This is the consequence of monopolies. Before YouTube gobbled up the world there were great, niche video sites ran by fans of the coolest things. They are mostly gone now. It is sad. The web really used to be an adventure. I miss that part of the internet. You felt like you found these secret underground worlds where people were really into something. Now it’s different. Maybe what we have now it what is needed for content creators to be fairly compensated, but I will still miss it.
Maybe it's the wrong mindset, but imo compensation is precisely why the internet stopped being like that. When people are doing things for free, there is generally a maximum to the amount of effort they will put into things.
They might try to make something look nice and be slick for the end user, but they won't usually hire people or use big studios.
This contributed to a culture where the very best people in the field are making things that any user could also go away and do themselves easily, which led to creativity.
Nowadays the best people get money, and lots of it, which leads to their production becoming better and better, which leads to a better product, but less innovation.
I see this sentiment mentioned often, but all the things we could do back in the day are not only still possible, they are actually still being done by people out there.
What has happened is that, whereas 10 years ago we would individually spend the time to track down these communities and niche sites, nowadays we can't be bothered and just go to Youtube or Facebook. That's on us though.
Fortunately, in my experience niche sites and communities are still thriving through social transmission, and the fact that so many more people are active online nowadays.
Initially all businesses are trying to figure out how to make money by quickly exploring possible business ideas. That's when the most fun but also most start-up tragedies happen. Once some revenue stream is found, the company can start growing, getting into collaborative phase, where it is viewed as a super cool place and most people inside can change things. At some point business opportunities get exhausted, other measures need to be put in place, company grows too big for everybody to have a voice; bureaucracy and formalism sets in, company starts to be perceived as losing its edge and being stale, optimizing for its core profit, exploiting as much as it can and stopping most of the exploration. Innovative people move on to other spaces allowing exploration, reliable business types move in.
Online downloadable audio was barely tractable in 1999 or earlier, let alone streaming video. What was this golden age, what were the sites, and what was the usage?
Streaming video is almost wholly 2004 and later, generally years later.
I think this is just rose tinted glasses. The internet was a lot smaller place in the past and by every measure there is orders of magnitude more content available today than in the 90s across the full spectrum of human affairs. Although highly visible to the individual content creators, the slivers of content that get removed from YouTube are drops in the ocean compared to the massive amount of content made available on just YouTube alone. Most people on the internet today weren't even online during the supposed golden era, and for many others today's internet is the only internet they've ever known.
Can you name three such sites? Because I'm pretty sure you might be thinking of some other media; video was expensive to host efficiently because of the file size, and it's only right around the time of the inception of YouTube that costs came down far enough and bandwidth came up far enough to enable simple video sharing.
On a slightly unrelated note:
When these to-be monopolies are just starting and raising dollars, their service and everything is on point. Once their too big to have competitors, there is absolutely no way of even contacting them (even if you're in the clear and they're wrong). Customer service from these tech monopolies really makes me feel like we're all cattle.
High speed internet is better and more available than ever before. Storage is also much cheaper than before youtube came along. If it could happen back then, it can happen much easier now.
Although YouTube's market position or "monopoly" as you'd like to call it certainly has drawn a crosshair on it's forehead; a more causal relationship between the take-downs proliferates to me as what people describe to be "cancel culture".
it's the discovery. anyone can still put a video somewhere else. it's just that it's pointless putting it somewhere where it's hard to discover if you also want monetization.
I learned security from t-files, 8lgm, phrack, and bugtraq. The people who taught me learned it from mentorship. The only meaningful progress in security is by people who work against it. It's a craft subculture, and the real value of it is in securing the freedom of people to not be subjects of platforms.
YouTube is lame for doing this, but it's a net positive for innovation.
Let them have their walled suburb. Innovation happens at the edges, and the social-sphere had made people lazy. The bar for entry to being a hacker is so low, it's the equivalent to governments setting up programs to train people to play punk music.
Tech giants have become like baby boomers who still think they are rebels.
I look forward to a new generation of kids who will spit upon their hands, hoist the black flag and make hacking dangerous again.
I hate how removed videos don't retain a title. It's one thing for a video to be taken down, it's another to see a mystery box taunting me from my favorites playlist. What forbidden knowledge (cat video) is forever lost to time?
Well YouTube's actions is really unsurprising given that they have made it more unclear on which videos meet their Terms of Service. If that wasn't enough, creators also complained about 'The Algorithm' scanning their videos to demonetize or take down videos for the same reason.
At this point, It is worth looking at other alternatives such as Bitchute, PeerTube, etc with Patreon support to avoid this senseless behaviour that YouTube is doing to its creators.
If they can do it to creators with crazy conspiracy theorist videos or creators who have political opinion videos, YouTube can do it to anyone.
That’s really sad! Censoring informative content should never be part of any corporate strategy, especially in countries having freedom in their constitution.
Self-hosting PeerTube is trivial. So is self-hosting NextCloud (DropBox alternative). So is self-hosting PixelFed (Instagram alternative). So is self-hosting Mastodon, RocketChat, Code-Server (VSCode) etc. Rent a $5/month VPS and have 100% control over what you publish and federate with like-minded as you like. At some point those services will support 90% of all monopoly features and 99% features you care about. If you are worried about some unwanted illegal content coming in from federated users, it's trivial to get Deep Learning filters to remove 99% of unwanted content (e.g. porn) as well. You can decide the rules.
Is this actually happening? Because it makes little sense when you consider that YouTube-parent Google is sponsoring security education videos. See this GCP-sponsored LiveOverflow video:
Maybe Google's killing off dodgy script kiddie vids, and leaving quality content up (and I mean the rest of LiverOverflow's videos et al, not just the paid-for stuff.)
I think this came up months ago and it was clarified it was just a mistake, not an actually policy. Google didn't actually ban educational videos, but people drew conclusions from Twitter and assumed the worst against reason.
Reddit comments seems to confirm that this is just fear mongering at this point, and the OP should know by now what happened.
If you read the comments in the Reddit thread, this is clickbait fear-mongering. It's a sad state of affairs when Reddit users are savvier than HN users.
Even the Redditor commenters are not falling for this.
Not sure why HN is getting hit so hard by the anti-big-tech FUD over the last few days, or why we keep taking the bait. Maybe just because HN has start up culture at its core.
YouTube doesn't seem to be interested in hosting any content that isn't manufactured from a giant media corporation or just vapid clickbait entertainment. Just take a look at the trending tab to see what YouTube wants to promote: http://youtube.com/trending
It's worth noting that "Trending" is curated by YouTube itself, and is not an algorithmically determined set of videos.
I feel like more and more educational youtubers are going to be moving to platforms like Skillshare, Brilliant, and other next-gen educational/learning subscription services that already sponsor them, more or less because they're undoubtedly going to be fairly compensated for their work on those platforms vs. YouTube, and catering to an audience that is passionate about learning and doesn't post asinine troll comments.
YouTube is undergoing the same transformation that happened to TLC, Discovery, and The History Channel; toy reviews, mainstream media and music, zany (yet soulless) influencers, and good-for-all-audiences content are ruling the platform because they bring in the most most advertising revenue, creating a beautiful moment in time, creating a lot of value for shareholders.
This is the safe, nice YouTube you've been asking for. Hope you enjoy it.
Remember when we were saying that it was going to end badly when the mainstream media were pressuring advertisers to have a moral stance on the content their advertisements are shown with? Well, this is exactly what was bound to happen. YouTube is (gradually, to reduce backlash) becoming Disney-VEVO-Time Warner tube, and that means they're going to have to find cost-effective ways to destroy all marginally-concerning-looking content.
Is there an official page from YouTube that lists banned categories? Even YouTube's public policy page [1] doesn't mention anything about educational hacking videos.
[+] [-] thrwn_frthr_awy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RugnirViking|6 years ago|reply
They might try to make something look nice and be slick for the end user, but they won't usually hire people or use big studios.
This contributed to a culture where the very best people in the field are making things that any user could also go away and do themselves easily, which led to creativity.
Nowadays the best people get money, and lots of it, which leads to their production becoming better and better, which leads to a better product, but less innovation.
[+] [-] simonh|6 years ago|reply
What has happened is that, whereas 10 years ago we would individually spend the time to track down these communities and niche sites, nowadays we can't be bothered and just go to Youtube or Facebook. That's on us though.
Fortunately, in my experience niche sites and communities are still thriving through social transmission, and the fact that so many more people are active online nowadays.
[+] [-] ALittleLight|6 years ago|reply
https://stumblingon.com
But also because I was bored and googled for the old StumbleUpon and was surprised to discover it no longer seems to exist.
Basically my goal here is to find a bunch of weird, random, and unique sites and give people a way to randomly explore or adventure through them.
[+] [-] bitL|6 years ago|reply
Initially all businesses are trying to figure out how to make money by quickly exploring possible business ideas. That's when the most fun but also most start-up tragedies happen. Once some revenue stream is found, the company can start growing, getting into collaborative phase, where it is viewed as a super cool place and most people inside can change things. At some point business opportunities get exhausted, other measures need to be put in place, company grows too big for everybody to have a voice; bureaucracy and formalism sets in, company starts to be perceived as losing its edge and being stale, optimizing for its core profit, exploiting as much as it can and stopping most of the exploration. Innovative people move on to other spaces allowing exploration, reliable business types move in.
[+] [-] dredmorbius|6 years ago|reply
Online downloadable audio was barely tractable in 1999 or earlier, let alone streaming video. What was this golden age, what were the sites, and what was the usage?
Streaming video is almost wholly 2004 and later, generally years later.
[+] [-] root_axis|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drdeadringer|6 years ago|reply
True Honest Question.
What were these sights? I was a teenage in the 1990s. I seriously and literally do not know and now I want to.
[+] [-] shadowgovt|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spookthesunset|6 years ago|reply
Give me a break...
[+] [-] iroeo0nd|6 years ago|reply
Or of your attention?
I find a lot of similar content as text & video not hosted on YT via DDG search
The content is still out there. Google chose not to host it on their servers.
[+] [-] m463|6 years ago|reply
But can't folks still create their own websites and upload their own content for cheap?
domain name, virtual server, upload?
(don't know about monetization)
[+] [-] forgotmypw|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r_singh|6 years ago|reply
On a slightly unrelated note: When these to-be monopolies are just starting and raising dollars, their service and everything is on point. Once their too big to have competitors, there is absolutely no way of even contacting them (even if you're in the clear and they're wrong). Customer service from these tech monopolies really makes me feel like we're all cattle.
[+] [-] lacampbell|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] buboard|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] friendlybus|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yahwrong|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coretx|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nerfhammer|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tanilama|6 years ago|reply
Inevitable TBH.
[+] [-] motohagiography|6 years ago|reply
YouTube is lame for doing this, but it's a net positive for innovation.
Let them have their walled suburb. Innovation happens at the edges, and the social-sphere had made people lazy. The bar for entry to being a hacker is so low, it's the equivalent to governments setting up programs to train people to play punk music.
Tech giants have become like baby boomers who still think they are rebels.
I look forward to a new generation of kids who will spit upon their hands, hoist the black flag and make hacking dangerous again.
[+] [-] onion2k|6 years ago|reply
"Walled suburb" is a brilliant description of content platforms.
[+] [-] FillardMillmore|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pizzazzaro|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] kipchak|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ruthalas|6 years ago|reply
They have a decent database, and you can add videos to it!
No affiliation, I just found it recently, and it may suit your use-case.
[+] [-] herpderperator|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dredmorbius|6 years ago|reply
Otherwise: I've got the same complaint. I've learnt not to rely on YouTube as a durable reference. I should remember to try the Archive more often.
Unfortunately, many third-party sites haven't, and frequently point at dead links.
[+] [-] Thorrez|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rvz|6 years ago|reply
At this point, It is worth looking at other alternatives such as Bitchute, PeerTube, etc with Patreon support to avoid this senseless behaviour that YouTube is doing to its creators.
If they can do it to creators with crazy conspiracy theorist videos or creators who have political opinion videos, YouTube can do it to anyone.
[+] [-] jakoblorz|6 years ago|reply
Have a look at PeerTube (https://joinpeertube.org) if you don’t know it yet.
[+] [-] bitL|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] diodesign|6 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-P9USG6kLs
Maybe Google's killing off dodgy script kiddie vids, and leaving quality content up (and I mean the rest of LiverOverflow's videos et al, not just the paid-for stuff.)
[+] [-] ggggtez|6 years ago|reply
Reddit comments seems to confirm that this is just fear mongering at this point, and the OP should know by now what happened.
[+] [-] freyr|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IIAOPSW|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaimex2|6 years ago|reply
I wonder if channels like 'Lockpicking Lawyer' will also get targeted?
[+] [-] acoye|6 years ago|reply
> guess we'll have to publish on YT all project zero's news and see how they react.
[+] [-] codesternews|6 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-P9USG6kLs
On other hand they are taking other educational videos.
[+] [-] hans_castorp|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] freyr|6 years ago|reply
Not sure why HN is getting hit so hard by the anti-big-tech FUD over the last few days, or why we keep taking the bait. Maybe just because HN has start up culture at its core.
[+] [-] ericdykstra|6 years ago|reply
It's worth noting that "Trending" is curated by YouTube itself, and is not an algorithmically determined set of videos.
[+] [-] lonelappde|6 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20350306
[+] [-] bouncycastle|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kawfey|6 years ago|reply
YouTube is undergoing the same transformation that happened to TLC, Discovery, and The History Channel; toy reviews, mainstream media and music, zany (yet soulless) influencers, and good-for-all-audiences content are ruling the platform because they bring in the most most advertising revenue, creating a beautiful moment in time, creating a lot of value for shareholders.
[+] [-] microcolonel|6 years ago|reply
Remember when we were saying that it was going to end badly when the mainstream media were pressuring advertisers to have a moral stance on the content their advertisements are shown with? Well, this is exactly what was bound to happen. YouTube is (gradually, to reduce backlash) becoming Disney-VEVO-Time Warner tube, and that means they're going to have to find cost-effective ways to destroy all marginally-concerning-looking content.
[+] [-] swiley|6 years ago|reply
On the other hand I feel like the sort of people that watch videos instead of reading documentation tend to be the kind that would misuse this stuff.
[+] [-] president|6 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.youtube.com/about/policies/#community-guidelines
[+] [-] tus88|6 years ago|reply