the right time for Bluesky to enable video is never. just let us have the one thing that's never loud. just words and pictures. see how nice? words and pictures. think about it devs
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I'm with you. This place won't feel like an online home until I can send a PM when concerned about someone
It's been frustrating to not be able to reach out to moots on the less than handful of occasions when I had deep concerns.
Safety is paramount, PMs can be turned off, safety outweighs nuisance.
Video serving would require a significant outlay in setting up and hosting a CDN with much faster pipes. There's a reason why the app supports so many major videohosts inline if you enable them in settings.
tbf there's nothing about his bsky that screams anything other than "popular poster", it's legit not to recognize him and just assume "the mountain goats" is a handle like any other
the thing is, if we could restrict it to animators, I adore animation and would love to see more of it. allowing video opens a flood of clips of politicians, commentators, etc -- it will be endless. the animation will be buried and hard to find under a flood of Same As Everywhere Else.
Just imagine the amount of AI and AI-influenced videos we would see and how much worse that would make the problem. They would outnumber actual creatives, actual artists like 50000 to 1
I agree. I also think it's inevitable, I think our days here are numbered, we didn't actually code this site and we don't own the servers. Our stake is cultural, we don't live in an economy where that gets a say. but for the time being we push a little where we can.
you have no understanding of the risks and repercussions of allowing videos on a platform, and thats not to say you're stupid for it, but i think john would have tried not clicking on videos before.
because when a site, like Instagram has, becomes "I'm now scrolling past 50 things I don't want to see to see the one thing I'm into," it's a drag. it's just a preference, but it's certainly my preference.
I like making 𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔶 hardcore animated gifs of myself and posting them. Not associated with any "site to buy more".
For now it's simply because being a slut whore is intrinsic to my preferred online aesthetic. I sometimes want people to engage with me here in the 𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 intimate ways I'd prefer✨
But the videos we accidentally tap on, take over our phone screen & blare a commercial at jet engine volumes are what the companies that pay our app want
Amen to that. The descent of most social apps into Reels, Moving Pictures, whatever has been a total turnoff.
There was a time when Instagram was a pleasant experience. Honest!
that's infantilizing. disabled folks are capable of seeing grownup swears just like everyone else. fuckin' youtube. i wanna listen to Grant MacDonald's "Ram Ranch" without every other word missing. 😆
It sucks because the stuff that is uncensored gets buried in the algorithm so in order to keep content visible many people are forced to make it less accessible.
I think part of it is likely that the subs get used by the algorithm to downgrade things, like I read someone talking about how their subbed videos get less views because it allows the algorithm to more easily pick up words that deplatform you
ooof yeah I can only imagine! It's hard enough for me with my audio processing issues to like... deal with the fact that basically every "how-to" is a video now instead of a written guide, just as one example. Having to deal with non-existent or garbled subs must suck hardcore
oh my god dont get me started
*types "how to get the cartridge out of my sodastream"*
...
scrolls past 3 screenfuls of how-to videos, vlogs, tiktok sodastream challenge, youtube sodastream blooper reels, sodastream shopping results.. a few more ads..
yeah it's fucking awful, especially with the AI larding it up even further with junk results and an inability to actually do your query rather than some other query they would rather you had made or think is what you meant to ask
Been thinking about this for a day and have to say I love this idea. It might mean that it stays a cottage environment and this platform never becomes the place world leaders etc post and I do want twitter to stop being that place.
Just don't have auto play or have an option to hide videos and have videos muted by default. Lack of video support is keeping potential users away and is really annoying for content creators who do anything that isn't just text/images.
The ONLY thing id really like is to be able to disable re-skeets BY USER (not block ALL). Some users, I enjoy what THEY post, but their reskeets are a firehose of stuff I don’t care about.
(And I’m sure some followers may think that about me haha)
Generally, I'd agree with you, but I have a friend over at the bad place who mostly posts videos of his dogs and sheep and chickens and scenery etc. Uplifting stuff. Since being unfairly blocked from that place, I really miss him. Like many, he won't come here until video is possible 😔
Ngl, all we really need is native TikTok embedding, and we probably wouldn't even need to host video here. Just post links to a video and add the link card.
That said native GIF support would be nice. My love language is reaction GIFs.
We have native YouTube embedding so if we post a YouTube link and add a link card we can play the video here, but TikTok you still have to click through to the site to watch the video.
That’s what I meant. You’d put in a link for people to follow along with a description (“click the link below to see my cat do a cute thing on TikTok”). You could also include a graphic in the post so people could see if it’s something they’re interested in.
BlueSky is the one social app where I am not constantly assaulted by unexpected noise when scrolling. Music may be my stress relief, but silence is often most welcome to take the lead.
I thought the good thing about this app is that you can make customizations like that? (Unfortunately I do not know how to actually do that, but seems neat if you can do it!)
John Darnielle is probably okay on this front. I am several orders of magnitude less successful and I also do not think it would help me any more than an embedded link would
🤷♀️ i don’t think embedded video/audio solves any problems for musicians that aren’t already solved by link previews. if someone isn’t engaged enough to click through to my youtube video, having the same content playable within the bluesky app is not going to be the thing that engages them
Yeah this type of infinitely scrolling display is terrible for music — without a really engaging video no-one is going to stop scrolling long enough to listen. I think Tumblr might have had the right idea with a pop-out music player, but embedded audio/video alone isn't great
I think video would be fine as long as posters are prepared to provide the Alt text that narrates in detail the events shown. Then I can just read the Alt text.
Professional shitposters, Film Twitter™, and other subcultures already can't be arsed to Alt Text their *static* images, so I'm pessimistic they'll suddenly level up and exert more effort than their current "nothing"
As a recording artist some things just need a video. Not super long. Let’s not make it IG or tik tok. But some kind of video capable would be nice to see. Just my opinion.
At least let us have gifs. No video with audio, just gifs. I know a number of furry animators who are hesitant to jump skibidi Xitter because they can't upload gifs.
I Blatantly Disagree, Why?, Because Spaces Allows People To Enjoy And Have A Glorious Time Through Verbally Cooperating. Also Videos Make It To Where People Can Fully Understand A Situation And Observe What’s Being Uttered About.
Hard disagree. Add an option to block/hide video on all posts if you want, but right now Bsky is probably the strongest competitor Twitter has - and it won't destroy Twitter utterly) without video.
Yes please, there is no more ear-splittingly nightmarish an experience than listening to someone’s endless barrage of out of context TikTok’s at full volume from another room
The problem is that we’re missing out on great stuff and are excluding a lot of artists with this stance. What of animators or dancers for example? Their art is kinetic & can’t be shared online without video.
But I agree with the general premise.
The way we use video is the real problem.
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A lot of the time I would like an endless stream of words, occasionally broken up by pics of, like, a cool rock or somebody's ass.
But then sometimes there's a sick dunk video.
(At least for me)
And GIFs when?
It's been frustrating to not be able to reach out to moots on the less than handful of occasions when I had deep concerns.
Safety is paramount, PMs can be turned off, safety outweighs nuisance.
It bears repeating.
My block list disagrees with that assessment.
For now it's simply because being a slut whore is intrinsic to my preferred online aesthetic. I sometimes want people to engage with me here in the 𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 intimate ways I'd prefer✨
There was a time when Instagram was a pleasant experience. Honest!
every platform with video kinda alienates me due to the poor quality of captions.
Especially when people censor swears in their captions, or try to be funny with them. 😒 People on tiktok get on my NERVES with that!
*types "how to get the cartridge out of my sodastream"*
...
scrolls past 3 screenfuls of how-to videos, vlogs, tiktok sodastream challenge, youtube sodastream blooper reels, sodastream shopping results.. a few more ads..
oh here's an instructables link buried on pg 2
(And I’m sure some followers may think that about me haha)
That said native GIF support would be nice. My love language is reaction GIFs.
But I am an old man, and I am aware that many, if not most, people will disagree with us on this.
Lack of video not a problem for musicians?
This is a problem for me and now you too
ok
sometimes other senses must be involved
and some stuff needs to be heard
And I say 'ho bags' in full knowledge that I'd've exploited myself too, if I'd had anything worth exploiting.
Put a 3 min limit on just videos, not music videos, give us GIFS, and I be happy.
But maybe bluesky give that feature in the future
Let's explore the ways that Bsky can be different and better - and free of the need to relentlessly chase eyeballs and attention.
I forgot how much I do not miss polls.
But I agree with the general premise.
The way we use video is the real problem.