I Left YouTube - Answering Your Questions

19 Nov, 2025

Yesterday, I wrote that I quit YouTube and would instead post videos to Peertube. I realize there may be more questions about the whys, and about Peertube specifically. I figured it was worth diving into those potential questions.

Did you say YouTube’s previous issues were more annoying than harmful? Are you serious?

I said in that blog that many of YouTube’s past decisions were “more obnoxious and annoying than anything,” which is, to use a technical term, bullshit.

Censoring videos and creators, promoting conspiracy theorists and racists, automated DMCA takedowns frequently used to target marginalized creators, YouTube’s still on-going war against history-focused channels, terrible customer support, and an ever-changing algorithm which they won’t tell us how it works. None of this is “more annoying than anything.”

This is a good teaching lesson. We need to recognize justification when we see it. This is exactly how companies like YouTube, Amazon, Microsoft, and so many more keep getting away with the terrible things they do. Yet even as I announced I was leaving YouTube, I tried to cover my own ass. I made YouTube videos for ten years knowing full well how dreadful YouTube is. Did I do anything about it? No. I was making money off the platform, so I kept my mouth shut.

I have no right to complain about the system if I’m going to try and cover my own ass like that. I was wrong to write that, and I was wrong to look away from the horrible things YouTube did for so long and to take their money and shut up about it.

Didn’t you quit making videos anyway?

No. I ended Triple Iris in June for reasons mostly unrelated to YouTube itself. However, I still make videos on Josh’s Junk Drawer. Not nearly as often as I did on Triple Iris, about one a month, but I still make videos.

So you’re done uploading videos to YouTube, but will you still watch YouTube?

YouTube, unfortunately, still has a tight stranglehold on the online video community. There are dozens of video creators I watch that upload only to YouTube, Nebula, and Patreon. I’d love to support them all on Patreon, but I’m a writer and grocery store worker, I don’t have that kind of money. So I myself use adblockers, in fact I started using FreeTube and PipePipe recently, which gets rid of all ads and sponsorship segments. This cuts YouTube out of the equation completely and I still get to watch my favorite creators.

Doesn’t that mean those creators don’t get paid?

Yes. It’s a difficult thing to think about, but one I have thought about for over a year.

I support some creators on Patreon, I send a one-time donation whenever I can, I like and subscribe and comment frequently, and I promote creators I like on social media. And for two years I had a YouTube Premium account, of which some of that went to creators.

Does that make it morally okay? I don’t know. I can only ask: should I be subjected to conspiracy theories, right-wing propaganda, gambling ads, and AI-generated slop ads that are longer than the video I actually want to watch so the video creator can earn a few pennies?

When I was still posting videos on YouTube, I was okay with my audience using ad blockers. I recommended it, even. If I had to chose between making a thousand dollars and only five people watching my video, or making five dollars and a thousand people watching, I’d take the latter. And if a creator has the mindset of the former, well, I don’t mind them not getting my pennies since they’re clearly happy without them.

What is Peertube?

Peertube is a video sharing site like YouTube. Unlike YouTube, however, videos are shared peer-to-peer. Peertube is also FOSS (free and open source software) in which users can create join a pre-existing instance or create their own, like Mastodon or Lemmy.

It was created by Framasoft, a French non-profit that creates a bunch of open-source software and educational products. Peertube makes them next to nothing, but since they have some government funding and donations, they’re committed to keep it going. However, only two programmers are currently actively working on Peertube, so updates and changes are slow going.

Oh, and you can livestream on Peertube, too, if that’s what butters your biscuits.

Why Peertube? Aren’t there other video hosting sites?

Yes. Twitch, Nebula, Rumble, Odyssey, Vimeo, and Daily Motion come to mind, but each have major flaws.

Twitch is owned by Amazon, who are worse than Google in many ways. And while you can upload videos there, it’s geared towards livestreaming, and video game content at that.

Nebula is a country club, with no way to join the site as a creator unless you know someone who already has a channel, and they put in a recommendation for you. Plus, I’m not big on forcing people to pay for a subscription to watch my videos.

Rumble and Odyssey are hateful cesspools. They’re the places all the election deniers, anti-vaxxers, and conspiracy theorists went after YouTube banned them a few years ago.

Vimeo and Daily Motion are barren wastelands. They charge creators a fee to host videos, charge users to watch them, are full of ads, and are AI slop generators. And despite being as old as YouTube (if not older), neither have managed to attract any audience whatsoever.

Peertube has its flaws, but it is by far the best option.

What flaws?

Peertube has major issues – there aren’t many creators worth watching, the search system doesn’t work very well, the mobile app is atrocious, many instances prohibit how many videos you can upload, and creating your own instance is difficult – though to be fair, that’s not Peertube’s fault, that’s the nature of video hosting and streaming.

Another major issue many will have is a fundamental core part of the site – the lack of privacy. Peertube, as the name suggests, works on a peer-to-peer system, meaning there is technically a small chance that someone can grab your IP address. It uses the BitTorrent protocol to share bandwidth between viewers and the host of that instance. This is done because it’s cheaper than streaming video from a server and loads the video faster. And its very unlikely anyone will get your IP address. It’s difficult to get it this way, and frankly there are much easier ways to get it.

Honestly though, I don’t fully understand how it all works. I encourage you to read Peertube’s Q&A section about this and look at the specific documentation for how the P2P system works here.

I do know that there are ways around this. You can turn off this method of sharing bandwidth and go to a more traditional streaming system, which eliminates the possibility of anyone grabbing your IP address. You can use a VPN or a browser like Tor. You can use something like Freetube, which is a client that lets you watch Peertube, YouTube, and Twitch streams privately, without even needing to create an account.

Do you have your own Peertube instance?

No, at least not yet. I don’t have the know-how, equipment, or time to figure out how to create my own instance and maintain it right now. Maybe someday I can get my own Peertube, Mastodon, and Lemmy instances running.

Until then, I chose Spectra Video because the folks behind it seem cool, it’s fairly popular, and there are no limitations on how many videos I can upload like the instance I used for Triple Iris.

I want to start a Peertube instance. How do I do that?

No clue! Something about computers and servers and black magic of some kind. This stuff is beyond my understanding. You can learn more on Peertube’s Q&A, just scroll to the “I want to administer a Peertube platform” section, or check out this installation guide which makes my head spin.

Isn’t it pointless to advocate for a platform only on that platform?

Kinda. Anyone on Peertube is already either an ardent fan, or at least someone willing to give it a chance. Making a video called “Here’s Why You Should Use Peertube!” would have limited value on Peertube.

If you want to drum up interest for any platform – Peertube, Mastodon, Lemmy, your own blog – you have to make good stuff for it (I’m deathly allergic to the ‘c’ word). Preaching about how good something may be one day, or how it’s ethically superior isn’t going to attract anyone. If you want the site to succeed, don’t worry about converting people yet, build the foundation first.

Can you recommend some Peertube channels?

Yes, there will be a blog tomorrow recommending Peertube channels.