I partially know the answer to this question...You cannot host videos directly on Lemmy, but that is understandable, video hosting is pretty expensive, but Lemmy also doesn't support video embeds(videos don't play within Lemmy), which means that you will have to open the link in a new tab/window to watch it. Which is pretty annoying/inconvenient, and that is probably the main reason why video/gif posts are just not popular here. Even if someone does post it, users mostly can't be bothered to open it.
I've read somewhere that this is intentional and that is "privacy and security matter".
But that kind of doesn't make sense to me. Alright, I understand how it can be a privacy concern, since the sites on which the videos are hosted can track you. But we switched from Reddit...Not really known for being privacy friendly...
People that are concerned about their privacy will know what to do/not to do.
I'm not knowledgable enough to understand how it can be a security matter. I guess if the video is hosted on a malicious site...But wouldn't that be easily solved by simply allowing only trusted, well known sites?
Video is simply the most superior type of media there is, and I think that not having easy access to it on Lemmy is hurting it.
Are there any other reasons why we don't see video posts on Lemmy, and are there any plans to make videos more easily consumable on Lemmy?
It's interesting to see that Lemmy users are so against the video.
I still stand by my argument that video is the superior type of media. Just because everyone instantly thinks of a shitty YouTube video with a 20 minute intro and filled with ads or a TikTok video of a stupid trend, that doesn't mean that video is bad. I do agree that most video content nowadays is shit, and I also agree that text or text+image posts are much better for a lot of things, especially when you are looking for specific information.
But whatever your opinion about the video is, you cannot deny that video is the most popular medium and the most attractive/addictive one.
I made this post because I keep seeing posts about "Active monthly users dropped..." pretty often on here. Some say that's because of the X reason, some say it's because of the Y reason... Whatever the reason might be, this type of platform needs users, a lot of them.
I think that providing a bit of a doomscroll content through videos wouldn't hurt anyone. The whole point of this type of site is to have communities focused on different things. Many communities that are very popular on the "other site" are basically dead here because video (embedded video posts) support is bad here.
Besides, isn't this a site on which you can choose which communities you follow? So why would people who are against video posts even care if you can simply filter such content if you are not interested in it? A few of those "doomscrollers" might trickle into your niche community tomorrow and make it more popular...
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm kind of skeptical about Lemmy's ability to keep the users. So I personally wouldn't mind filtering a few shitpost communities if that means that we get more active users in other communities.
Maybe I'm wrong...
Wouldn't it be better to make a different service that replicates the experience of TikTok or whatever?
PeerTube is a federated video hosting service, so maybe you could build a bridge or something to it like we have worth Mastodon and kbin.