VidMe or Why Platforms Aren't Your Friends

Why HN readers recommended it

HN commenters cite it whenever a thread asks why clones of or alternatives to YouTube, Reddit or Twitter fail or turn toxic.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

Folding Ideas

Topic

platform alternatives

Format

commentary

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

8

HN mentions in dataset

12

Recommendation years in dataset

2017–2023

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• > Vid.me Unfortunately, simply cloning youtube isn't a competitor without also cloning youtube's bankroll. For a very good explanation of why, see Folding Ideas video essay "VidMe or Why Platforms Aren't Your Friends"[1]. [1] [VIDEO]

• Any "Reddit alternative" will have a hard time gathering users as long as Reddit exists (and doesn't alienate a critical mass of their users ala Digg). Dan Olson of the YouTube channel Folding Ideas made a very insightful video about the problem of setting up …

• There's a great video by Folding Ideas which talks about the issues with secondary services ( [VIDEO] - this is in the context of video platforms) One big 'bootstrapping' problem is that the first to adopt a new platform are the people who are _too …