social.noyu.me

i have this suspicion that this is deliberate because it's somehow more expensive for google to serve you videos from youtube's long tail. it feels like this whenever you try to dig deep into an obscure topic

(quoting https://twitter.com/thomas_violence/status/1849627627474293148)

its very cool that youtube is the largest collection of video footage ever assembled and it's borderline impossible to search. rocking up to the library of alexandria and the guy keeps showing you the same three scrolls and standing in your way if you try to look at anything else

like for example i recently decided to try to watch to every single youtube video about the "yamaha mu5". youtube search makes it very difficult to dig up all the 100-views videos from 10 years ago, even if you make it unambiguously clear that's what you're after

and i think it's probably because each of those videos only exist on some really slow spinning rust drive on one server in the forgotten youtube datacentre, the one that must exist because the legacy is the product, but the one that they really can't afford for people to use much

and… this is not google being evil. it's probably them being benevolent. they have probably realised this is the only way they can keep the video library of alexandria alive

‪i think someday youtube will collapse under its own weight, alas. google's ad monopoly can't last forever. i hope that day can be prolonged as long as possible, though‬

uh, postponed is what i meant i guess

i do not mean that i like google's monopoly. what i mean is that we have built a world on top of it, and there are things about this world we are all dearly attached to, and we are in for a very rude awakening when this old world dies, because the new one has still not managed to be born

‪oyzmandias (poem) but the statue is a dead link to an 8-hour-long 4k youtube video‬

i'm allowed to be apocalyptic because i am, famously, the person who decided to do something about the early ios game apocalypse, but that ark can only save a few things

@hikari it's still hecking wild that you've actually done that. huge respect, this is the sort of action that visibly changes the world

@whitequark you seem like the same kind of character. i'm not familiar enough with your work to understand it fully, but i sense that there is probably an ecosystem resting on your shoulders

@hikari (nervously) h-haha...

@hikari it's incredible, one-of-a-kind work

@hikari like... from the height of my level of skill, being able to navigate the complexity of the technical implementation is only noteworthy, because i find it straightforward (if taking considerable experience)

however, the persistence and dedication to applying your skill to preserve these particular cultural artifacts are outstanding, and so is the timing. it's the sort of projects that might be relied on by generations

@whitequark thanks. yeah. i'm sort of cursed by adhd in that i can't actually fully dedicate myself to it, but i have also managed to dedicate myself to it in the most important ways, to ensure it can keep marching forward even when i am not able to do it myself

@whitequark instead of driving it forward day-to-day, i just occasionally dive in and make some massive architectural leap happen over a few days, which is a very nice role to have

@hikari yep, that's familiar

it's not easy, especially after a few years