heygooberman

I'm guessing this isn't what YouTube had in mind when they started this campaign.

To quote The Joker, "It'll be funny if it weren't so pathetic...oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyways!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Regardless of what the platform is called, I don't think it's worth staying on it, because the problem remains.

I think Pop OS might work on that model, and if it does, I would highly recommend it, as the DE is very similar to macOS. If I recall correctly, that distro also has multitouch trackpad functions that behave similar to those on the MacBook.

Ah, I see. In that case, then yes, I would agree that the perception you just described would indeed raise the question of the Premium price, especially when compared to Disney and Amazon.

Perhaps not, but I am not certain if "amateur" is the right word in describing the creator contents on YouTube. Certainly, we're not talking Disney-level video quality, but most of the creators I follow appear to have some skill in AV recording and video editing. Plus, they do present some things that are of interest to a wide variety of audiences. Therefore, I don't necessarily see such content as "amateur-created". Now, that's not to say there are no amateur-level content on YouTube. I'm sure there are plenty of contents that really are of poor quality and not worth your time and money.

Please be aware that I am not trying to convince you to jump onboard YouTube Premium. That's your decision.

Hmmm...well, their fight against the adblockers is quite concerning, especially if the ads are so intrusive that they disrupt the user experience in viewing content, thus pushing more users to get Premium or go to another platform. It's not uncommon these days to find people migrating away from Big Tech platforms and going to other platforms that have more reasonable and sustainable services that benefit both the client and the vendor. The challenge is the content, which may not be as numerous as what you would find on YouTube, and along with that, there's the challenge of convincing creators to go onto those other platforms.

But, I am doubtful that Alphabet will be financially impacted. They might see a loss around YouTube, but that loss could be offset by profits from other products in their portfolio. Furthermore, because they have a paid option, it wouldn't be surprising to see people going for that option, especially if the cost is reasonable, and they are getting premium services not just for themselves but also their friends and family.

Do you anticipate your instance eventually growing to the point where you would have to outsource your hosting and start taking donations to cover the cost? And do you believe donations would be enough to pay off the costs, given the voluntary and variable nature of donations? What is your opinion of using ads to cover the cost of hosting?

That's an interesting analogy!

It would appear that the overall nature of the Fediverse is to have numerous small instances that can communicate with each other, and since instance size is a factor in determining the cost of hosting, many people could host without seeing a huge chunk of their income being taken away for hosting.

Of course, I would imagine other factors that would determine whether someone should host or not, like having the technical competence necessary to troubleshoot server issues.

If we do have some instances running ads, wouldn't that run counter to the goals of the Fediverse? It's my understanding that much of the migration from Big Tech platforms to Fediverse platforms is to escape the intrusive nature of ads and to prevent the Big Tech companies from taking user data and giving it to advertisers, something that is a major privacy concern these days.

Well, if Firefox does become unusable for you, then I don't think you would be at fault for switching to a Chromium-based browser, like Vivaldi. Usability is an important aspect to consider.

Have you considered using a Firefox fork, like LibreWolf?

It isn't the default search engine on my browser. I'm using Kagi at the moment.

Yeah...I don't know how you all feel about this, but I'd much rather talk to an actual person than to a sophisticated chat bot. That's not to discredit the actual (and potential) benefits of something like ChatGPT, but I doubt we will solve loneliness through the use of such technology.