After seeing the AI age verification bullshit that was the last straw for me after literally witnessing Google slowing down my videos because I use an adblock; I made an Odysee account and migrated over to it from YouTube.

(Surprisingly, a lot of channels that I follow upload there as well.)

And I think it is a pretty solid video streaming platform. I have had zero issues with it. Apparently there are no ads, it’s decentralized, you can see the dislikes and actually discover a lot of interesting niche channels to watch. After a week of using it I realized I am not going to the YouTube anymore and Odysee is becoming more and more my “go to” place for watching a few videos and relaxing after a long day.

What do you think of it? I am not tech-savvy, so I might be missing something, but I just wanted to say that I am having a pretty good experience with Odysee.

  • dreaper@lemmy.ml
    1·
    8 minutes ago

    Here’s how to drop YouTube in a much more easier fashion. Start by weaning yourself off the algorithm. As the algorithms may as well be big tech corpos way of pushing out drugs on the users to keep them scrolling; enslaved. I’ve also blocked all big tech and mainstream social garbage platforms via my PiHole server, along with a huge blacklist for my SearXNG instance for filtering search results (but that’s a whole other topic).

    Anyway, to do make YouTube less relevant to you, start using Invidious instances. And use these scripts that I personally had ChatGPT devise for me for the sake of my sanity (you’ll need TamperMonkey for these):

    https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/548556-invidious-clean-view-with-list-view-of-thumbnails-and-threshold-control

    https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/548558-invidious-remove-all-caps-mrbeast-keyword-channel-filter-with-exclusions-redirect

    **Oh, and use LibRedirect: ** https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/

    Also, so you are less tempted to go to the YouTube domain itself, add these to your hosts file:

    #Youtube Block
127.0.0.1   www.youtube.com
127.0.0.1   accounts.youtube.com
127.0.0.1   youtube.com
127.0.0.1   youtube-nocookie.com
127.0.0.1   www.youtube-nocookie.com
127.0.0.1   img.youtube.com
127.0.0.1   i.ytimg.com
127.0.0.1   yt3.ggpht.com

    When you do all of this, you finally will get clarity and see that YouTube really doesn’t have all that much to offer in the end. I know I did.

    Now, to avoid any potential algorithmic manipulation in the future:

    For Odysee (also Bit-chute and Peertube), use RSS. Follow only things you want to follow. I personally use RSS Guard with JavaScript filtering as well to play my videos with.

    I decided to share all of this because it really helped me free myself from anything Google now; yes, even went back to a flip phone and standard MP3 player. I hardly have a need to search for anything on Invidious instances with all the RSS feeds I have of available content creators now. But the filtering really helped.

    Hopefully my solution is great for someone. They just have be willing to take the initiative.

        • dreaper@lemmy.ml
          1·
          6 hours ago

          Why bother? I’m even tempted to delete the account on here after only a day. Because for me, all I affirmed to myself is that people are losers who seek out to create unnecessary drama.

  • dreaper@lemmy.ml
    3·
    23 hours ago

    Odysee, Peertube and Bit-chute are also great. Especially when you use RSS with them.

  • Lemonade@lemmy.ml
    10·
    2 days ago

    I was thinking about it yesterday, and I think that you can’t replace Youtube itself, because there isn’t another site with that amount of content. I think, at least for myself, that more than looking for an aternative, you can dedicate a good part of that Youtube time to other things that also entertain you. Like watching a movie or reading a book.

      • dreaper@lemmy.ml
        3·
        23 hours ago

        After all the scripting I’ve done with tampermonkey for Invidious to filter all the clickbait crap, along with removing the thumbnails and clickbait titles, and videos under a certain duration (shorts), along with clickbaity channels, YouTube in its entirely has really nothing to offer these days.

        If you cut through the illusion that YouTube has much of anything to offer other than the same recycled content, it becomes quite apparent.

        So, I am happy with alternative platforms like Odysee, Peertube and Bit-chute; all with RSS.

  • Trent@lemmy.mlEnglish
    122·
    2 days ago

    They ever fix their lack of moderation problem? If not, nah…

  • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
    2·
    2 days ago

    I like it too, but dear Lord, I wish their mobile client was better. It doesn’t have proper background playback, and it’s just kind of slow and annoying to deal with.

  • sanity_is_maddening@piefed.socialEnglish
    7·
    3 days ago

    Although there’s great people still committed to doing great work in there, I’ve stopped using YouTube because the platform itself is utter garbage. It’s a hellscape, and in my opinion it was no coincidence that when Google bought it in 2010, it only took a few months for Gamergate to happen from that point of injection. I eventually gave up youtube and when I go there without an account to watch just one singular video that was posted elsewhere as a link, I’m reminded why the world is just a shit show now. Fascist grifters, AI Slop and rage bait accompanied by all the disinformation possible and fraudulent ads to top it with. Just awful.

    And if anyone as never checked YouTube without an account… it’s a grim look.

    I have to say I use Peertube from time to time but I haven’t checked Odysee yet.