New Platform Launch Feedback & FAQ

[Giganizer300PRO]

So, I understand that "YouTube is dying" and Google is backstabbing youtubers and whatever, but Vessel?

I mean, yea it has a nice GUI and an AWESOME way of dividing the content (unlike Google crap that doesn't even work), but... you can't pause the video by pressing space, you can't put the video in full-screen mode by double-clicking the video, HD is weird (like super duper strange), there apparently aren't any video popups with links and stuff and there is NO MOBILE APP!!!! Are you kidding me?! I can't watch videos on my smart devices? Then whats the point?! (not mentioning there's no Smart TV app) So, is it even worth it? Like seriously, what is this?

I'm not mad, that LMG moved to Vessel and I'm not going to stop watching them there, but I am deeply disappointed by Vessel.

[Guest Darth Revan]

Before I start I want to mention that English is not my native tongue, so please keep that in mind.

 

Now I do understand why you guys did this but I do believe that it wasn't a good move. Yeah you got people to sign up for Vessel, but that's only because of the Giveaway and the fact that signing up was free. I can guarantee you that after that one year expires, people are going to leave Vessel, and only a couple of people will still be there.

 

It is a good thing that you decided to branch out but I doubt this was the best solution for you guys and us the viewers.

Now as for Vessel itself the website, well it needs a lot of work that you guys can't do anything about, so I can't really comment on them.

[balanarahul]

Subscribed on Vessel. No Android app though. Bummer. My PC's broken. Guess I'll try it later.

[Platfus]

Hey guys, okay, so I registered and it looks awesome, love the other shows too, but the biggest problem for me is that it doesnt have any iOS nor Android application afaik.
That is problem for me because I watch most of your videos on iPad on smartphone in bed, since I am a student and when I wanna watch youtube, I dont waste time that I can learn something. Well ok, I game most of that time anyway but mobile apps are important for me.

[Ryan Leech]

I'm really liking Vessel so far! You made the right move Linus!

[Giganizer300PRO]

Hey guys, okay, so I registered and it looks awesome, love the other shows too, but the biggest problem for me is that it doesnt have any iOS nor Android application afaik.

That is problem for me because I watch most of your videos on iPad on smartphone in bad, since I am a student and when I wanna watch youtube, I dont waste time that I can learn something. Well ok, I game most of that time anyway but mobile apps are important for me.

 

 

Subscribed on Vessel. No Android app though. Bummer. My PC's broken. Guess I'll try it later.

 

 

Before I start I want to mention that English is not my native tongue, so please keep that in mind.

 

Now I do understand why you guys did this but I do believe that it wasn't a good move. Yeah you got people to sign up for Vessel, but that's only because of the Giveaway and the fact that signing up was free. I can guarantee you that after that one year expires, people are going to leave Vessel, and only a couple of people will still be there.

 

It is a good thing that you decided to branch out but I doubt this was the best solution for you guys and us the viewers.

Now as for Vessel itself the website, well it needs a lot of work that you guys can't do anything about, so I can't really comment on them.

I agree with all of you.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that they have no mobile app.

Like @Platfus I watch most of my videos over a mobile device.

[g.strange42]

I think the only thing that is annoying about this new step, is that I can Plex it! I usually drop a load of videos into my Plex queue to watch later or if they are interesting and I want to rewatch. Plex drops them in the Queue but when it comes to playing them I get this error 'Cannot Load M3U8 No levels to play.' I'm currently looking for a solution, but nothing obvious is coming up.

I was wondering if anyone else is having this issue or is able to add Vessel Videos to the Plex Queue. Or if there is a Channel plugin anyone is working on. It might be good to have an LTT Channel on Plex that can access Vessel if you have a a sub or Youtube otherwise. 

 

Gabriel

[thenewguy]

It looks good. It needs more video quality options - HD or Auto, what's that supposed to mean? I also agree that it needs an Android app. >50% of my YouTube viewing is on my Android Phone. It needs a better way to show new content (like My Subscriptions on YouTube, except that that isn't very good either as I'm sure many know).

 

Good start, but a long way ahead to improve. I think most importantly it needs to listen to viewers, unlike YouTube, which just does whatever the f*ck it wants to.

[trogdor0]

Now I know this is a new platform both for you guys and in general and that these are technical issues that you guys can't directly fix, but you could relay them if enough people experience them. I haven't read through the majority of the posts on this thread, so there may be others having the same issues, but here are the things that I personally have had trouble with:

 

-Middle mouse/wheel button doesn't open a new tab; It opens videos in the same tab. 

 

-Pausing the video causes it to stop loading. You pause the video, then unpause it a few seconds later and it continues playing for ~10 seconds then stops. You have to reload the page to get it to continue; skipping ahead or back also won't correct it like it normally would on other platforms. It also starts from the beginning when reloading; it doesn't remember where you were in the video before reloading.

 

-No clickable hyperlinks in the descriptions.

On a related note, It would be nice to have a link to a forum thread to go to when it goes live on Vessel and not wait until it is available on YouTube.

[LastThoughts]

Well, like everyone is saying the video quality is that great, specially because is a paid platform, everything else not bothering me too much. But I think vessel have a lot of potential, and in one year, they can improve on a lot of things. Also, I hope the vessel bring LMG more money to make more awesome videos . 

[The Danish Pastry]

Username: Bassee97

1. https://www.vessel.com/videos/JYZEYDYx0

2. https://www.vessel.com/videos/DkWN4qqW1

 

Awesome to see you guys trying out a new plattform!

[The Face]

First off, i apologize if this has been asked already. I did try and look for my question before posting, but then I realized there were 40 pages of questions.

Is there a difference on your end between watching (for free) on Vessel vs Youtube? I'm always willing to try something new for a bit, but if LTT makes a little more from ads on Vessel vs Youtube I'll switch on over to Vessel.

[RooFio]

I wish Linus Group the best of luck with this new platform for their content.  I am sure I will get used to Vessel.  There are a few things I have questions about with vessel.

It appears that Vessel has no support for android devices.  does vessel plan on making an app for android?

 

with youtube just announcing that they are going to go after the game streaming market and compete directly with competitors like twitch.  if youtube were to add a pay for subscription like twitch has.  Would you consider making youtube your priority again for uploading your content first?

 

Again I like to see Lisun Group is being innovative and making sure there bottom line is taken care of.  I am a LONG time content consumer and I will follow you guys wherever you decide to go.

[brat137]

My opinions on Vessel:

 

For people who don't like it, nothing changes. You get all your content in the same way as before without change of delivery, timing or quality. The move to Vessel does not effect you at all so I do not see it as a problem.

 

For those of you that want Vessel, give it time. Its very very young as a platform. The free subscription window is, I think, an attempt to get members to aid the sale of advertising, so they are a young platform. They have a better video quality and system then YT had not too long ago with fewer resources. We get a year free now, a year is a long time and the platform could mature a lot in a year.

 

For now, if you don't mind the lower quality videos then you can watch them early and help support LMG in a move to diversify their earnings and increase their security as a company so they continue expanding and continue making content for us for free if you want it to be.

[SirSquid]

@nicklmg will there be a forum post for vessel videos too?

[nicklmg]

Why would you have to incentivize them?  Like I said, the annual contributor program would be an option.  People could contribute a lump sum or a monthly amount as well (no forum membership required).  This money would go directly to Linus Media Group — not Vessel, not YouTube, not Google.  Personally, I don't see how a deal with this company which has no name recognition among the public would somehow be more beneficial to LMG than a direct line to pocketbooks of your audience.  Many people have already stated that they have no interest in staying with the service once the trial is over. 

 

At this venture, it makes more sense as a viewer to use YouTube due to its broad platform reach.  While I personally don't think waiting a couple days would necessarily make a huge difference, I can understand some of the arguments here.  If a person is already contributing to LMG, they are essentially going to have to wait to see the content on their platform of choice – YouTube.

 

To put it simply, the majority of people on here seem to be interested in only one thing.  They do not wish to help Vessel (yet another company).  The community would rather aid the success of the content creators they love directly. This would enable you guys to centralize the content to a known platform.  It seems like you guys are under the impression that you need an additional service to succeed.  You don't.  People who truly enjoy your content use YouTube just as a means of accessing it.  They care about the content; the platform is secondary.  Google needs content creators more than content creators need Google.

Just responding to this one for now since I saw it randomly and thought it should be addressed.

 

Why would you have to incentivize them?

Most people don't choose to contribute solely to support the content. Obviously you're very tuned in to the "behind the scenes" aspects of Linus Media Group that we share publicly (first blood, contrib, office builder), and we really appreciate that! Without awesome people like you we couldn't do what we do every day.

 

With that said, not everyone who watches our content is like you. The large, "vocal negative" portion of the audience (YouTube, Twitter, etc. commenters that may just watch a video here or there) doesn't seem to understand that Google AdSense is essentially peanuts, and nowhere near enough to pay for the quality and quantity of content we provide. Whenever we ask for contributions without a big incentive, many people comment about how we're begging for charity etc. Maybe it's a product of the environment we have created (since we're highly ad-supported), but more focused contribution campaigns like first blood and new office (that were incentivized) have been met with a lot of hate.

 

People could contribute a lump sum or a monthly amount as well (no forum membership required).  This money would go directly to Linus Media Group — not Vessel, not YouTube, not Google.

We already have a monthly contribution option - the forum (obviously you're well aware of that). If we don't do it through the forum, where would we facilitate that transaction? No matter where we go (TipJar, Patreon, etc.) they take a cut. And, since they aren't directly incentivized by something like early access to a video, the average viewer is going to be FAR less motivated to contribute (if they even have the financial means to do so).

 

Many people have already stated that they have no interest in staying with the service once the trial is over. 

And we have already stated that that is perfectly fine. We'll still be uploading every video to YouTube, and every viewer will have the option to choose what platform they consume our content on.

 

At this venture, it makes more sense as a viewer to use YouTube due to its broad platform reach.

I think judging which platform makes more sense is up to each individual viewer, but I can see why you think so.

 

If a person is already contributing to LMG, they are essentially going to have to wait to see the content on their platform of choice – YouTube.

That is definitely one of the massive negatives at the moment. We've talked to Vessel about adding the early access membership as a benefit of forum contribution, but you're right, even if you contribute here you would still have to wait the week to see each video on YouTube.

 

They do not wish to help Vessel (yet another company).  The community would rather aid the success of the content creators they love directly. This would enable you guys to centralize the content to a known platform.

No matter where you want to support your favorite creators, you're going to be supporting them through one type of company or another - whether that's PayPal, Patreon, Vessel, whoever. And lower-cost options like PayPal add WAY more overhead for the creator, which means either higher overhead costs for them through paying an employee to manage it, or lower quantity/lower quality content output for the viewer if they deal with it themselves.

 

Centralization on a platform that is controlled by a huge corporation is, frankly, bad for creators. In our industry, more platform options will always make content creation a more stable profession and drive higher revenue shares for creators, which will lead to greater investment in the content, and higher quality content for all viewers - not just the ones who choose to contribute through any number of ways. Having a centralized platform causes the issues we experienced last month, with YouTube coming in and trying to lay claim to almost half of all ad revenue that they had no part in sourcing (yes, I know it's on their platform, but it doesn't change the fact that they're trying to claim almost half of revenue that was sourced by creators without the help of YouTube), and barring some advertising formats that creators had been using for years. With the only other options being sites like Daily Motion and Vimeo, YouTube can pretty much do whatever they please. Hopefully more competition (from any platform) can help YouTube realize that working with creators rather than against them is very beneficial.

 

It seems like you guys are under the impression that you need an additional service to succeed.  You don't.  People who truly enjoy your content use YouTube just as a means of accessing it.  They care about the content; the platform is secondary.  Google needs content creators more than content creators need Google.

When YouTube is the only feasible platform to maintain and grow your audience, that is CATEGORICALLY not true. The way it is now, Google controls the only platform that has mattered for a long time, they control search, and they control a LOT of online advertising. Like I said above, they can pretty much do anything they want, and creators just have to deal with the changes in whatever way they can. Most of the time, changes creators would have to make would lead to lower quality content and lower quantities of content. Only when there is competition in the industry will your closing statement be true.

 

 

We really appreciate your feedback! And the massive amount of support.

[SasCologne]

I can't watch any of the Early Access videos for some reason. It prompts me to enter CC-data (which I don't even have) although it says that my subscription is active and free of charge until March 2016

 

I couldn't care less about it since the videos will go up on youtube anyway but it's still kinda annoying.

 

I still think Vessel is a good idea because it offers a new way for channels to make money without having to beg for donations, which is great especially for channels that don't put out that many videos anyway such as Veritasium or minutephysics.

[Rallystone]

I signed up this morning using the link and it says that i don't have early access. It seems like this is happening to others but I'm just checking on here to see!

[sammyk12]

I signed up, but I hate the complete lack of mobile support. If you don't have an iPhone, there isn't any way to watch, because they don't have an android app and you can't sign in using a browser. I watch most videos on my phone, so I'm sticking primarily to YouTube for now.

[Mark06062]

So var Vessel looks interesting.  I hope they add an app for Android phones.  That's where I watch most of the Youtube videos I subscribe to.

[leg]

Kinda input for vessel themselves and maybe you guys at LMG can contact them about these if you agree but I wish they had a few things:

1: A following (subscription) feed

2: Let us see how many people are following a channel

3: Space bar and "K" for pausing and playing the video

4: Being able to change your account picture

5: Integrated ChromeCast support without having to just Cast the whole browser.

6: when signing up atleast make us type in our password twice in case we mess up and then can't get in later

7: a watch later button

 

I love the short little ads before the videos (don't love ads but i know they are needed and the length is great)

 

Overall i just wish you could access more without clicking for the side bar and overall more customizable/ user configurable features.

 

 

Love the free year by the way, didn't like the idea of Vessel until I saw that. 

[KarateKat96]

I do not know if anyone has posted this yet, but I seem to remember Linus saying something about a new ChannelSuperFun Video and possibly a new Techquickie Video that was already on Vessel. I also follow Unbox Therapy and he has two channels (More Top 5 being the other one) on Vessel and has a special way to see both of these. Linus Tech Tips does not have this option. My question is: Did I mishear Linus and there is not a ChannelSuperFun or Techquickie Video on Vessel? and if there is how do I access it? Because I have been unable to do so so far.

[drigerm3]

ooh i forgot to mention  email notifications. vessel needs to implement that 

[dbcooper]

I feel like streaming on vessel is much much slower than youtube.. I have a pretty shity connection and i can watch youtube videos smoothly but i cant watch vessel videos fluently.

[mr_yu]

***Someone is stealing LTT Vessel content*****

 

Not sure where else to post this. I found a YouTube channel posting all your early access Vessel videos.

 

account: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvqnQltJDPJNcW2gdhlVBLA?&ab_channel=VesselVids