@Blort @tilvids I've had this thought many times.... this seems like a glaring ommission:( I mean, as long as they federate this shouldn't be any harder than connecting to mastodon right, they are the same app.

@lps @Blort I do have federation turned off for TILvids. This was because creator content was "showing up" on other instances, which is very confusing for people coming from YouTube. Right now, I'm focused on just trying to get YouTubers onto a different privacy-respecting platform, rather than teaching them about federation. My hope is that I can enable this (if even only selectively) someday, but I do feel it's important to focus on getting creators here first.

@tilvids @Blort this isn't on you, it's a peertube issue. We're simply not offered the option to subscribe from other peertube instances:( This is from my instance, and I federate.

@lps @Blort Ahhh, I see what you guys mean. Yes, I've noticed that myself before, and wondered why it was that you can subscribe to channels via Mastodon accounts, but not PeerTube accounts (from other instances). Hopefully something they'll allow someday, as that seems like something a lot of people will want to do!

@tilvids @Blort Does anyone know technically why this would not be possible?

@lps @Blort Might be a good read for @Framasoft ! :)

@tilvids @lps @Blort

It's under development but it's still complicated to manage (lots of different cases and possible confilcts between admin federation settings and users needs). So it will take time.

@Framasoft @lps @Blort I figured as much. I'm sure you guys will get there, and it will work as well as the rest of #PeerTube ! :)

@tilvids @lps

Ok. Good to know. Thanks @Framasoft! Thankfully the RSS option there at least lets me subscribe from my trusty, beloved feed reader, even if long term, I'd rather subscribe from #Peertube itself.

Anyway, thanks for all the hard work. #Livestreaming is a super exciting possibility, as is the recent work on moderation tools. 💕 ❤️ Let me know if you ever need any help with design or marketing related issues (eg copywriting in English).

@lps @tilvids @Blort You can subscribe to peertube channels from accounts on other peertube servers. I do from my own server. You have to search for the channel from your home server and click subscribe.

Tilvids and peertube.social may be an exception: I think I remember that peertube.social doesn’t allow following channels from servers it doesn’t follow (not a peertube default!) and tilvids doesn’t allow any server to follow it…

@gidi @lps @tilvids

So is there any instance you can use that can subscribe to any #Peertube instance? I just want to be able to actually follow channels and see their latest videos.

So far though, even when I tried an account on https://hitchtube.fr which follows more instances than any other known (over 1000), I still wasn't able to find any of the 3 channels I looked for (including TILvids). Same went for tube.social.tchncs.

@Blort @gidi @lps

The decision to not federate on TILvids is a very intentional one, for two reasons:

1. A number of creators did not want their content showing up on other instances. I want to make sure that we can respect that wish.

2. Many other instances are almost entirely populated with conspiracy theory videos, NSFW content, pirated content, etc. I want to help legitimize PeerTube as a platform by building an instance that moves away from that.

(cont) That might be a decision I'll revisit in the future, and perhaps strategically federate with other instances that make sense from both a content and policy standpoint, but right now I wanted to try something different with TILvids, rather than just being another part of the network.

@tilvids @gidi @lps

Sure. I respect your decision to not federate your content to other instances.

I'm just wondering if users of other instances (ie ME!) can subscribe to your channels.

I don't know if content federation and subscribing are inseparable at the moment. Seems to me that they shouldn't be though. Can you imagine needing different logins to subscribe to different YouTube channels?

For the moment is subscribing via Mastodon the only reliable option?

#Peertube #UX

@tilvids @gidi @lps

Personally I think you should be able to *not* federate your content elsewhere, but still have people from all over the #fediverse subscribe to your videos and comment (barring banlists etc).

I'm sure there's more technical complexity to it but it's essentially already being done in #Mastodon... why not #Peertube?

@Blort

Yeah, I definitely understand what you're wanting, and it's completely reasonable. I think what you're looking for is a way to have a personal feed of videos from multiple instances, without having to go to every single instance.

There's always the RSS option. For example, the RSS feed for TILvids' most recent videos is:

https://tilvids.com/feeds/videos.xml?sort=-publishedAt

I think that gets you halfway there, but the UI for that experience isn't likely to be nearly as slick.

Maybe submit a feature request?

@Blort You don’t need separate PeerTube accounts to subscribe to channels of other servers, you can just do it from one PeerTube account. I’m quite sure I’m subscribed to some channels of tilvids from my PeerTube account.

I’m not sure whether I already shared this short screen recording where I show one way to do that: https://peertube.gidikroon.eu/videos/watch/a39d4dcc-2299-47b4-bd08-7b29c4ef02fa

@gidi

I figured it out! It's a #Peertube #UX issue, not a technical shortcoming.

I discovered that if you search for the channel (eg geotechland@tilvids.com ) it's possible to subscribe. If you accidentally search for the user who created the channel, which usually looks almost the same (eg geotechdigital@tilvids.com ) nothing is found.

Different pages give different ID's.

This would all be fixed if Peertube just showed available channels in search, when you searched for a user.

@tilvids
Yes, content on many if not most Peertube instances is rather disappointing at this time...
@Blort @gidi @lps

@normand @gidi @Blort @lps

There are some good ones out there, but yes, I don't like what most instances look like. PeerTube deserves a better ecosystem of content, and that's my goal with tilvids.com

Tell your friends! :)

@gidi @tilvids @Blort I'm doing the same thing, running a personal instance with little to no content (it's not necessary) and simply subscribing to the channels I want. This is the best experience ever! I don't have any trash as Tilvids mentioned and I can interact as I would by following on mastodon but in a more suitable interface IMHO.

I see this as the optimal way for most of these services. I subscribe directly to Tilvids and have fresh videos served right to me:)

@lps @gidi @Blort

Yeah, other than RSS, that's the only other thing I can think to do. If you want a "video homepage feed" experience, without having to go to every instance (for the ones that aren't federated), I don't know if there are better options.

I know TILvids and a few other instances are using this in a different way than Framasoft intended (i.e. no federation) so it's probably a workflow they hadn't considered/decided not to consider.

@Framasoft maybe could give insight.

@tilvids @lps @gidi @Framasoft

Actually I figured it out (see https://social.tchncs.de/@Blort/105549723412425195 ).

Ultimately it's just a weird #UX issue where #peertube returns no results when you search for a user ID instead of a channel ID (even if that user has channels you can subscribe to).

I'm properly subscribed to a couple of #TILvids channels in Peertube now. :)

I'll file a bug to try and help improve the subscribing UX.

@Blort @lps @gidi

Yay, congrats! Yeah, the @Framasoft group does an exceptional job with PeerTube, and they're always bringing in new functionality. I'm sure they'll be happy to listen to the idea and consider it for the future, if it aligns with their plans.

Glad you got it working, hope you're enjoying the videos!

@lps
Oh, you're making me want to do the same! 😀
@gidi @tilvids @Blort

@normand
You'll be glad you did, it changes the experience entirely:)
@gidi @tilvids @Blort

@lps @normand @gidi @Blort

To be honest, how I wish the Fediverse operated is if it was more like a self-hosted identity service, that you could then install apps onto. You could install Mastodon and just go to your own personal instance and see a wall of everyone you've added. PeerTube would just be a stream of channels you've subscribed to. Etc.