Luigi.exe (Dragonheart System)

So, I still haven't gone back to #Youtube since the #boycott started, and honestly, I don't miss Youtube, I just miss some of the creators I watched on there. As substitutes, my main go-tos have been #Preservetube and #PeerTube.

Preservetube in theory is great, but it's extremely limited with no channel search, no ability to archive playlists, often does not archive the entire channel if the channel has too many videos, and it frequently fails when archiving.

Peertube I've talked about on Plural Café, but the dearth of content is just... really not great. I found some larger instances with more videos, and even then, I still can't find much to watch that I actually care about. Even on instances with other 1,000 other instances federated, there's still at most a few dozen videos uploaded daily. Then there are times where some videos just... won't load when I actually do find something interesting, or how PeerTube will randomly convert a P2P video to HTTP, which often breaks it by either ruining the audio, disabling playback, or just removing the audio entirely. Fun.

To put it in perspective for the people who go, "You just have to look harder!" I recently saw a video by cgfocus on Preservetube where he went over dozens of Blender-specific Youtube channels, said he found 400+ of them and he said there's absolutely more out there that he missed. If you compare that to PeerTube, there's only at most, 12 #Blender channels I can think of, and that's in general, not just active channels. That says a lot.

And I'm not trying to be nothing but a complainer since I have suggested before that we should promote PeerTube to Youtubers as a means of having a backup and avoiding Youtube's insane censorship.

I also briefly tried #Glomble, but that also is extremely limited in search capabilities and it even more limited in content breadth than PeerTube.

My point being: I don't miss Youtube itself and ditching it wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be, but the real challenge is trying to fill the void. It puts into perspective how much of a monopoly Youtube really has over the video space, and honestly, I wish that monopoly would crumble already. I hope the age verification crap is enough to convince people well enough to ditch Youtube, or at least boycott hard enough to get Youtube to bend its knee.

Sep 3, 2025 at 2:00pmWeb
Show threadLuigi.exe (Dragonheart System)Sep 3, 2025

Okay, perfect example regarding my post about #Youtube: I'm trying to find something to watch while I have breakfast. If I want to use #Preservetube, I have to grab the link to the channel to access its archive and possibly spend time waiting for the videos to archive.

If I want to try #PeerTube, I have to find an instance with enough servers federated, scroll for a while on most recent, and pray something is on there that actually appeals to my interests. Chances are that the 20-something or so videos uploaded today don't fit that description and I am SOL. First-world problem as hell? Yes. I 100% acknowledge that, but I'm pointing this out in the perspective of why it's hard for people to move off of Youtube.

Show threadTroed SångbergSep 4, 2025
@Eeveecraft Can't you use SepiaSearch as that "well federated" instance? Honest question - very new to Peertube myself.
Show threadLuigi.exe (Dragonheart System)Sep 4, 2025

@troed Yes, but that's when you know what you want to watch. It doesn't lend well to discovery and browsing. And even then, if the hypothetical videos you're looking for aren't named/tagged properly, the search will also miss them.

It also doesn't change the lack of content variety and quality. Even with Sepia Search, for example, Blender content is still very limited.

Show threadTrevorSep 3, 2025

@Eeveecraft I'm having a similar experience with PeerTube and discoverability. I think I need to try and better understand how Discover works, what Explore means on the app, and how I can set better default filters so that I'm consistently seeing content in languages I speak.

The main discoverability challenge I am having is the flood of content from accounts who dump albums' worth of music or 2-to-3 minute videos that are so extraordinarily niche that they might have educational value to someone, but have little to know entertainment value for a non-expert. Those are interspersed with long-form academic talks. Very little of the kinds of things I'm looking for, despite choosing an interest-friendly instance (MakerTube).

Federation is also making it hard to understand why I might see videos in Discover but not in a category I'm exploring.

At present, I have not managed to find many creators on PeerTube who are doing interesting work in fields relevant to my interests who aren't posting hyper-niche technical content in either micro- or long-form academic formats. Those handful I have found I often recognize from YouTube, and they have a corresponding sense of clean delivery, pacing, and production value. The crossover creators are simply more polished and entertaining.

I am going to start cross-posting content to PeerTube - stream highlights and longform videos that I'm working on for YouTube - but I don't see it as a very compelling destination at present.

Show threadLuigi.exe (Dragonheart System)Sep 3, 2025

@lovemakeshare

Yeah, that's what I mean by #PeerTube being a backup for Youtubers instead of their primary platform. I'd hope with enough Youtubers cross-posting to Peertube that it'll balance out and gradually, PeerTube will become a more and more appealing platform for people to jump to. Because you're right: it's mostly super niche content and people spamming album songs or archives. And unfortunately, most people aren't into that.