I’m interested in peertube it’s an exciting concept. When I when to that page I expected a simple, clean design inviting me to download it or use it or whatever. Instead there’s a rambling unfocused page without a call to action.
YouTube is the Mike Tyson of video…. you’ve gotta be much better than this to get in the ring with YouTube.
Actually, there is only one developer, not even working full time, on the project, and some lovely contributors.
So Framasoft is actually not playing with same means than big players like YouTube or so. That's why they are not handling the problem the same way.
The goal here is mainly to build a tool for people and small structures. There is no intent to be the new YouTube.
The message is more humble: anyone should be able to host and share at low cost their own videos. That's the issue that PeerTube solves right now.
If you think all of that sounds good, think about donating to Framasoft. They are living mostly from donations and that's what made PeerTube possible.
I know these are things that most HN users are happy to dig into and figure out, but currently there's no way Peertube is "an alternative to video platforms" for even saavy web users, let alone regular users. Maybe that's OK though?
It's the same as if Microsoft was posting a blog on its own msdn.com domain for something related to visual studio or SharePoint
Which underlines the point that the parent is making. Normal users are not the ones reading things related to SharePoint. Apple does their announcements on the apple.com domain and not on applnews.com.
> I think this is a good example of what separates HN users from normal users.
Normal users would never ever find this blog post in the first place. You are trying to fix a problem that does not exist.
Doesn't exist any more. It's now all under microsoft.com (e.g. devblogs.microsoft.com).
I mean isn’t it ironic that PeerTube doesn’t use a PeerTube video to introduce its new features? Guess their team thinks their own product isn’t a good way of consuming interesting information…
And while I do agree that a savvy marketer would have had a video in the article ... a video is actually a bad medium for communicating a new release. Videos are better for stuff with a bit of visual spectacle.
But that wouldn't stop a non-AGPL licenced solution from interoperating as the network is based on an open standard (ActivityPub).
There is a competitive advantage to not giving your future competition a heads up by providing them your keys to the foundation of your Kingdom. Sure, they'll copy what you do eventually if what you're doing is working, but why make that easier for them?
If someone is seriously going to take on the current systems and sees value in part or all of PeerTube then it's not a substantial part of the cost, because as you say, it's not the codebase that's important - though it becomes a conversation piece if it means any additions to the codebase reduces an even temporary competitive advantage from potential future competitors.
the high thresholds and lack of mainstream polish of most open source projects is a true fact and has to do with the economic / business models (or non-models) so its not an easy challenge to solve
somehow being able to engage creative people to contribute (whether it is UI design, visual art, engaging text etc) will be critical for FOSS to have bigger impact