One big thing I have an issue with full and foremost with these massive organisations like Google and Amazon is how detached the messaging always appears from what the echo chambers are saying. Not because they should be listened too but because it’s dangerous for those involved in the chamber. They often reach boiling point before any discussion actually takes place. I am not a fan of that, I believe we should have open and honest discussions about decisions, whether that’s removing a big creator, or addressing a concern someone has regarding fairness.
Reddit is known as a lefty paradise and Reddit also known for having some of the biggest alt right communities. That’s why I set out to create StreamBit. It’s a live streaming platform that gives you the creator the ability to create. For far to long these platforms have hid behind their messaging of “WELL, IT’S FREE! YOU DON’T NEED TO USE IT”. I don’t agree with that. I think that if you want to use a product and do something, you should pay for it so you know where you stand. Far to many creators are scared about the fact that they DON’T pay for anything so someone can just come and take it away giving them no time to prepare, get another job or even tell their fans where they’re going.
Get real. Everyone if they want to be somewhat enjoying life and involved in conversations, what’s new and the latest trends needs..
- YouTube
- TikTok at this point
Look my point is, these services aren’t really companies, sure they are in the sense that they’re being run and tomorrow could shut down but I bet the impact on a lot of you would be astronomical. It’s why I’ve never believed in Perma Bans. Our justice system lets out people that have commited murder but if you say bad words on a website you’ll get banned … forever. There’s no coming back. I’ve still got some accounts that I made on old gaming forums, around when I was 12 that got permabanned for posting the usual 12 year old things. Spamming something like Rick Roll or whatever. I’m now 24, 12 years later, I’ve got a girlfriend, great job and this business kicking off. I’m still banned to this day and their terms and conditions state that if I make another account to post, I’ll be permabanned AGAIN. Nothing worse than 2 permabans! I think this action misses the mark so much for these platforms. There’s 0 support, 0 appeals it’s just we made the decision and unless Twitter gets mad, we’re not going to help you. Streambit will change that.
Whenever the Government wants to bailout a business because they’re run on hard times, it’s usually for the employees. They don’t want to see the population out of work so buying them a bit more time to find something else or make what is existing works usually is great. What if YouTube decided tomorrow… enough is enough, they’re going to change to Fishing or maybe google sells the arm off to someone else that wants to deal with the constant harassment. Nothing has happened to that scale yet because they’re has always been someone else.
MySpace had Facebook, Bebo had Facebook, News Websites well they replaced Printed media. What replaces YouTube or Twitch? Personally I see them as a combined problem. The issue in the industry is that people aren’t happy with YouTube. Nor are they happy with Twitch. Fair to say the only reason they aren’t losing money is because of the chicken and egg problem, nothing else exists. Because no one else wants it too. Try take Twitch chat and put it on Mixer…. wouldn’t really work, heck when big stars Ninja and Shroud went over there, some creators came out against the move, saying they were disrupting the community. Of course once the viewers left and Shroud was sitting at a 1k Peak, things quickly went back to normal. Mixer is also owned by one of the biggest companies in the world. Microsoft. Do you really think that they wouldn’t go the way things are now?
That is my biggest point of it all. It’s the consumer. You need to give the consumer a 100% reason to switch. Having the fastest stream doesn’t work when people are still on ADSL and get constant buffering. Redesigning your entire website for Web 7.0 doesn’t work when people aren’t going to leave you anyway. When you’re a household name, it’s rather hard to lose support. Microsoft has to rely on Bing being the default brower for it to even had a chance.
So I invented and made StreamBit. It’s a neat project that if used by the levels of a YouTube Audience would quickly make me bankrupt. It’s rather on the creator to make the plunge. I think we need to level with each other here. Consumers are more and more hating Adverts. Let’s be honest, they’re everywhere. I turn on a Twitch stream and I get one in my face about the latest Epic Game Store release. I do not want to see that content, I don’t even like the Epic Launcher, so for them to even serve me that shows a massive failing in their tools to know what I like. Chances are, you use an ad blocker, something like UBlock origin. Here’s the thing, in the world of using the internet, you aren’t meant too. You can’t use Adblock then complain when YouTubers aren’t making content because it isn’t worth it. Or Use AD Block then start watching a twitch stream, you are just getting free content for nothing really, now I know there’s a certain level of worth with an eyeball watching the stream. Let’s say Asmongold turns up tomorrow, starts streaming exclusively on Streambit. I would be out of money and in a box by the end of the week.
Nope, that model for me, isn’t sustainable. I liked the old reddit approach of By the way everyone, this is our server costs, we’re this % off making this months rent. I liked that because it’s open and honest with the community. Personally, I just want to build a platform that lets people build and make their own communities and have fun. Sadly that’s where the creator has to bear some reasonable level of cost and acceptance that if they want to become that person. They need to invest in infrastructure and help the platform.
My message is this, and honestly it’s still being brainstormed in my head. StreamBit expenses should be covered by what it’s actually doing. IE: The uploader should pay a fee to have their content hosted, the viewer should pay a fee to watch it or everyone should donate a small bit and collectively keep the platform going. And I want to do a mix of those which I think will work really well and keep everyone open and honest.
As a result, streambit will show the operating costs that are involved in running the site. Down to the last byte of bandwidth, we’ll show you how much this operation takes to run, because it ain’t easy. I’ve been doing it for just me as a side project and I’m already in for no doubt several hundred pounds. We’ll also require a monthly fee from uploaders. If you want the best quality around and no nonsense with the ability to speak to an actual person about problems that’ll need to cost. I think these big platforms that are out there have driven us to accept we won’t get a support reply for 8 weeks and our development API docs are always gonna be terrible. That changes with StreamBit.
Secondly, viewers. You really don’t have to worry about anything. StreamBit will not feature advertisements in videos. I believe in the spirit of the community. If you like the product and like the service just kick us a few bucks towards our monthly expenses. You don’t need to put us into profit or make us millionaires. We’re wanting to build a platform for YOU to enjoy. Phone up your favourite creators and tell them that this is actually the place to be.
Now, on that topic, I would like to speak about Terms & Conditions and Moderation. This is the tricky topic because how do you become a platform that isn’t just for the Alt Right or Alt Left to spread hate. Well that’s simply the solution, this platform will not be for you. Listen I love political rants as much as the next guy, heck you can check my Twitter feed. I think as long as things don’t get personal between creators. EX: Creator 1 makes a video hating on David Cameron, Creator 2 shouldn’t go and call Creator 1 an asshole even if he is. Just don’t follow the guy! Now when it comes to fake news and stuff like that I think that’s something that needs to be crossed when it happens. I use resources such as Full Fact to explain to me when something has been proved wrong, even that’s been accused of having bias. But I think at least for the start we need to just see how it goes. It will be community driven, so if you guys don’t like seeing X Content, just like reddit you need to dislike it to put it to the bottom. It’s very effective on reddit for getting rid of irrelevant stuff. I believe we can use the same tools here. The big complaint I seen on reddit was “People keep downvoting our stuff”. I never had an issue actually seeing the stuff as someone unsubscribed from their community so I doubt it’s as big an issue as made out. Most people I knew just filtered out stuff they didn’t want to see and we’ll do the same. There’s also the report button for anything breaking the law. Copyright and such!