So YouTube has a lot of problems, there’s no denying that. Frivolous and selective (not to mention automated) copyright enforcement, bureaucratic termination appeal system, COPPA idiocy, the whole clusterfuck that is monetization, etc?
In contrast, Odysee is this open-source video platform that fixes many of these problems. It took of, like, I dunno, a year ago? Thing is, it’s still very inactive and dead. A lot of YouTubers have pined for a massive exodus from YouTube, which might sound familiar for many of us Lemmings here. Yet, the majority of them can’t seem to let it go, since YouTube/Google pretty much exercises a monopoly on the online video sharing industry.
What worries me is that Reddit alternatives, such as Lemmy, Mastodon, or kbin, could see a similar fate to YouTube alternatives like Odysee or BitChute. I’d love to see people quit Reddit en masse and hopefully find a “safe harbor” some place like here, but I’m hearing about realistic concerns regarding even the viability of this site’s databases, so I feel like the actual outcome will be more of a small dent than a massive crater.
Which is exactly what Huffman wants and he knows it.
Ugh, I hate this awful corporate creativity-stifling timeline.
That’s one significant impasse: YouTube has become a place for content generated with the goal of being paid. It initially wasn’t, and need not be. The “in” for an alternative could be simply in catering to those who motivation isn’t primarily financial. Along with an audience who a different motivation and expectation around content consumption. Just as with the fediverse.
And, we would be better served doing away with the idea of replacing platforms like YouTube and rather providing bespoke alternatives. We’ll succeed when we stop trying to replace Tesco with Walmart. Which can be difficult, currently, when many users have probably only experienced living in a town where all your shopping is done there and never known a thriving downtown of small businesses.
I also don’t think we should ‘replace’ anything. We can be an alternative, but not a replacement. For a community to be tight knit, it should be smaller. The larger a community gets, the more the users become strangers and apathetic. That’s when all the trolling and bad comments start. I think Lemmy’s focus should be on being a sustainable community, not to replace a platform of millions and millions of users.