Loops aims to be an open Fediverse alternative to TikTok, Snapchat, and Vine. We take an early look at the app, and talk about what it’s like!

  • dudenas@slrpnk.net
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    5 hours ago

    If I understand it right… it will be much more costly to host videocentric platform than other types of content. A serious proposal for sharing the burden of hosting will likely be vital - through funding or decentralized storage/processing. Havent heard about that yet.

      • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com
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        28 minutes ago

        The problem with Peertube, IMO, is you can’t just “join”.

        Pick an instance, it’s locked down. I get it, hosting others video content is costly and dangerous, but it’s also a huge barrier.

      • dudenas@slrpnk.net
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        5 hours ago

        not sure about peertube audience size, but afaik it does have a serious subsystem of resource sharing.

    • Sean Tilley@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 hours ago

      Object Storage is relatively cheap, and goes a long way towards affordable hosting. Processing video, on the other hand…

      • NickwithaC@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        The very first Youtube video is still up. Any serious competitor is going to need to offer that level of reliability with added benefits to woo users over.

        • noodlejetski@lemm.ee
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          3 hours ago

          have you considered that a platform for sharing short, vertical videos, developed by a single person, perhaps isn’t trying to become a “serious competitor” for Youtube?

        • Jake Farm
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          3 hours ago

          Loops isn’t competing with youtube. I doubt you would be able to find the first tiktok.

    • barkingspiders@infosec.pub
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      5 hours ago

      I wonder about this a lot. The little research I did suggested DigitalOcean is footing the bill for the moment (and also for Pixelfed? would love to hear more about this). Google, Facebook, TikTok, etc… have all managed to throw enough resources at similar products that people expect a level of performance that is very expensive to maintain. There is some serious hardware and distribution issues ($$$$) with trying to host an “instant and endless stream of short form video”.

      In a counter point though I think large instances like lemmy.world and lemmy.ml have found ways to survive and thrive and the fediverse generally seems to be supported in a very grassroots sort of fashion. Donations, patrons, people who have the hardware and bandwidth sharing what they can for the greater community. Perhaps loops will go the same way.