this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
36 points (90.9% liked)

Peertube

2398 readers
1 users here now

A free software to take back control of your videos

Peertube is an open, federated alternative to Youtube without advertising or tracking. On this site, you can find a good Peertube instance, with good rules, good moderation and most importantly a friendly community.

https://joinpeertube.org/

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
36
Why Most PeerTube Instances Say No to New Users (And Why That’s Totally Fair) (lm.madiator.cloud)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hot take: Most PeerTube instances shouldn’t just hand out accounts to anyone—and here’s the reality check. Running a PeerTube server isn’t like YouTube. There’s no trillion-dollar corporation footing the bill. Instead, small community admins juggle:

The major points are:

  • Storage costs (video files add up fast!)
  • Moderation work (spam, trolls, and legal risks)
  • Bandwidth limits
  • Abuse handling (because yes, people will test boundaries) Yet, a lot of sign-up requests sound like (at least from what I see on my instance):

"I wanna upload videos." "I’m starting a Roblox channel."

Sorry, but that’s not enough. Admins aren’t obligated to give free hosting to strangers. A good admin looks for people who:

  • Fit the community’s vibe (e.g., a coding-focused instance won’t host gaming streams).
  • Show effort—like sharing a portfolio or explaining why their content adds value.

Example: If you applied with a sample of your work or a clear plan? Hell yes, I’d consider you. But if your pitch is just "I want free hosting," why should the community foot the bill?

TL;DR: PeerTube isn’t a free-for-all. "I just wanna upload stuff" isn’t a good reason. Bring something to the table.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can just use your mastodon account for that. Peertube accounts without channels dont really make sense.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sure, if you have or want to use Mastodon.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

No. Its no different if you make a peertube or a mastodon account just to interact with videos. More importabtly, you can interact with more instances because on peertube, federation is opt in while on mastodon it is opt out.

So no, you download mastodon app or visit a mastodon website, make an account (which is better than corpo media anyway) and interact with peertube the same as you would otherwise with a peertube account.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

But you can't log in to peertube with you mastodon account. You can only interact with the video, or channel via Mastodon.

Is there a way to create playlist or have as watch it latter with a mastodon account?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Not sure about that one, honestly. But youvcan always just make an account on peertube if you absolutely want to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

But if you just want to use PeerTube, using Mastodon just introduces extra steps.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not really. You make an account either way and you can just follow creators on mastodon just the same.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wouldn’t you need to use PeerTube to discover and search for content? So you have would to go back and forth between PeerTube and Mastodon.

So obviously, if you just want to consume videos, it’s the best experience to use PeerTube.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not necessarily. You can search and subscribe to peertube channels and get notified about new videos on mastodon. All this stuff is new and massively underfunded so of course comparing it to billion dollar projects is naive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I I don't want to use Mastodon like I don't want to use Twitter then that's an extra step that would better to not have.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Well, you dont have to. Just make an account on some peertube server and be done with it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But so many instances don't allow signups

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Yes, and? We discussed the reasons and different ways to work around it. There are places you can register at though.