I didn’t even plan to blog something today, but a couple of things came together around PeerTube that convinced me to drop a post today. But, maybe before we start … PeerWHAT? you might ask.
Interlude: What is PeerTube?
TL;DR: An open source / self hosted YouTube
PeerTube is a video platform that works a bit differently from sites like YouTube. Instead of one company running it, PeerTube is made up of many small, connected servers – so there’s no central control. You can watch, upload, and share videos just like you’re used to, but without ads or tracking. PeerTube also connects with other platforms like Mastodon, so videos can reach more people across the Fediverse. It’s a privacy-friendly option for discovering and sharing content on your terms.
A more technical description can be found on Wikipedia: PeerTube – Wikipedia
So what happened …
New Release
PeerTube v7.2 was released and I just updated myown instance. Okay, cool – but I admit, not overly relevant for most users 😀 (but cool)
Heise.de running PeerTube!
Then I saw a post where Martin Holland announced that Heise (the leading IT news portal in German speaking countries) have started their own PeerTube instance for their videos! It is a pretty cool to see such an authority supporting PeerTube in that way.
Wrote a Post, Sparked a Donation
In one of my last posts about Peertube’s donation campaign , I got a fantastic comment from @davbm@fosstodon.org: “just searched for “peertube” [… ] found this article and donated some money.”. — I mean could it be any better? I just contributed indirectly to the campaign because I wrote about it! That was really satisfying.
The Golden Handcuffs of YouTube
And finally, Jeff Geerling published Self-hosting your own media considered harmful. He described that one of his Jellyfin tutorials was flagged as harmful and temporarily removed from hist YouTube channel … After it had been online for over a year with millions of views. Ah well, kind of the reason why having an alternative is good.
But he also addresses the problem, that there is no real alternative (yet?) for people to monitize their video channels. Until there is a real alternative, “YouTube’s AdSense revenue and vast reach is a kind of ‘golden handcuff.’ ” he writes.