When people tell me that PeerTube is better than YouTube I raise my Bajoran eyebrow because to me, its wronger than a wrong pie on the tenth Tuesday of the month of wrongington, served at wrong-o’clock. But to them, it’s not wrong. You see, to the Free software user there are simply more factors to consider, and different factors. I made a chart!
I have tried to be objective here, as a recent traitor to the cause. I think I can see both sides of this. I think I see why people look me in the eye and say “PeerTube is better than YouTube” and done smirk.
The mass market human as I see them, are not idiots, like the angry free software advocate will tell you. The mass market human cares deeply about things. I know a man who is very into his church group and spends his time working to better the group and strengthen it. I know a dude who fucking loves making software but isn’t part of the FOSS culture. I know a mass market human who is obsessed with Blender; she love’s it like it’s her puppy but doesn’t care about the fact that it’s free software. These people care about different things to the Penguin-human. They may care deeply about the environment but use a MacBook Air. They just have different priorities.
Take myself, for instance: I am well informed about open stuff. I understand it and use Linux for a decade. Then my interests shifted to writing and suddenly it wasn’t the right thing to use. Sure, I could have said, “I’ll make it work! Linux is more important than the odd writing application!” and that would have been fine, but to me, the writing was more important than the OS. At that moment.
Considering this, assuming that the mass human is not an idiot and scoring things sensibly, I think the average non-penguin human thinks YouTube is worth 22 points to them.
I scored each category between -5 and +5. So, if you don’t care, the lowest you can go is zero. If you care that its NOT a thing you can go -5. For instance, the mass human does not give two shits’ if they can self-host something so its just 0/not scored. Whereas the Penguin is deeply concerned that you can’t host something yourself. So, they score -5. I think this is reasonable, because if you could self-host YouTube, it wouldn’t affect the mass human at all. Not on any level.
Assuming you think my score is reasonable then an every day, run of the mill human can get 22 points of value from YouTube. Now, to me, the interesting thing is that to this same human PeerTube is worth -5 points. That’s literally 27 points less than YouTube is worth to them!
The Penguin however sees YouTube as worth -10 points and PeerTube as 33 points. So, PeerTube is worth 43 points more than YouTube!
You can suddenly see why, when we look at all the factors, we can take content out of it entirely. If there were no videos on PeerTube its simple existence would make it “better” to a Penguin.
This is why when they look me in the eyes and says “PeerTube is better than YouTube” they are not talking crazy, they are making commentary from their own point of view.
I honestly think both sides of this debate need to be more mindful of the other’s point of view. Now, lets do the same scoring system for Twitter v Mastodon.
With Twitter vs Mastodon I have tried to be reasonable again. Any Penguin who uses Twitter will recognise that there is a wider variety of content on there even if there’s lots they don’t want, I think overall, yes. We have to concede. And the mass human has to recognise that if they liked the available content then there aren’t any ads which is nice… still. Even trying to be super reasonable to a mass market human, mastodon is worth negative value, and they literally won’t visit. Same for twitter to a Penguin. But twitter is, at best, worth 22 to a not-penguin whereas Mastodon is worth 34 points to a Penguin.
Do I have a point here? YES. I do… Penguins care way more about the things they like, they love the stuff they love more than non-penguins love the things they love. And that, well, that’s cool! – I love how they can get so balls in the wind into something! I’ve been there myself and it’s great!
But at the same time, to a human who isn’t into FOSS culture and doesn’t care, then they can’t see it. They don’t give a shit. But if bet if you spend time with the man on the street, you would see that while he doesn’t give a shit about FOSS, and the term privacy means closing his curtains at night… He may deeply care about something you don’t give a shit about. He may love 15th century Vietnamese poetry. Or maybe he designs cars, or wites books or just fucking LOVES hanging out with his family. Maybe humans have a limit of like 100 shits to give about things and if he gave all his shits to that 15th century Vietnamese poetry he has no shits left to give about self hosted services.
lol
lol lol