Where We Are And Where We're Going

[Percysowner]

I just get the link when I want to purchase a video and download it, but it has to work somehow and might solve your problem? Good luck.

Well, basically it uses this platform called Fetchapp, that is gear towards serving up files in an e-commerce setup. It integrates with platforms like Shopify. I messed around with the free setup for half a minute, and it seems like you can abuse the system so people can just access a link and video. However, that is abusing the system, and would probably be frowned upon. Heck, even giving away download links free would probably be frowned upon. Heck, the "unmetered bandwidth" and "custom plan" is the same deal that Vimeo has (though maybe different prices).

Ah! All I know is using the purchase the video part. He does allow sharing of his videos. You buy 10 uses of the link and when he gives the go ahead you can post unused links on a forum board for others to access. This probably doesn't fit Chuck's needs, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

[Dilandau3000]

This is going to be a pretty hard decision to make but have you considered maybe doing some videos as pure podcasts (or just with a background?).

Perhaps that as an alternative to the constant struggle with copyright?

We're all here for your observations after all.

I'd be okay with that. I'm usually not really watching anyway, mostly just listening. The only exception is the Discovery and Picard reviews, because I haven't actually seen the show, so I'm more interested in the clips.

[tyrteg]

I'm not gonna patronize Chuck or anyone helping with the SFDebris site and hosting issues by pretending I have a cookie-cutter answer. But there are a few things I feel I can add to the conversation that weren't presented so far - so I'm going to do that.

a) I'm pretty sure I'm the only Czech person here so I don't think you know it - there is a Czech file hosting site that allows pretty much close to unlimited uploads. It won't allow streaming but if the option to allow users to download the files and watch it on their own device were desired - do check out: https://ulozto.net/

b) Have you considered giving western world and streaming options the middle finger and moving to Russia? What I mean is using the Russian Facebook alternative vk.com that I'm pretty sure allows uploading files/movies and unlike every western company doesn't give a single fuck when US mega-corps like Disney threaten it with lawsuit? Like I don't want to encourage piracy but I've watched and seen - free to download - quite a bit of copyrighted material there and things I've seen years ago are still there unharmed. Games Workshop and Metallica are pretty rabid with their copyright lawyers but can still be found there. Pretty sure it'll be the same with Chinese alternatives - though I have no experience with them. The internet is a pretty open place and if US doesn't want to follow it's own laws on "Free Use for education purposes" why not "Ask the devil for help" as Cpt. Janeway would say and move to sites thoroughly unimpressed by US laws?

c) How come this archive of SF Debris episodes exists and seems to have been existing since 2011 with no problem to this day? http://www.bookgallery.co.il/sfdebris/ Sure - the collected works of SF Debris have bloated in size several times over but I'd say it's worth considering. Original (way more sassy and *gasp* sometimes even opinionated) episodes free to download...

[Admiral X]

I don't suppose Rumble and Odysee have been checked out as alternative hosts, have they? Seems like you can watch videos without having to pay anything, but I don't know if one can have an account and upload without having to pay anything or not.

[CrypticMirror]

This is going to be a pretty hard decision to make but have you considered maybe doing some videos as pure podcasts (or just with a background?).

Perhaps that as an alternative to the constant struggle with copyright?

We're all here for your observations after all.

I'd be okay with that. I'm usually not really watching anyway, mostly just listening. The only exception is the Discovery and Picard reviews, because I haven't actually seen the show, so I'm more interested in the clips.

I'm the opposite, I'm a very visually orientated person, and podcasts and even audiobooks leave me cold because there is no visual component. So advising Chuck to go audio only would lose me as a viewer. Part of what makes Chuck's reviews work, other than his total refusal to go on camera himself [which I love, it adds to the mystique], is his balancing of visuals with narration. It is why his book reviews are so skippable, there is nothing really to put on the screen. Plus a lot of the books that have given to him are trash, or at least they are the brand of trash that I don't read and not the trash that I do read. Discworld excepted, of course.

[Beelzquill]

Mark me down as cool with audio only. I honestly don't really watch the videos so much as listen to them while playing a game or something.

[wolfieatwork]

Seems like dailymotion killed a lot of the videos.

[Muzer]

Wow, I did not know about that YouTube archive, that's really great! Will be fun to see where Chuck began; I was still reading his text reviews at the time when the YouTube ones were taken down.

Incidentally an archive of *most* of the videos from Blip, hosted by archive.org, is available at https://zackradnedge.github.io/Bloop.html (just type sfdebris and hit enter — this is available for other former blip users too such as Confused Matthew; was great to revisit some of his old videos!)

Does anyone know of (or have personally which they would be willing to share) any more complete archives of later (post-Blip) videos? I've been going through DS9 with a friend who's never watched it before recently, and it's been frustrating not being able to watch many of the videos (though I'm sure not half as frustrating as it is for Chuck!). There are very few DS9 videos left uploaded, and while the aforementioned Blip archive has filled many of the bigger gaps, there are still many notable post-Blip DS9 reviews which are sadly missing.

Hope Chuck doesn't mind the existence of these archives — it's violating his copyright, sure, but I believe it's been a long time since he's received notable ad revenue from these videos, and as a Patreon supporter myself since the very start I hope I'm doing my part at least to make up for it

[Muzer]

Further to my previous post, I discovered there was a partial attempt to archive vidme before it went down. Unfortunately this also seems to have missed the vast majority of sfdebris reviews — but five reviews were saved and can still be watched in this manner. These are:

Deep Space Nine: Strange Bedfellows (not currently available elsewhere)
Full Moon: Episode 22 A Solo Performance — Live (currently available on YouTube via sfdebris.com)
Kannazuki No Miko: Episode 11 Dance of Swords (currently available on YouTube via sfdebris.com)
Kannazuki No Miko: Episode 12 Priestess of the Godless Month (currently available on YouTube via sfdebris.com)
Paranoia Agent Episodes 8-10 (currently available on YouTube via sfdebris.com)


Since only the DS9 episode is currently "missing" I won't bother to dig out the links to the others, but the DS9 episode can be watched here http://web.archive.org/web/201712140534 ... id.me/pje6 (it takes a long time to load but should eventually work). If you can't get that to work I've made it available here: https://tim32.org/~muzer/54431661-combined.mp4

Incidentally I also found a copy of The Changing Face of Evil review lying around on my hard drive, so here is that one: https://tim32.org/~muzer/d570%20The%20C ... 20Evil.mp4

If Chuck objects to my mirroring of these I do apologise and will happily remove them, but I thought I'd make them available in case anyone else was also desperate to watch old DS9 reviews! Again any other archives I might have missed that anyone can bring to my attention would be much appreciated.

[tyrteg]

Wow! Thanks for the Blip Archive. Nice to see SFDebris stuff there but seems there are more of my favorite creators "lost to time" there - like JesuOtaku. His (technically hers back then) reviews of Trigun and Cowboy Bebop were top notch.

Also another Czech site that allows uploading and watching videos straight from it very much like Blip - is http://nahnoji.cz/ and if you open it up you'll notice straight away some copyrighted material there. Also has almost instantaneous loading time for me - but considering it's a CZ site and I'm in CZ I have no idea how fast the loading would be from across the Atlantic. Do give it a chance and please ignore the fact that the rough translation of the site to English says "on top of manure" it's a pun