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.
On the other hand, I think the Reddit migration has a lot better chance of succeeding than any attempts at Twitter or YouTube or Twitch migration.
On the three other sites I mentioned, you’re following specific people. If those people don’t make the jump to a new platform, there’s little reason for you to make the jump either - you’re not going to see the content you want on the new site. Reddit and kbin and lemmy, on the other hand, are community based. I can talk about movies and woodworking and programming memes here just as well as I can on Reddit. The content is the discussion, and anywhere you can find groups of like-minded people, you’ll get that content.
Other people have mentioned the monetization angle for content creators, which is another factor that doesn’t apply to community-based sites. Hell, a large part of the complaints against Reddit is that they are relying on free content and free moderation. So that barrier isn’t holding people back here.
Last point, at least for YouTube and Twitch, is that video hosting and streaming is expensive - any competitor, if they want to gain serious traction, is going to need a lot of money behind it.