I don't believe it would make a big difference. Platforms have made it very convenient for content creators to view all kind of insights on their audience, hence they might want to support the need for accounts.
Most likely not replace the existing digital environment, but we know that the current digital landscape and its uses could evolve very quickly (whether due to the invention of something new/negative or geopolitical issues). When such events occur, it is important that the available alternatives avoid well-known flaws, and the fediverse has a lot to offer in this regard. But we must continue to work on improving the minor annoyances that federation brings.
The digital mediation sector is not exactly thriving, but there are still opportunities to organize events that address the issue of privacy with the general public.
On a more technical side, there are also companies that are specifically positioning themselves on these issues.
The Framagames website was set up a long time ago and it only features FLOSS games made by external devs, we do very very little development apart from PeerTube.
As almost all of our services are built on third-party free software, our lack of adaptability to mobile devices is simply a reflection of a general lack of expertise in this area within the free software community.
However, we are well aware that we missed the boat on this topic many years ago.
That is why we are exploring the publication of mobile applications, first with PeerTube, as in this case, but also with Lokas, an audio transcription application.
Finally, several of our services are also aging and need to be replaced by other solutions that are more compatible with mobile use.
Perhaps it's because we explain our vision clearly and have demonstrated that we have kept our promises over the years. But above all, we are very lucky to have them.
We don't think PeerTube will directly replace YouTube at some point, but we do think that some organizations, media outlets, and content creators may not have the same level of interest in posting on YouTube as they do today. For all of them, we hope they will find PeerTube to be a good fit.
I think we are indeed more efficient, more agile and adaptive than larger orgs, but it's probably also because we were lucky enough to have many very skilled team mates :)
However, it also means that not everything is as polished as some bigger players, but we think we manage to give the best value for the price!
Yes, we're actually working on modernizing our de-google-ify suit!
However, it'll take time since we need to review each service and identify what are our needs and how we can fit them! Do we need to develop new features for an existing software? Are we able to do so? Is there a new software fully fitting our needs? Or maybe there are other promising softwares but not ready yet?
There are a lot of things to consider, especially when we're talking of services being used by 2M people each month!
We prefer monthly donations because they help us maintain financial stability throughout the year, whereas one-time donations tend to come in mainly when we run fundraising campaigns like this one (which means that some months our cash flow is low).
We now work a lot with a design agency called La Coopérative Des Internets to improve PeerTube design. They helped us a lot to have an interface easier to understand for non-tech-savvy people! We still have progress to do but are actively working on it!
We want to improve the user experience on mobile. We know most people watch video on their mobile phones so that's why we are now putting resources to develop an official mobile app. You can learn more about our plans for the mobile app in the crowdfunding campaign we just launched!
We also want to improve the way to discover content on PeerTube. First steps are not easy enough now and are working (with designers, again) on this subject. As an example, we're trying to improve Sepia Search so it's easier to discover new content on it. (No ETA to share yet)
We also get inspired by community efforts and other Fediverse projects! So if you've ideas about how to improve the situation, feel free to share them on our dedicated feedback website!
Monetization is a complicated and potentially sensitive topic that we have not yet addressed.
However, this is not the only reason why YouTube is in its dominant position; even with monetization, the network effect of this platform will always remain.
PeerTube today meets the demand for video hosting (e.g., the market where Vimeo is positioned), but is not really a distribution channel with social features like YouTube.
While our goal is not to provide a definitive answer to this shortcoming, we are considering possibilities for integration with third-party payment or subscription platforms (such as Patreon) to make it easy to restrict videos to subscribers, for example. That's something we're thinking of, but is very far from being done.
Finally, there is already the Bunseed project (website exclusively in French, sorry) which is looking into this issue and has a prototype based on Ghost (publishing, subscription, email) + PeerTube + payment platform (such as Stripe).
Feel free to send us a message through our contact form whenever you want to talk about a specific topic! We're always interested to talk with other Fediverse project so we can try to provide softwares!
Yeah, we think we worked hard but we still had a bit of luck
We really think communication is important too. However, to be precise, even our colleague which joined us to start working on it was not an expert of the field. He was just a volunteer interested to work on our communication and started to do so. Some years later, we're able to hire him so he could be truly dedicated to this mission!
We thinks it's better to hire someone being able to work with others and passionate about digital issues than an expert in a specific field. Technical skills can be acquired but human skills are harder to get!
Concerning how we pay our staff: we pay a lot more than most non-profit organizations in France, but it's less than what our employees could expect regarding their skills on the competitive market.
Though, we think money is not the only reason why our talents stay with us: we also provide really good work conditions (We try to respect each one rythm and needs, either it's material or something like following a training). Finally, all of our employees find a meaning in our mission (raising awareness about digital issues, providing alternative and respectful services to organizations and people, etc).
Unsure if this would work, but the idea is interesting enough to be discussed on https://ideas.joinpeertube.org/ if you can share it and give details on how it work in your mind.
Thanks for the support!