Odysee, a decentralised YouTube alternative focused on free speech, is officially ending the serving of ads on the platform, starting today. The post:

"Dear friends of Odysee, Starting today, we’re removing all ads. We don’t need ads to make money as a platform and we are confident in the development of our own new monetisation programs that will help creators earn a living and at the same time keep Odysee alive. Ultimately, sacrificing the overall user experience to make a few bucks isn’t worth it to us and nor is it even sustainable for a platform that wishes to make something truly open and creatively free.

As we take this decision, one thing is certain to us, media platforms (even ones that market themselves as ‘free-speech’) typically devolve into advertising companies and end up becoming beholden to their paymasters. It’s been that way for centuries and is never going to change.

As we see YouTube become more aggressive with their ad deployment and ‘Free Speech’ platforms try to build their own ad businesses it’s apparent to us that we’re building a model for Odysee that will keep it sustainable not only financially, but in its ability to provide an incorruptible user experience.

Our approach may be considered niche or unconventional, that’s fine by us. Odysee will be used by the world on terms that are agreeable to its users, and we know our users don’t like ads.

Best, Founder & Creator, Chief Executive Officer. Julian Chandra"

  • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    89
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 month ago

    It isn’t exclusively a Neo-Nazi platform, but it is a free-speech absolutist platform, so they have absolutely no problem platforming Nazis.

    It’s basically the 4chan of tube sites. All are welcome, but if you aren’t a fascist you probably won’t fit in.

    • PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      83
      arrow-down
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      If one Nazi is allowed into a bar, it’s a Nazi bar. I’ll continue to steer clear.

    • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      36
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      1 month ago

      something something if there’s a nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 nazis

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          I don’t really think that’s true, so long as you stay off the tankie instance. I have it blocked.

          • parpol@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 month ago

            Well, LBRY which odysee is a frontend for is decentralized, so you can host your own odysee-like instance and block content on there almost the same way as you can host one here and defederate. So it’s not that different from Lemmy. It is all decentralized after all.

    • x00z@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      To be honest, I’ve been using the website and I notice nothing of this. I can click a few links and get to said content, yes, but my feed and some of the categories I check are on par with YouTube. The only big difference I experience is that there’s much more content of smaller content creators.

    • zanyllama52@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Great description, I may have to go chock this output. Any good android app for it, or is the mobile site a PWA?

    • DreitonLullaby@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      33
      ·
      1 month ago

      I ain’t a fascist, Neo-Nazi, far-rightist, or any of the things Odysee is falsely marked by people as being, and I fit in just fine with my fellow Odysee users. Stop attacking one of the only companies who are truly trying to be the change they want to see in the world.

        • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          I agree with most of your points, but “anti physically and mentally disabled”? Really? Your source describes how they reuploaded unsubtitled lectures for the sake of preservation. This is hardly a villanous move and has nothing to do with “not caring about deaf people”. Let’s keep the arguments honest, you have plenty else to stick them with that’s actually substantial.

          • parpol@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 month ago

            Even the rest just boils down to “these people say that they’re nazis, so it must be true” and “nazis are bad. If you give them fair treatment, you’re one yourself.”

            And when it comes to these nazis/white supremacists, I am willing to bet what labelled them as such was criticizing some DEI, or maybe complaining about “wokeness” which is far from the Heiling skinhead that people associate with nazis.

            It is so hard to trust a single word of anyone nowadays that describes people as nazis. I’d be fine with taking back this statement if the actual videos/posts/whatever from the so called nazis were posted here so that I could see for myself, rather than what some traditional news media has to say about them.

            I was posting in another subthread about this too. The front page on Odysee had some conservatives videos, and one crazy 5d energy conspiracy video, but none of the videos brought up were far-right or white supremacist, but they sure were circled and pointed out as such.

        • parpol@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          Banned users from other platforms are welcome with open arms on Odysee

          That’s how bans work. You are not supposed to be banned on platforms where you haven’t violated any rules. Getting banned on YouTube for saying something controversial on Twitter is not right.

        • parpol@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 month ago

          Nothing about the LBRY token was a scam. You just hate cryptocurrency. Who needs literally the only form of decentralized online currency, right?

        • parpol@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 month ago

          “If you allow a nazi to drink in your bar, even if it’s just one, you’re a nazi bar.” Is such a shit take, considering you’re at a communist bar.