Floatplane creators who aren't profitable?

[Spotty]

Will Floatplane will ever drop creators that aren't profitable to host on the platform? Creators who don't get enough subscribers to make it worthwhile for Floatplane to store, process, and deliver their videos. Some Floatplane creators show their number of subscribers publicly and there's a few creators on Floatplane who only have 10 to 30 subscribers. Are these numbers sustainable for Floatplane or even worthwhile for the creators who take the time to upload to Floatplane?

 

What about Floatplane creators that leave the platform and no longer upload new content but still have their creator page and videos hosted? Will Floatplane ever remove them from the platform or leave them there indefinitely or until the creator removes their page? There's one creator (Restore It) who hasn't uploaded to Floatplane in over a year [judging by the youtube release date on their last video since September 2019] despite still regularly uploading new videos to their youtube channel. They don't have their subscriber count visible but I'm assuming they have 0 subscribers on Floatplane if they haven't uploaded in almost 2 years.

 

I'm guessing the creators with few subscribers aren't putting much demand on Floatplane, as there won't be many people viewing the content, however having potentially hundreds of 4k high bitrate videos stored on Floatplane's servers and ready to stream for only 10 people (or less streaming 4k videos if 4k is locked to a higher subscriber tier) doesn't seem sustainable in the long run, especially when you consider the development and operating costs of Floatplane and not just the pure hosting costs.

 

Linus has complained in the past that they weren't able to publish Floatplane videos on time because another creator uploaded a batch of videos at once and Floatplane can only process so many videos at a time, LTT and all the other creators were stuck at the end of the video processing queue, does this mean the smaller creators with only a dozen or so subscribers are negatively impacting the larger creators? Does that also weigh in to the 'cost' of having them on the platform?

 

Don't take this as a complaint about Floatplane or an attack on any of the smaller creators. Just something that made me curious while looking through some of the other creators on Floatplane and thinking about the difficulties and cost of running a video hosting platform. My thoughts are that the larger creators with high subscriber count are in a way subsidising the smaller creators being on the platform, while the smaller creators are bringing greater diversity to Floatplane and opening it up to more people who might then go on to join some of the other larger channels as well. Rising tides raise all ships type situation? But for channels that no longer upload and who don't have subscribers I'm not really sure what value they bring by hosting?

 

 

Unrelated gripe, but I think there's too much empty space on the right side of the Browse creators page. Might look better if the creators are aligned in the centre of the page like the videos list on creator pages.

[Spotty]

This is mostly directed towards Floatplane, so @LinusTech and @Slick, but I'm still curious if other people think Floatplane should ditch creators who aren't profitable (I'm talking 0 subscribers, no longer uploading new content) or if they should keep them on even if not profitable and give people the choice to subscribe to them.

 

Also if you're subscribed to creator(s) on Floatplane are you only subscribed to one creator or multiple? Does having more creators on the platform entice you to subscribe to others or are you only there for your favourite creator?

[Eighjan]

5 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Also if you're subscribed to creator(s) on Floatplane are you only subscribed to one creator or multiple?

Only two... and I'm sub'd to them both on YT, too.

I'm not sure the early access reasoning is enough, recently... but the exclusives are worth it - for now.

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, Spotty said:

This is mostly directed towards Floatplane, so @LinusTech and @Slick, but I'm still curious if other people think Floatplane should ditch creators who aren't profitable (I'm talking 0 subscribers, no longer uploading new content) or if they should keep them on even if not profitable and give people the choice to subscribe to them.

 

Also if you're subscribed to creator(s) on Floatplane are you only subscribed to one creator or multiple? Does having more creators on the platform entice you to subscribe to others or are you only there for your favourite creator?

Removing them would also cost money because you have to pay someone to do it.  A cost/benefit analysis could be needed.

[8-Bit Ninja]

9 minutes ago, Spotty said:

This is mostly directed towards Floatplane, so @LinusTech and @Slick, but I'm still curious if other people think Floatplane should ditch creators who aren't profitable (I'm talking 0 subscribers, no longer uploading new content) or if they should keep them on even if not profitable and give people the choice to subscribe to them.

 

Also if you're subscribed to creator(s) on Floatplane are you only subscribed to one creator or multiple? Does having more creators on the platform entice you to subscribe to others or are you only there for your favourite creator?

I think its certainly an interesting point. I don't know what it costs floatplane to host per video. However I would argue that if they want floatplane to ultimately become a true competitor to YouTube then they have to cater to both tiny and large content creators, which means allowing content creators who don't upload anymore, or creators that aren't making floatplane money to remain on the platform.      

[Moonzy]

12 minutes ago, Spotty said:

if you're subscribed to creator(s) on Floatplane are you only subscribed to one creator or multiple?

one, from the bronze badge

 

i prefer if LTT could actually separate things they already published on youtube and other sub channels content, as it's very cluttering to dump it all in one page, imo

they said they'll separate soon but... it truly is messy and makes me not want to use it (which i almost nvr use FP)

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, Eighjan said:

Only two... and I'm sub'd to them both on YT, too.

I'm not sure the early access reasoning is enough, recently... but the exclusives are worth it - for now.

Which two? LTT has struggled to keep up with the week early access for the last few months. I do actually wish they were remove that from the benefits list when most videos are uploaded simultaneously or with only a day early access - something that LTT has been trying to fix and has been giving extra behind the scenes to make up for it.

 

2 minutes ago, 8-Bit Ninja said:

I think its certainly and interesting point. I don't know what it costs floatplane to host per video. However I would argue that if they want floatplane to ultimately become a true competitor to YouTube then they have to cater to both tiny and large content creators, which means allowing content creators who don't upload anymore, or creators that aren't making floatplane money to remain on the platform.      

It's a big (far bigger) problem for Youtube as well. I believe that's why Youtube recently changed it to display ads before all videos, even if the creators aren't partnered (eligible for monetization).

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2475463?hl=en

https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/83733719/updates-to-youtube’s-terms-of-service-november-‘20?hl=en&msgid=83733719

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/11/18/youtube-will-now-show-ads-on-all-videos-even-if-creators-dont-want-them/?sh=25844a49130f

[Eighjan]

Just now, Spotty said:

Which two? LTT has struggled to keep up with the week early access for the last few months. I do actually wish they were remove that from the benefits list when most videos are uploaded simultaneously or with only a day early access - something that LTT has been trying to fix and has been giving extra behind the scenes to make up for it.

 

It's a big (far bigger) problem for Youtube as well. I believe that's why Youtube recently changed it to display ads before all videos, even if the creators aren't partnered (eligible for monetization).

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2475463?hl=en

https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/83733719/updates-to-youtube’s-terms-of-service-november-‘20?hl=en&msgid=83733719

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/11/18/youtube-will-now-show-ads-on-all-videos-even-if-creators-dont-want-them/?sh=25844a49130f

LMG & Bitwit Ultra.

[Kilrah]

5 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

i prefer if LTT could actually separate things they already published on youtube and other sub channels content, as it's very cluttering to dump it all in one page, imo

they said they'll separate soon but... it truly is messy and makes me not want to use it (which i almost nvr use FP)

Don't mind having it all on one page, I watch most anyway, it's actually easier to find everything than on youtube that way where you have to rummage through all the channels.

 

Also the point of splitting was to make you sub and pay extra for each one, so not really interested...

[LinusTech]

So far the cost is something we can absorb pretty easily. We're open TO bringing in more, we're open to letting people go. It's supposed to be a tool that people can use if they find it useful or not use if they don't

 

LInus