Presenting Kolektiva

It seems clear that youtube not only dominates online video hosting but its largely the only game in town, the only challengers that have survived are non-English language regional (at the start anyway) services like Daily Motion and Nico Nico which have a niche in the French and Japanese speaking spheres, and porn sites. Well I guess Vimeo is still a thing but it hasn't really grown and seems to be having some trouble maintaining the audience it does have.

Another option that's been around for awhile and has been slowly growing is Peertube. Peertube is competing with YouTube, by not competing with it at all, it's appeal lies in all the things it does that youtube doesn't do and due to its corporate evolution almost certainly won't do. 

If your unfamiliar with Peertube they've made a short video explaining how it works and its merits.

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Its an open source platform that users peer to peer sharing to handle streaming and downloads which cut down on huge server and bandwith costs and give users a lot more control on the content they watch, upload, share etc.

One of the main negatives of youtube as a platform aside from the copyright bots and trolls and the terrible, terrible comments is the algorithm. Its what decides what gets promoted and what doesn't, if you've found your recommendations feed to be very odd or pushing some dodgy political vloggers and inappropriate content the algorithm is usually the reason. 

Peertube instances tend to be built around specific interests (though general ones do exist) so that issue has largely been solved. One such instance is called Kolektiva and with the backing of several anarchist activist groups like Sub.version it aims to be a platform to share and distribute Anarchist content and information of interest to Anarchists and other anti-capitalists.

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I've set up an account there and I'm slowly duplicating my video archive there too. So far it seems stable and promising. Though more a tool for education and engagement from those already committed. Hopefully it'll grow to a point where its material can reach a wider audience too.

But if you like documentaries, footage of demonstrations and street clashes that aren't covered on corporate news coverage, discussions and talks and how to guides on developing your own skills, its worth checking out.