Thanks to some help and encouragement from @wehmoen I finally took the time to sit down and set up IPFS on a VPS to begin storing files. I've long wanted to start making more video content but haven't taken the time yet. That will certainly be changing soon!
I got started by purchasing my VPS with Vultr.com. Vultr has a promotion that allows new users to spend $10 and then you get an additional $10 back. The goal was that I would hopefully determine IPFS use for me while I burned through the initial deposit and promotion. Unfortunately due to my switch to utilizing Square's Cash App for purchases I didn't have a card that would qualify for the bonus.
Then I decided it'd be a good time to push the project off and wait until 3/4 of my initial deposit was burned. I can't really complain too much about this because I had other things come up (like getting ShopSteem.com ready) so life moves on. I still wish I would have waited to deposit funds until I could put something on my traditional bank card. @bitcoinmeister would be disappointed by my haste.
This was all until today when I sat down to watch Google's Stadia announcement and it's caused me to rethink how I want to distribute content. I had previously only wanted to use YouTube for posting my videos of The Steeming Pile and / or future crypto shows I've wanted to pursue. That was flipped upside down when I watched the live-stream announcing Stadia today. I think I'm going to be forced into making a change.
The above is a recap of the hour long presentation for Stadia. There's a lot of crazy things about Stadia that make me believe it will be the next major player in gaming but that's for another post. There is one new feature that I think is a game changer for streamers though. It will be the ability to jump into a game with another user. This one feature is driving me to change my entire content distribution plan.
Recently I've been streaming my content to Vimm.tv, Twitch, DLive, Mixer and Stream.me. As I alluded earlier I've wanted to keep YouTube for more professional content so I've been instead uploading streams of our weekly Steeming Pile there but leaving gaming content to not be stored.
I've enjoyed my setup for streaming but things have seemed to stale over the last few months. Admittedly most of that is due to my own lack of desire for streaming but I think it's because partly I was chasing a crowd that was never coming back my way. Instead I now find interest in building a new community around my content that is more focused on me and the content rather than my affiliation or disaffiliation to any certain platform. [@calimeatwagon preached this to me for months but I was being too stubborn to really listen in!]
Now that I'm opening up my perspective I find myself seeking to make my central hub for my content stored around my own domain at patrickulrich.com. This will enable me to offer an easy way for followers to interact with me while still keeping a presence on other platforms. It also means that all of my content can still be stored on the Steem blockchain thanks to @steempress.
With that in mind I started exploring how I would deliver video content. I've been wanting to integrate Periscope into my sites for some time to help grow my Twitter reach but it wasn't until the Stadia announcement did I realize that I would have to be integrating YouTube into all of my options as well. This leads me to think my best option will be to make my primary streaming home a split between YouTube and Vimm while I also broadcast to Twitch, Periscope and either Mixer or DLive.
One thing I have learned over the years is to not trust Google when it comes to a platform. If you've never heard that's why I started using Steem so heavy in the first place. That's why I decided it was time to get set up for IPFS so I could store my content on d.tube and never have to worry about it going anywhere since it would be redundantly stored on my server for protection.
The setup for the IPFS was very simple. After using SSH to connect in to my VPS I just followed a guide from IPFS.io and away we went! Now I'll be ready to pin any of my content as it ages on d.tube to ensure it's available for as long as needed.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://patrickulrich.com/2019/03/ipfs-here-we-come/