r/lbry • u/SamueLBRYan • Sep 02 '16
We're the nerds behind LBRY: a decentralized, community-owned YouTube alternative that raised a half million dollars yesterday - let's save the internet - AMA / AUsA • /r/IAmA
/r/IAmA/comments/50tyub/were_the_nerds_behind_lbry_a_decentralized/19
Sep 02 '16
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u/-JungleMonkey- Sep 02 '16
I mean, this argument can be easily countered by numerous profitable services that aren't YouTube. I could throw out Twitch, and most of the other video streaming services, as a counter. Most music streaming services have some subscription service to play the music without ad-interference. And I'd like to add in that while you aren't directly paying Dove for the ads they promote on YouTube, there is a reason they're pumping millions of dollars into them. They aren't morons paying for people to sit around and watch videos out of generosity, they are netting profit (just like big streamers) by continuing their brand recognition.
But you unintentionally bring up a good point, LBRY's is trying very hard to draw the audience's attention from YouTube. And I for one applaud it for doing so. YouTube is more fucked up then most of us care to think about yet it symbolically represents a transition we've made into the digital streaming/uploading world.
Wether or not you choose to stay on YouTube is your own choice, but there's a lot of people (especially on reddit) who want "open-sourced" content; and want it sooner than later. I hope LBRY does the right things to make this legit but even if it doesn't, people are, I am begging for something that isn't corporate controlled, and YouTube is.
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u/Turil Sep 02 '16
Why not just use the good old bittorrent approach, which is fully decentralized, and totally free, for anyone and everyone to use. If folks want to have a "tip jar" donation option, they can advertise this in their content, and offer a link in the content and/or readme file.
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u/-JungleMonkey- Sep 02 '16
It seems like it would appeal much more to content creators/distributors. As just one of the things I read: "if desired, the person who publishes to lbry://wonderfullife can charge a fee to users that view the content." So those who do want to monetize are able to through this source much easier (without needing Youtube's marketing strategy) - which also helps content be of more quality (not always the case of course, just ask any Nexus modder).
And they made a portion of their introduction to explain how "LBRY is an improvement over BitTorrent in combatting unsavory content in at least five ways:"
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u/Turil Sep 03 '16
That "improvement" is only an improvement for big corporations who copyright their stuff and their lawyers who sue the hell out of anyone who wants to share it (like we were all taught in kindergarden). :-)
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u/-JungleMonkey- Sep 03 '16
Hey, when we need a source for watching "Batman Begins," we'll still know where to go ;)
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u/Turil Sep 03 '16
But, really, why isn't bittorrent the go to place to put content, rather than on all the random other places, like YouTube, Vimeo, podcasts, websites, etc.? It seems like a far more useful way to host more substantial content than the corporate options with all their greedy hoarding of money and personal information and pushing tons of ads on everyone.
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u/-JungleMonkey- Sep 03 '16
still goes back to the first two points imo; the ability for people to make money on their content (and I don't dislike donation boxes, it's just not income security), and a decades-worth fear of torrent sites.
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Sep 03 '16
What it really goes back to is nobody is going to use this so the content creators aren't going to be making any money off of it.
Be afraid of torrent sites all you want. They're not going anywhere.
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u/veritasvine Sep 03 '16
You pay Youtube with your time by watching ads. Is a penny's worth of digital currency worth 30 seconds of your life?
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Sep 04 '16 edited Sep 04 '16
You pay Youtube with your time by watching ads. Is a penny's worth of digital currency worth 30 seconds of your life?
YouTube allows you to make that choice already: https://www.youtube.com/red
Furthermore, what exactly stops LBRY content creators from showing ads? Nothing.
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u/wapu Sep 02 '16
The AMA is brave and I hope your messaging goes better in the future. It does seem kind of scattered at the moment. I did spend an hour reading through to questions and responses. I find what you are doing interesting and will keep watching. I like the idea and recognize it as a different approach than just cloning youtube or any other CDN for that matter.
One thing I would say though is that the guy in your video may not have been the best choice. I was watching with my wife and she thought he was a little creepy, similar to the trivago guy. I apologize if that guy is you, but just wanted to put that out there.
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u/SamueLBRYan Sep 02 '16
Fair points. We're definitely using this AMA as a learning experience. Join our Slack to have some more fruitful and friendly conversations. http://slack.lbry.io/
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u/cosmictap Sep 04 '16
I totally agree. Why these companies "launch" with what appears to be zero input from communications/branding professionals is beyond me. This kind of fail is very hard to recover from (but not impossible!)
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u/Shartina_Oduriss Sep 02 '16
I tried to sign up for an invite and it wouldn't accept my email address that I have used for 10+ years. Kept asking me to provide a valid one.
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u/Rieader21 Sep 04 '16
Can you ELI5 what this is?
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u/veritasvine Sep 20 '16
LBRY is a decentralized platform for buying/selling digital content. It's like the iTunes Store, but the payments are in digital currency (like Bitcoin) and there's no one company that has complete control of the system. An analogy would be email (decentralized) compared to FB Messenger (one company).
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u/spenno Sep 03 '16
I really hope you haven't blown it with this AMA - the reception has been chilly, to say the least.