Can we create decentralized library (catalog) protocol, so it can't be taken down? I'm thinking about libgen/sci-hub/whatcd(RIP), but entirely decentralized, protocol-based. We already have basically all necessary tools: BitTorrent/IPFS to distribute files, magnet links to link them, DHT to discover peers. We just need to combine them together in a smart way and maybe add some bits of missing functionality, like:
- categorization and search;
- voting for every entry;
- maybe reputation system. Where peers regularly publishing good, high quality content get their 'karma'[1] upvoted. So when downloading you can choose people with higher reputation. Or when building catalog of materials in certain area of interest, you can filter only peers with certain threshold karma.
- incentive for peers to keep seeding whatever they downloaded at least until achieving certain ratio (say, 2:1). Maybe by rewarding with 'torrent tokens' that you can spend on downloading, commenting etc.[2]
- comments to every entry (published torrent). With means to combat spam, insults, irrelevant stuff etc. E.g. with voting system, where comments with, say, -3[3] votes become collapsed. Or/and with aforementioned 'tokens' that you spend when comment.
- personal blacklists to block people whose torrents/comments you don't want to see.
Maybe I'm reinventing the wheel here and something similar already exists, but for some reason not popular (since I never heard of it)? In that case we need to figure out why it didn't shoot and fix it to make it work.
[1] Your ID will be a cryptographic key a la cryptocurrency wallet.
[2] With rare but sought after torrents rewarding you with more tokens.
I tried to do simplest thing: create playlist - the only thing I'm really missing not having YT account (beside commenting).
1. First of all, it forced me to create Invidio.us account. Why it can't store everything in my cookie?
2. Next, I searched for a video typing its YT code "fVCAFvIq_F8" - no results. After several attempts I figured out that sometimes it does find it and sometimes it doesn't. Weird.
3. Alright, I copied full address of a video into search box, clicked on result - and got an error: "The uploader has not made this video available in your country." Umm... What? I have no problem watching it on YT itself, why would Invidio restrict me? But even if it was country-restricted, why would Invidio reproduce this stupid Google-imposed geographical restrictions/discrimination?
3. Very irritated, I went for another video (OlNC6gK2y0I) - only to get another error: "The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported" ...
4. It was getting boring, but for the sake of experiment I went for yet another video - Invidio found it and played, but... there is no "Add to a play list" button? Turned out, first you need go to a settings, scroll down, find and click "View all playlists" link, on the next page click "Create playlist" link, on the next page create it, then go back to a video you wanted to add and add it. Thats... a clusterfuck.
5. Alright I go to a front page - where can I see my playlist? Nowhere. You need to find and turn on separate setting just to get "Playlists" link on the front page. (Isn't it obvious that I need playlists from the very fact that I created it?)
OK, maybe at least Invidio has additional functionality compared to YT, like downloading video? No, "Download is disabled." Why?
To all of that I must add that Invidio.us worked very slow, sluggish and unresponsive. Occasionally I was getting "Rate limit exceeded" error just trying to open front page.
- categorization and search;
- voting for every entry;
- maybe reputation system. Where peers regularly publishing good, high quality content get their 'karma'[1] upvoted. So when downloading you can choose people with higher reputation. Or when building catalog of materials in certain area of interest, you can filter only peers with certain threshold karma.
- incentive for peers to keep seeding whatever they downloaded at least until achieving certain ratio (say, 2:1). Maybe by rewarding with 'torrent tokens' that you can spend on downloading, commenting etc.[2]
- comments to every entry (published torrent). With means to combat spam, insults, irrelevant stuff etc. E.g. with voting system, where comments with, say, -3[3] votes become collapsed. Or/and with aforementioned 'tokens' that you spend when comment.
- personal blacklists to block people whose torrents/comments you don't want to see.
Maybe I'm reinventing the wheel here and something similar already exists, but for some reason not popular (since I never heard of it)? In that case we need to figure out why it didn't shoot and fix it to make it work.
[1] Your ID will be a cryptographic key a la cryptocurrency wallet.
[2] With rare but sought after torrents rewarding you with more tokens.
[3] Personally adjustable.