Just wondering: is there a service where you can replace the domain of a YouTube URL with, that will automatically redirect you to a random, well-running Invidious or Piped instance? That way we automatically spread out the load to more instances.

Same question for other Alternative Client projects like Nitter for Twitter, Teddit & Libreddit for Reddit, ScribeRip for Medium, etc?

Example: I want to be able to take https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ and turn it into something like https://altclient.to/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ and then have that URL redirect to any one of the popular Invidious or Piped clients, like https://yewtu.be/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ or https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

I'm aware of LibRedirect, but it's a browser extension for a single user. I want to be able to post a URL, say on Lemmy, and have it auto-redirect to a random instance for everyone that clicks in it. My main goal is to help balance out the load on all the instances so the most popular one isn't just swamped with requests while all the others are basically never used.

If there isn't, I might just build it. Shouldn't be too hard.

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[–] kromonos@fapsi.be 5 points 2 years ago

I use https://libredirect.github.io/ for Firefox.

[–] Democracy@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Build it and they will come

[–] MadScientist@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

i haven't heard of any such thing. you should build it! i would love to contribute if you make it in rust or python

[–] AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It seems like none exist, so I'm most likely going to be building it.

But, I'm also most likely going to be building it in PHP. I know PHP kind of sucks, but it's because it's by far the easiest server side language to host, and for something really simple like this, I don't want instance holsters to be messing with docker installs or compiling it on their servers. PHP, along with SQL, is universally supported non-VPS shared webhosts the world over, and its setup is essentially just plop it on a server and you're online.

[–] MadScientist@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

fair enough. can't wait to see it in action!