I run a Piped server for myself and friends, but it can be challenging to keep running. Whenever YT comes up with a new way to fuck around with NewPipe, you sometimes need to wait for someone that knows how to fix it shows up and makes a PR.
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
125 points (96.3% liked)
Ask Lemmy
31570 readers
1484 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Sounds like you should try TV to keep up with news
I meant like industry news. Blender, esp32, and such. Ya know nerdy shit. I get my news news from NPR and the AP
I use freetube, an open source youtube frontend
It's not an alternative per se, but it does make youtubes shit easier to stand
Front page is just all the videos from your subs in order of most recently uploaded. Super useful, especially if you find yourself missing out on videos from some of your less frequent uploaders
just all the videos from your subs in order of most recently uploaded.
What's the difference to https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions ?
Edit: It's a genuine question. Is there a functional difference, or simply privacy reasons?
Freetube is much faster than just using the web browser. On my surface tablet using YouTube.com is very sluggish compared to freetube
I also have the LibRedirect extension set so that when I click on a YouTube link, it opens in FreeTube.
One of the best ways to start getting away from YouTube is to use Grayjay.
You can still follow content creators who are only on YouTube, but it allows you to curate your feed and mix in all of the content creators that do upload their content to other platforms like Peertube, Nebula, Odysee, Patreon, Twitch, Kick, Bitchute, Rumble, etc.
Can I import my followed channels from Youtube?
Technical platforms? Yes.
Content platforms? No.
I gave up on the algorithm years ago and only use the subscription feed now.
Just want to add in terms of all the suggestions: remember that alternative can also mean "in addition to" as well as "instead of." people wanting instead-ofs will run away from alternatives quicker, which radically hinders the "build it and they will come" momentum that these sites need to better alternatives in the long run
That's where I am with Lemmy right now. I still have reddit installed, I still dabble on Reddit but over time I'm finding I'm there less and less.
This is the second time I've tried Lemmy and its much more successful, I think it'll be my main social media.
Very good point. Many of these alternatives with less traffic are much better if one doesn't see them as 100% replacements.
Honorable mention for https://odysee.com/ I still use YT but I also like Odysee. And I use Freetube on my Linux laptop for YT, works great! Edit: format
Odysee is cool but is vulnerable to the same issues that youtube has iirc. Peertube I think is a federated version that would be less vulnerable
Invidious.
~~That's not an alternative. It's just another frontend.~~
edit: didn't see the youtube algo part. Mb
Surprise no one mentioned odysee
Odysee is completely overrun by lunatics. And i mean "Europa: The Last Battle" type of lunatics
I def get it you do see a bunch of bullshit there but theres still some educational videos.
Theres even more lunatics on youtube. The only thing is that its algorithm helps with filtering them out while odysee doesnt use a personalized algorithm.
I think the situation will improve as people migrate there and more normal videos get uploaded
I think the situation will improve as people migrate there and more normal videos get uploaded
I've seen that argument for Odysee as far back as 5 years ago. I don't think it's going to occur. Same goes for Truth Social
There are many ways around the YouTube algo. Look into LibRedirect , Invidious, NewPipe, and subscribing to channels using an on device RSS reader. Also look into yt-dlp if you're savvy enough to use a command prompt/terminal.
Alternatives all have their drawbacks. Nebula is the best IMO, but there are some gate keeping sort of practices going on over there regarding how creators are chosen to be platformed there.
Floatplane is good for gamers and techies but ultimately supports the guys over at Linus Tech Tips, who have a bad reputation for their history of misogyny and grifting their audiences in various ways.
Rumble is a conservative cesspool for people too hateful for the YouTube platform.
And Peertube is the Federated alternative that has a lot of potential but nearly no traction and thusly there's not a whole lot of content.
Ultimately, I still watch YouTube (albeit less and less these days), via the platforms mentioned above like Invidious and Newpipe, using yt-dlp.
I do hope Peertube and the fediverse continues to grow. These platforms on the Fediverse are the last bastion of a decent internet imho.
EDIT: grammar.
I mean for yt-dlp you just need to know how to open the terminal in a specific folder and copy paste the link into it.
Yeah, but for some people that's too much.
Yeah sadly for some people if youtube had a download button it would be too hard.
There's also the Seal for Android and Parabolic for Linux graphical frontends
Completely forgot about Seal.
Yeah I use Seal when NewPipe is having issues, and there are graphical front ends for yt-dlp for desktop, I'm just not familiar with most of them.
Thanks for mentioning that. Hopefully someone finds it helpful.
No. Though I think it's important to separate video serving Youtube and recommendations/algorithm YouTube. We need FOSS solutions to both and neither will be easy.
I absolutely agree! I just want something akin to the YT experience
PipePipe is still yt but its only a subscription feed and integrates perfectly with other services like peertube
Inside newpipe. No feed or homepage (as long as you set it to that), just a list of the channels I've subscribed to. I just manually go through them if I'm looking for something to watch.
Maybe don't get news from social media?
said the person on a social media site 😑
I'm not here for news?
view more: next ›