I’m boycotting YouTube primarily because of their recent human right censorship against Palestine. But I’d generally like to reduce YouTube’s dominance in the streaming space, even if it means supporting a few alternative US-based platforms like Nebula, though obviously PeerTube would be ideal.

Edit: The comments here mention that it would be good to tie the email to monetization, so I’ll also be mentioning my support on Patreon in future emails.

Here’s the kind of email I’m sending to my favourite creators. You can usually find their email in their channel bio.

Subject: Please consider alternative video platforms

Hello <First Name/Channel Name>,

I’m writing to ask you to please consider uploading your videos to alternative streaming platforms, in addition to, not instead of, YouTube.

I’ve personally started to move away from YouTube because <INSERT reasons>. Here’s another creator who also recently wrote about their reasons for moving off the platform: https://joshgriffiths.site/youtube-is-awful-im-not-posting-there-anymore/

I’m currently consuming video content on <INSERT alternatives> instead of YouTube.

<INSERT reasons I’m a fan>. I would love to continue watching your content on any other platform, and I’m sure others would appreciate the option to do so as well.

Cheers,
<Name>

  • allen@rail.chat
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    2 days ago

    @cabbage @cecilkorik @brianpeiris There’s an initiative in the works to try and answer these questions, forming a co-operative structure dedicated to hosting video platform(s) in a way that can support the needs of creators, viewers and supporters. Focused on Canadian content but hoping to create a widely replicable model. It’s polling for names and other feedback right now, have your say:

    https://atomicpoet.org/notice/B0eL2wd3n3aWsnL756

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Cool what about the bandwidth? Even a federated solution for video would be hard if it becomes popular.

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        That’s something about Peertube. It works on torrenting technology if I understand correctly, could I help my instance by constantly seeding my own videos? Even if Imnot hosting my own instance, could I help shoulder the load?