Floatplane Ideas (been using it for a few months now)

[Jsmith2211]

Ok, so i have been using floatplane for a while and I thought i would share some feedback.

 

So I love the design of the site, YouTube need to pay some attention. the only problem i have been having is loading times and usage of my system overall. I think there needs to be a lightweight version available to us people with slow internet. My internet is usually around 100kbps (sometimes peaks at 500), and the pages load in about 5 seconds or so. The problem is, I can play the videos back at 480p with no problems, so i have the internet speed to watch the videos, just the rest of the page has to load first. Is there a way to make the player load before the rest of the page? Another thing i had in mind was the pricing. A lot of us don't have much money lying around, but still want to support our favorite channels. As you add more people that we want to support, and get the videos on a better platform that YouTube, in one place, there could be space for an all inclusive package type thing. This could give you access to every creator on floatplane, for less money. Also, an option to convert currency from Canadian rupees to GBP/USD/Reichsmarks if you desire. this would help us know how much we are actually spending without a google search before we get to the paypal screen. Also i think there might be a fee for changing the currency (correct me if I am wrong on that). Also (Again, correct me if i am wrong) But when i try to log in just with a floatplane account it will not let me, but forum account works fine. Maybe have all forum accounts with floatplane automatically created into floatplane accounts with the same details (It should just be a SQL database right?) Anyway, I love what you are doing, and hope that some day you will have a free version (invite only) with ads that will usurp YouTube.

 

Hope you value my feedback

 

James 

[LogicalDrm]

7 hours ago, Joelsome said:

Ok, so i have been using floatplane for a while and I thought i would share some feedback.

 

First, little bit of structure would help to clear your points. Also I'm not affiliated with FPM, but have few notes about your suggestions.

 

7 hours ago, Joelsome said:

Another thing i had in mind was the pricing. A lot of us don't have much money lying around, but still want to support our favorite channels. As you add more people that we want to support, and get the videos on a better platform that YouTube, in one place, there could be space for an all inclusive package type thing. This could give you access to every creator on floatplane, for less money.

 

This has been asked before, but is still unlikely to happen. There hopefully will be some way to pay for multiple creators in single bunch to avoid per-payment fees. But having all inclusive fee would mean that each creator is getting less than what they would from single payments. If creators want to team up and make pack deals would be up to them.

 

7 hours ago, Joelsome said:

Also i think there might be a fee for changing the currency (correct me if I am wrong on that).

 

Floatplane pricing is in USD. There isn't any universal standard for taking fees from currency conversions when using wire transactions. If your bank does that, it's their way. Mine, for example, doesn't. There's rate for exchange which varies between parties doing conversion. Usually you can choose which point of transaction does the conversion. Whether it's site, handler (like PayPal) or your bank.

 

7 hours ago, Joelsome said:

Also (Again, correct me if i am wrong) But when i try to log in just with a floatplane account it will not let me, but forum account works fine. Maybe have all forum accounts with floatplane automatically created into floatplane accounts with the same details (It should just be a SQL database right?)

 

I don’t understand? Forum and site have two different user databases. When you link forum account, it creates temporary token, not actual account for site.

[AlTech]

4 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

 

First, little bit of structure would help to clear your points. Also I'm not affiliated with FPM, but have few notes about your suggestions.

 

 

This has been asked before, but is still unlikely to happen. There hopefully will be some way to pay for multiple creators in single bunch to avoid per-payment fees. But having all inclusive fee would mean that each creator is getting less than what they would from single payments. If creators want to team up and make pack deals would be up to them.

 

 

Floatplane pricing is in USD. There isn't any universal standard for taking fees from currency conversions when using wire transactions. If your bank does that, it's their way. Mine, for example, doesn't. There's rate for exchange which varies between parties doing conversion. Usually you can choose which point of transaction does the conversion. Whether it's site, handler (like PayPal) or your bank.

If Netflix can afford to charge people £9.99 per month for an all inclusive plan then how come LMG can't?

 

Economies of scale? Or does LMG simply not want to have such a low amount of revenue and profit?

 

Also, the option for native pricing in different currencies would be nice.

 

And they claim that their content is High Bitrate unlike YouTube but in my experience the bitrate has been similar if not sometimes inferior to YouTube.

[Jsmith2211]

5 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

 

First, little bit of structure would help to clear your points. Also I'm not affiliated with FPM, but have few notes about your suggestions.

 

 

This has been asked before, but is still unlikely to happen. There hopefully will be some way to pay for multiple creators in single bunch to avoid per-payment fees. But having all inclusive fee would mean that each creator is getting less than what they would from single payments. If creators want to team up and make pack deals would be up to them.

 

 

Floatplane pricing is in USD. There isn't any universal standard for taking fees from currency conversions when using wire transactions. If your bank does that, it's their way. Mine, for example, doesn't. There's rate for exchange which varies between parties doing conversion. Usually you can choose which point of transaction does the conversion. Whether it's site, handler (like PayPal) or your bank.

 

I don’t understand? Forum and site have two different user databases. When you link forum account, it creates temporary token, not actual account for site.

I mean just copy all the entries in the database that are subscribed to floatplane on the forum, and put them on floatplane.com . 

 

56 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

If Netflix can afford to charge people £9.99 per month for an all inclusive plan then how come LMG can't?

 

Economies of scale? Or does LMG simply not want to have such a low amount of revenue and profit?

 

Also, the option for native pricing in different currencies would be nice.

 

And they claim that their content is High Bitrate unlike YouTube but in my experience the bitrate has been similar if not sometimes inferior to YouTube.

2

Yeah, I agree. I would rather say "Shut up and take my money" to LMG rather than Netflix. Much better content on floatplane IMO

[LogicalDrm]

2 hours ago, Joelsome said:

I mean just copy all the entries in the database that are subscribed to floatplane on the forum, and put them on floatplane.com .

 

That would need to be done manually and since payment system is different, it would probably lead even more issues than current linking system.

 

3 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

If Netflix can afford to charge people £9.99 per month for an all inclusive plan then how come LMG can't?

 

For one, you are mixing two parties here. FPM is the Netflix of this comparison. LMG would be one of production companies, lets say Disney/Marvel. Netflix is paying for rights to show Disney/Marvel stuff. They have calculated how much monthly subscriptions they would need average in the time contract is valid. I don't have degree on economics, marketing or stuff like that, so I'm not going to even estimate how many millions of subs Netflix would need just to get even with Disney/Marvel contracts.

 

3 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Economies of scale? Or does LMG simply not want to have such a low amount of revenue and profit?

 

LMG surely would be able to raise pricing. They would drop me, maybe others too as $10/mo for just LMG content is too high price. But if you mean FPM having bulk pricing. There's this thing to think: If FP would have 10 creators and you would pay $10/mo for all of them. That would be something under $1 per creator from you. If goal is to get $5k/mo from FP, there would need to be 5k subscribers. What if there would be 20 creators, but you'd still pay $10/mo? Correct, that would be half of before. Meaning that there would need to be 10k subs to get to same sum. Eventually, more creators on platform, less profit it will be for each. Or they really need to bring more viewers on board. And they would still know (and users would know) that those subs are not directly paying for them. And we would have Vessel situation. With maybe bit better economics and scope.

[AlTech]

5 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

 

That would need to be done manually and since payment system is different, it would probably lead even more issues than current linking system.

 

 

For one, you are mixing two parties here. FPM is the Netflix of this comparison. LMG would be one of production companies, lets say Disney/Marvel. Netflix is paying for rights to show Disney/Marvel stuff. They have calculated how much monthly subscriptions they would need average in the time contract is valid. I don't have degree on economics, marketing or stuff like that, so I'm not going to even estimate how many millions of subs Netflix would need just to get even with Disney/Marvel contracts.

 

 

LMG surely would be able to raise pricing.

I'm talking about their current price. The problem with Vessel was that they charged $2.99 per month for the access to every creator. There was absolutely no way that would make money.

 

But I think Linus is giving up too early on the idea of something like $9.99 for an allinclusive plan. Obviously the number would be dependant on how much Floatplane Media needs to comfortably make money without price gauging people.

5 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

They would drop me, maybe others too as $10/mo for just LMG content is too high price.

Yeah. Definitely. Some could even argue the current price is a bit much considering the seemingly diminishing quality of LTT videos.

5 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

But if you mean FPM having bulk pricing. There's this thing to think: If FP would have 10 creators and you would pay $10/mo for all of them. That would be something under $1 per creator from you. If goal is to get $5k/mo from FP, there would need to be 5k subscribers. What if there would be 20 creators, but you'd still pay $10/mo? Correct, that would be half of before. Meaning that there would need to be 10k subs to get to same sum. Eventually, more creators on platform, less profit it will be for each. Or they really need to bring more viewers on board.

They will need more viewers eventually. Linus does seem dissapointed at Floatplane sub numbers despite the prices, alpha service and lack of creators.

[GDRRiley]

2 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

I'm talking about their current price. The problem with Vessel was that they charged $2.99 per month for the access to every creator. There was absolutely no way that would make money.

 

But I think Linus is giving up too early on the idea of something like $9.99 for an allinclusive plan. Obviously the number would be dependant on how much Floatplane Media needs to comfortably make money without price gauging people.

I think some sort of a deal like 4 or 5 for 10$ so the site gets less but the creators still get the same amount should happen.