I’ve thought about it a bit and the Fediverse has been around for a while now. There are some really cool applications being made to replace the mainstream ones, but they just aren’t taking off.
Why do you guys think that might be? Ease of use? Addiction to the mainstream platforms? Lack of marketing?
I think it depends on the definition of taking off. I see the Fediverse as a huge success with millions of people using it every day. At this point it’s proven itself to be both viable and sustainable. I only see it growing going forward.
The Fediverse hasn’t gone mainstream, but I think that’s a different discussion. Fediverse primarily attracts people who are dissatisfied with the status quo for one reason or another. The existing mainstream platforms obviously work well enough, so there is no reason to expect average users to start migrating from them.
IRC is also sustainable and still being hosted today, but I don’t think most people want the fediverse to be just sustainable. They want it to be a fully capable alternative to the big platforms.
I half agree and half disagree with that. Obviously, you’re right that they’re good enough that most people won’t migrate away. But I also think most people are dissatisfied with them and want alternatives. It’s just that the fediverse isn’t providing what people want in an alternative. On Facebook/Twitter it’s a combination of family/friends and news sites, but the fediverse is pretty vehemently against news publishers posting here. People want to follow content creators, but the fediverse has chased away multiple large personalities.
I completely agree that it would be good for Fediverse to keep growing. I’m just noting that sustainability is an important milestone.
I do agree that network effects play a role as well. People go where their friends are and where there’s more content. That said, I don’t think the Fediverse lacks content creators, there are plenty of people producing content all the time including some well known personalities.
The reason Fediverse got popular in the first place is because people got sick of commercialization and were looking for alternatives. So I don’t think it makes sense to chase commercial content to attract users because getting away from that was the whole point.
I don’t want that at all. I just meant that that’s what I think the large majority of people on the centralized services are looking for. But I’ve never seen a PeerTube video that had anything near the production value of some of the basic YouTube channels I watch. I’m thinking about game streamers on Twitch/YouTube or culture critics posting 15-20 min video essays. And if there’s no way for them to make money on PeerTube, then I doubt we ever will see them crossposting or migrating.
Peertube’s really still brand new and hasn’t got much critical mass, but that doesn’t mean people can’t make money on Peertube - the platform paying the creator shouldn’t be all that necessary, as, from my layman’s understanding of things, those ‘content creators’ have a variety of income sources, Youtube income is pretty small for some.
If one of those ‘influencer’-types put a few bucks in to a few Peertube instances and started working on their audience, there could probably be a pretty sizeable chunk of viewing that could start to migrate over. They could continue to put up pointer videos on Youtube, too…
But, is that what we all really want?
Also, I think you’re conflating issues - when you’re saying you don’t want the commercial content, but then complain about the Peertube content being of generally lower production value, where do you think all the snazzy production value comes from?
I don’t want algorithmic ads rolling in the middle of a person’s sentence, or above every video on index pages like on YouTube. That’s what I mean when I said I don’t want commercial content. There’s a difference in Hollywood production values (or even professional YouTuber production) and what’s on PeerTube. I don’t need huge budget production, I’d just like to see something a little nicer than hobbyists with phone/laptop cameras/mics. Look at the podcasting space. Most of the shows I’ve listened to started by new podcasters at least had decent mics and knew to record in a closet to dampen outside sound.
But there’s no reason for people to put in that level of effort if they’re just doing it for fun. And nobody is going to spend time/money to add even that tiny bit of production if they’re not going to see any kind of return on it. I don’t want to see YouTube recreated; I don’t want to see PeerTube millionaires, but people should be able to make a decent earning.
Right. They get most of their money from sponsorships, but you can’t get sponsorships on a platform with no viewership.
I would then ask to please say what you mean: ‘ads’ or ‘intrusive ads’ or whatever it is you actually mean - the content is the thing you’re watching, not necessarily the intrusive ads, and on Youtube I’d argue most of what you’ll find and/or see promoted these days is commercial (for profit). It’s mostly commercial content.
I’d argue that’s not the platform’s fault. Viewers can and will follow people and can and will discover things on a variety of platforms. YouTube is a behemoth now, but one doesn’t have to be too old to remember that it didn’t exist not too long ago.
TikTok wasn’t much of a thing mere months ago. Zoom was in very few people’s lingo for several years until the media had a pandemigasm all over it.
How much advertising budget has the fediverse got? 0? So, could take time for it to explode in to the hearts and minds of people like commercial platforms do. Yes, there’s plenty of refinements that could be had and done for user experience, but I don’t think, aside from app knowledge/availability, these are preventing people from ‘migrating’.
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Sounds like strong IT management to me. :face with rolling eyes: Heh!
Happy New Year!
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I imagine it’s due to the fact that the main reasons to switch are ideological. Corporate social media has a much bigger user base having been around much longer, and that means people there are a part of an existing social network.
Moving to Fediverse means abandoning your existing network and building a new one or trying to convince your friends to move with you. This takes dedication and effort so people need a strong motivation to give them a push. People who care about privacy, dislike ads, don’t like their content curated by algorithms, and so on are the ones taking the plunge. This turns out to be a fairly small percentage of the overall population.
On the flip side, Fediverse is predominantly populated by people who care about these things, and hopefully this culture stays strong as it grows.