interest in having monetization alternatives turned it down. This is why all we see are these completely fringe ideas that can only appeal for the get-rich-quick crowd.
The userbase on the Fediverse is not big enough to support a donation-based economy.
Could you expand on that? Why do you believe such is the case?
The userbase is still anti-business.
I’m starting to get the impression that this is the biggest hindrance. That and the common misconception that “ads = monetisation”, which IMO big tech has hammered into users very well.
For all its faults, Youtube is hands-down is the platform that pay the most to content creators.
True, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.
Content creators are not willing to spend their time building out audiences on new platforms. Principles be damned, they will just go where the money is.
Probably better tools could contribute to that. Something opensource that allows engaging with all major platforms + peertube and others could swing things in another direction. Imagine if peertube, mastodon, and so forth were just a toggle or a “sign up” form in the app. It could increase adoption by its simplicity: “Never heard of this platform, but I’ll just enable it and see what happens” could very well be possible.
I’ve added support for crowdfunding to Communick earlier this year
Wait a minute… I think I recognise that! Didn’t you make a post that was massively downvoted (or received negatively), because people didn’t understand what you were trying to do? “If it’s not steady income I won’t use it” is something I recall…
Edit: Lemmy is missing the feature to favorite other users :/
Could you expand on that?
Go take a look at all Mastodon instances that ask for donations to keep running: you will see that all of them get at most 2% of their user base to donate. No donation-based instance is big enough that it can afford to pay FTE salaries for moderation and/or administration. And this is for something that affects people directly when they don’t contribute.
Go take a look at some youtubers in the “1M-10M” subscriber range that have a Patreon. You will see that the most of them manage to convert 0.5% to 0.8% of their subscribers into direct contributors.
The open web (ActivityPub sans Facebook) is now at ~1 million active users. Even if we got 2% of these users to contribute $5/month to different creators, we are talking about a “Total Addressable Market” of $100k/month. Even with “best case” numbers, it is just too low to be attractive to a substantial number of creators. Compare with Youtube: it’s estimated that they paid out around 7 billion USD to all its creators in 2023.
Thanks for doing the maths. Actually, it does show that there’s a small, but unexploited market here. $2-3K a month is a very good income for the most of the world. And this doesn’t have to be the only revenue stream.
The userbase is still anti-business.
And a significant part will remain so. This should be a haven from capitalist/corporate platforms, not a parallel market.
I’m still doggedly working on Communick and on AP-based projects because I believe in open standards and because it is our best shot at us collectively take back the web. But if we continue on this idea that the Fediverse is somehow “better” because it discriminates against small business owners, or professionals who want an online presence to promote their work, or anything that resembles “profit-motive”, then this whole thing will forever remain a wasted opportunity, and we will be (once again) be giving it all away for Zuckerberg.
What we have now is just a Tyranny of the Minority. We need to grow the open web. That includes getting normies here. That includes getting people who are not part of your tribe. This includes getting people that you are able to ignore.
That’s Western fediverse.
Fediverse instance in Asia often run ads or other kind of monetisation. Like the second biggest instance.
I wouldn’t mind paying a monthly subscription to the creators I enjoy in Peertube.
I’m already doing it through Patreon, but doing through Peertube would be better as these creators would see that the money is coming from a Peertube user.
It would be my preferred way too. There are plugins for Wordpress (example). that allow microtransactions, leading me to believe it should be possible for peertube as well 🤔
