What Youtube channel has maintained high quality standards over the years?
Inspired by this post but the other way around. Which channels (any subject) do you think have stayed true to their beginnings and are still worth watching today?
My pick would be Gamers Nexus.
science based channels(research, discoveries), although you have to correct the info from time to time, so it doesnt sound like misinformation, occurs quite frequently with biology, phylogenitcs. influencer channels however degrade/decline over time, especially when they become annoyingly political.
i watch pbs eons, deep look, have to comment on them making mistake about species, phylogeny accuracy from to time. one time i commented on the "acoelomorph" video, and said they are unrelated to flatworms.
Cracking the Cryptic would be my top addition to the list. Daily solves of quality human-set variant sudoku puzzles and weekly cryptic crossword solves.
LockPickingLawyer - Keeps things short and sweet, doesn't waste your time. my mechanics - Restoration channel, doesn't pull any YT tricks or shit. danooct1 - PC Virus showcasing channel.
some of my faves:
k&j lumber
project kamp
martjin doolard
m. bjornstroem
technology connections
this old tony
wesley treat
pask makes
frank howarth
chest’er
four eyes furniture
shawn boyd made this
I'll hop on the Technology Connections train and add
Styropyro
CathodeRayDude
Civvie11
Northernlion
Michael Reeves. One video a year, making the dumbest most hilarious shit you can think of.
Some more news is still as it ever was
Well There's Your Problem, a podcast about engineering disasters with slides.
Workshop Companion is great for beginner-friendly woodworking, and I've been really liking HomeRenoVision DIY for home renovation content.
fixing furniture is pretty solid too. “wooden it be nice” lolz
Joe Pera, comedian started around 14 years ago
nobody, musical mixes/tracklists, really good at setting moods and introduced me to a bunch of artists and songs 4 years of mixes
Townsends, classic pioneers time guy, mostly food I don't know how long but he's been around forever
Jeff Gerstmann, video games journalist
Tips From a Shipwright
Some of these channels have changed over the years, expanding and adding hosts and things, but they consistently make good content and have either improved or maintained that quality.
Wendover and Half As Interesting
Real Engineering
Mustard
Legal Eagle
Mentour Pilot
Not a channel, but a creator: Yahtzee Croshaw (was Zero Punctuation/Extra Punctuation on The Escapist, is now Fully Ramblomatic/Semi Ramblomatic on Second Wind.
CGP Grey
SciShow (and many of the other projects from the vlogbrothers, including Crash Course and vlogbrothers itself)
Technology Connections
Shaun
HBomberGuy
ElectroBOOM
Videogamedunkey
I just wanted to say, y'all are my people, we don't agree on everything, but I'm glad to have moved to lemmy. The few channels mentioned here that I'm not subbed to, I'll be checking out.
Some ones I haven't seen yet:
Edit: fixed formatting error
You and I have very similar viewing tastes. Nice list.
Funny enough, you're not the first one who's also noticed this. A couple years ago, me and a colleague (in helpdesk) shared our YouTube subscriptions and found 80% of them matched, and he introduced me to such channels like Usagi Electric.
I do otherwise tend to notice comments on one channel's videos make references to other channels I also watch (outside of the usual Bringus Studios and DankPods references), so I tend to think I'm part of a larger niche of Gen Z / Millenial computer geeks.
Rick Beato. His channel banner says "Everything Music" and it's not a misnomer. I am not a musician, don't know a Dorian from a pentatonic, but every time he throws something up I drop everything and sit and listen to it. It's just that interesting.
You should know that he plugs his own music training courses (probably worth it) but has never once taken an outside sponsorship. He covers all genres and all fields of talent in music, and regularly pulls in younger unknowns for interviews as well as household names. He has nothing but praise for effort and talent, but no time for hacks. It is incredibly refreshing.
Even if you are only a listener and not a player, just getting the pro-level views on what things should sound like and even how to listen will take your own music listening up multiple notches. Be sure to look for his "What Makes This Song Great" videos, because they are not reactions, they are dissections: you will hear and learn things about songs you've heard a million times that you never noticed before.
Can't say enough good about this channel. When life sucks, I go listen to some Rick Beato.
That's funny, when life sucks, I go watch one of Pat Finnerty's What Makes This Song Stink videos, a direct (and similarly detailed) parody of Beato's videos
Holy shit. Never saw that before. Watching Dani California right now:
"I've got to be clear about something. I don't think it stinks because it's a rip-off; I think it stinks AND it's a rip-off. There's a difference."
Well, he's not actually wrong, though I never expected anyone to bring all the receipts for it, much less to enjoy hearing them trotted out like I am right now. This is a legit song review and not just a parody. Thanks!
While we're on the subject, which of the turds that came out of my asshole this month smelled the best?
Tested got me through covid
Primitive technology. There are many imitators, but the original is a man on his own in new Zealand. His videos focus on building structures in the woods. Starting with river mud, he will make a furnace in order to make bricks in order to make a building to sleep in in order to use it for kiln drying for larger structures etc.....
Be sure to watch with subtitles to read his explanation of things!
I watched this channel for at least 5 years before I knew to turn on the captions!
All true, except he’s in Queensland, Australia.
I'm still amazed he's alive after all this time working in the Australian jungle
Also needs to be said that he's been creating for a decade and every video is consistently as good as the last one. The man single handedly spawned an entire genre and he just kept doing his own thing, algorithms and influencer culture be damned.
Hbomberguy has been getting nothing but better.
Foldingideas also has fantastic long form video essays that I really enjoy.
I think a whole lot of "maker" type channels have all stayed pretty solid, off the top of my head
This Old Tony
Adam Savage
Xyla Foxlin
Clickspring
Blondihacks
Colin Furze
Inheritance Machining (though compared to some of the others he's relatively new)
Stuff Made Here
Jeremy Fielding
Branching out a bit
How to drink
Caitlin Doughty (ask a mortician)
LockpickingLawyer
NileRed (and NileBlue)
Tasting History
Townsends
Useful Charts
Some of them have changed their format a bit over the years, I don't think that's been a negative for any of them. Also due to how YouTube revenue works these days a lot of them have had to rely more heavily on sponsors, patron, merch etc. don't hate the player for that, hate the game.
I watched Colin Furze for the first time in some time, recently. I was surprised by how much more calm and measured he seemed. And then I realized it was likely because he was a little older, had more people in his life to be careful for, and probably moving a little slower in general. And then I felt old. And sad. And surprisingly irrelevant.
Map Men. It's always educational, interesting, and they have amazing Monty Pythonish gags and jokes.
Seconded! They changed channel name to Jay and Mark now though, but it's the same great content.
Captain Disillusion - Does videos about fake videos and pictures and about video editing in a humorous way. He has had same high quality over 18 years now.
CD is the GOAT
I also really like the Corridor Crew for VFX content but it’s not the same tier.
Very high quality.
If anything keeps upping the ante that's why it takes him so long
One of the best ever
Hard for me to say because over the years I've lost interest in most channels I watched years ago.
BobbyBroccoli, NightHawkInLight and Technology Connections are three that I always watch every time I notice a new video.
Techmoan is one of those that I watch from time to time.
And Nerdwriter1 is one that I haven't watch in some time but it is hard for me to imagine it having a decline in quality.
BobbyBroccoli is the GOAT
videogamedunkey
Been watching his videos for ~10 years now
I haven't checked out dunkey in years! I should see what he's been up to lately.
He's really slick these days.
Tasting History with Max Miller.
Numberphile and any other channel by Brady Haran.
Computerphile as well.
11 years of posting videos. No politics, no ads, no culture war bullshit. Just camping videos and unclogging culverts.
Post10 is so wholesome. His enthusiasm for everything he sees and does always makes me feel calm and happy.
Tom Scott with amazing places & things you might not know.
But he stopped making videos. I'd say that's a significant drop in quality.
He placed the main channel on hold, but has still continued to produce content. He has an extraordinary game show in podcast format that shares very unique trivia called Lateral. He is also in the post-production phase of a new run of videos featuring a big road-trip, according to his newsletter. He also occasionally still makes new series of Technical difficulties.
Or simplify taking a stand that he wasn't willing to go down the click bait path the algorithm pushes for. I haven't found another comment for a channel I agree with here yet
I am about to cross a road
I'm off to the Arctic for three weeks
Love his videos. Each one had so much passion and thought put into them
Ayoo. Another Tom Scott fan. Rad!
Stefan Milo - real archaeology, not ancient aliens
Cool Worlds - real astrophysics, not aliens
PBS Space Time - it's never aliens
twoodford - Zen and the Art of Guitar Repair
PBS Space Time is routinely over my head and I love it.
This Old Tony started posting sporadically again!
Goofy dad joke making hobby machinist with a sprinkling of fun cuts, and literally just a voice and hands working on things. One of my favorite channels.
This is definitely in my top 2 YT channels, contending with Technology connections.
Agreed!
There's a single video with his face, btw
The USCSB has a channel with breakdowns of chemical disasters
It's got a pretty fun cult following and it posted within the last week XD
I love those videos. They've done more for safety awareness than any ad campaign ever will
Dank Pods! The content has only gotten better over the years, plus their expansion into car stuff and gaming. Started from iPods, now a bunch of different type of content. 🇦🇺
I always preferred Garbage Time, his car channel. Dude's hilarious.
I feel like Ethoslab deserves a mention. He’s basically making the exact same great fun Minecraft videos as I, a grown ass man, remember from my literal childhood!
Vlogbrothers ftw
Lemmino, Ahoy and kurzgesagt
Add NileRed and that would be my list as well.
https://youtube.com/@explainingcomputers
DOT COM
https://youtube.com/@mothersbasement
I only listen to this one guy for anime reccomendations.
https://youtube.com/@colinfurze
Never has a lull, always good.
https://youtube.com/@chemicalforce
Pretty toxic chemistry
https://youtube.com/@weirdexplorer
If you don't really care about exotic fruit adventures, at least watch his feature length Nutmeg documentary it's most excellent.
Boomer shooter comedic...retrospectives? I like him.
https://youtube.com/@mrcarlsonslab
He repairs very old electronics and is soothing to listen to.
I don't even really care about motorcycles, but their video editing skills are incredible.
https://youtube.com/@lowbuckgarage
Accurate, he will do everything possible to avoid spending money on a project.
https://youtube.com/@styropyro
Mad scientist.
https://youtube.com/@casuallyexplained
His sense of humor doesn't get old for me.
https://youtube.com/@thecodyreeder
Mad scientist.
Taught me more about language than any teacher in my life ever did.
I find a lot of obscure old games to play via this guy and his videos are high effort.
https://youtube.com/@posymusic
Every video is a work of art. It doesn't matter what the subject is, you'll be entranced.
https://youtube.com/@techtangents
Bitrot necromancy enthusiast.
https://youtube.com/@littlevmills
A Canadian who makes high effort metal music covers.
https://youtube.com/@joel-haver
He just likes to make movies. I like his movies. A lot.
https://youtube.com/@theslowmoguys
It's in the name!
Mad scientist.
https://youtube.com/@evenflow2907
High effort vehicular brainrot.
Have a good day!
A lovely weird Canadian artist I adore.
I swear I can hear his voice. "Explaining computers... dot com."
That's a long list. Glad to see FortNine made it, because I was going to mention them if someone else didn't already do it. I am into motorcycles, and no one else in that space has better camera work or editing. Usually good info too, although some of Ryan's takes get controversial
Never has a lull, always good.
Still waiting for him to connect the secret tunnel to his bloody bunker though. THAT WAS THE BLOODY POINT OF IT. But nooo, he got too into the idea of an underground garage. Which is, in fairness, very cool.
The Wonky Angle for IDM/electronic music coverage
Gtrippin for trip sims
Badempanada for anti-status-quo takes
Jacob Geller for video game content with a touch of breadtube
Cross-instance linking is a mess. You linked to an ad for your mobile app, which links to a kbin instance, which links back to lemmy.world... The app page devotes most of its space to download links while kbin demands the viewer log in before it will show them anything.
Technology Connections are great, but this doesn't feel very connected.
Trying to get a correct URL to change it but I literally can't. Any idea? :/
Edit: Changed Voyager settings and now I can share the original. Please let me know of it's ok now
Worked for me
Op should have used threadiverse.link, or the home instance of the content, both of which are options in Voyager. The voyager link is primarily for sending to non-lemmy users.
My Voyager app only seems to offer the vger.to link. It's a recent change I'm not happy about.
Crash Course
In a Nutshell - Kurzgesagt
I think they've really started to go downhill lately. Mostly clickbait and miscorrelation in their recent stuff.
In a Nutshell is often too simplified. They often present fringe hypothesis as widely accepted scientific theories.
Then again, they've always done that, so their quality has stayed the same.
Their videos all have clickbait titles nowadays, really annoying. Wish they would actually write what the video is about on them
For gaming content, I've been following CallMeKevin for several years. His stuff is always a good time.
Good time? More like bore ragnarok.
If you haven’t seen yet Give us a visit
Smarter Everyday (space, slow mo, manufacturing), PBS Space Time (space, quantum physics, astrophysics...), Xisumavoid (Minecraft Let's Play), Magnus Midtbø (Climber), Asianometry (technology, manufacturing, science history)
Smarter Everyday has only gotten better and better as he has grown in notoriety. Fantastic content, and not beholden to sponsors.
except him spouting more and more religious shit
Except for all the American Armed Forces stuff
Absolutely, he's getting access to places and hardware that keep pushing the envelope, but still remains that very humble human being he always was. He's so kind to everybody working in the factory tours. Absolutely recommend. The only thing i'm not a big fan of is the content he produces with weapons, but that's a cultural thing, i get it.
Almost all of the smarter everyday videos I wish were 1/10 of the size, or two videos (learning vs something glittery that he's distracted by). I'm glad that he's there for people that enjoy that though
Project Farm
we're gonna test that!
Honestly I have begun to question whether Project Farm staying exactly the same is good or not for me as a viewer.
I used to watch every video, even if it was for a tool I'd never need myself. Now on a lot of them, I just tend to watch just the beginning to see the initial assessment of the competing products and the final summary, since I know what the whole middle is going to be.
I'm sure that's not the healthiest thing for the channel, as it cuts "engagement time" and I'd like to see a heat map to see if I'm not the only one doing this.
I just trust the guy maybe too much at this point, plus since most products I don't need, I'm not that invested in the minutia show by the main segment of the videos.
None of this is a knock on the channel or his videos, but as the question was about what has stayed good and you are still watching, that made me think how PF was still as good as ever, but that has somewhat reduced my watching of it.
The pacing is a little grating too, he speeds up his voice-over these days in post. Just compare how he sounds in older videos to the newer ones.
I'm in the same boat. I subscribed to the lowest tier of his Patreon to stop feeling guilty : https://www.patreon.com/projectfarm
Smooth McGroove - acapella game themes: https://www.youtube.com/@SmoothMcGroove/videos
Redlettermedia, Internet Comment Etiquette, Minute Physics and Crash Course.
ZeFrank. After a long gap in videos he's back even better
his poster has been on my wall for like 10 years, appreciate that dude
Benn Jordan
https://youtube.com/@bennjordan
If you are into sequencers and drum machines then for sure Captain Pikant
Puts out videos super rarely, because they're often upwards of 10 hours long, but Tim Rogers/Action Button makes amazing videos
A 10 hour video is too much imo. These people need to learn how to edit
Bad Obsession Motorsport ! I've been watching them build a Mini rally car for 12 years. They keep getting distracted by perfectionism and I'm very here for it.
Tom Scott for sure kept video quality high and standard over the years. I miss him.
Brick Technology (link)
There's no voiceover, no clickbait, no intro or outro, just an engineer building absurd Lego machines to overcome set challenges. The quality and entertainment are top tier.
RedLetterMedia
They used to do the Mr. Plinkett reviews and still publish a bunch of videos of reviewing movies that are very, very good (and entertaining) and other movie related content. While there are no more Mr. Plinkett reviews, they have maintained the same high quality of the channel for the last 15+ years. They just don’t publish content as often. It’s down to once or twice a week now.
Regular Car Reviews for sure
Forgotten Weapons
My feelings on Ian himself have become a little strained, but he is doing the same or better quality than ever now that he gets invited around the world to show off so many rare items. I could not name a better source anywhere for weapons history and being able to see the actual weapons and often their entire disassembly.
While modern life has made me less interested in gun culture, their mechanics, development, and how they have shaped history and society I still find very interesting.
Patrick H Wiiems does amazing film commentary, but don't call it content.
Granted it’s only 3 years old, there’s a channel called Little Chinese Everywhere. It’s a travel vlog of a Chinese woman and her German boyfriend. I like the channel for three reasons:
https://youtube.com/@allecjoshuaibay
Air crash reconstructions using flight sim software, with real ATC or CVR audio where available, but no stupid dramatic acting or filling time. Amazing content, hundreds and hundreds of videos
He passed away from a car accident a few months ago.
Mighty Car Mods are a pair of Australian blokes who have been doing car-based videos for 15+ years. Everything they've done has been high quality and entertaining.
I honestly don't know how they do it.
100%. While some of their builds don’t interest me the quality is always right up there and has a perfect balance of detail and entertainment.
Here's a range:
Sebastian Lague - game dev and software dev exploration
Pitch Meeting - film summary in short satire comedy form
Sick Animation - fucked up animations
Will McDaniel - comedy sketches using practical effects, puppets and fx makeup
DefendTheHouse - gaming myth busters and community content
FunWithGuru - showcasing easter eggs in games
Pitch Meeting started strong and continuously improved over the years, but recently he has been doing reposts because that is super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Seriously though, home he overcomes the burnout or focuses more attention on pitch meetings as I don't watch his other bits.
He's recently been less active due to an illness and then death in the family. He talked about it in a community post. Either way, I'm glad he found a pace that better fits him.
Gaming Historian comes to mind. (Caveat: he's no longer doing YT full time, so the uploads are a lot less frequent.) Anyway, he started out as the kind of prototypical kid with Youtube videos, doing a pretty well with the history angle. But over time evolved into a serious documentarion doing top-notch work. Along the same line, DidYouKnowGaming went from an ok channel that repackaged pretty common trivia into interesting but almost click-bait videos, into now being an investigative journalist kinda thing, where they semi-regularly share previously unknown information about old or cancelled games. Still on the games side, Electric Playground has been going for like a quarter-century, since back when it had to be on cable TV instead of Youtube, and Victor Lucas still doesn't suck.
3Blue1brown and Ben Eater make great technical educational videos that, as far as I'm aware, haven't really degraded.
3Blue1brown is amazing!
I love his VHS and mall videos, but his food videos are definitely his most popular. His semi-recent Mary Kate+Ashley vid was excellent, too.
https://www.youtube.com/@shugemery
Whoooo buddy! Hammocking, camping and occasional circus antics since good Lord knows when.
I bet this guy gets sponsorship offer after another and he refuses all of them. He has multiple videos in progress all the time. Some take years to finish. He might do a job and then at the end of the video he revisits the site half year later or for example waits for a rainy day to shoot video of how the new drainage ditch works. I challenge anyone to find a more authetic YouTuber.
RobWords. If you like etymology, he's your man.
Red Letter Media
Good Mythical Morning!
I've known about them and watched off and on for years, but my wife and I have been on a GMM binge lately and I really enjoy those guys.
Abroad in Japan, Gigguk, CdawgVA, Julien Bam. 2BoredGuys, Fern.
DC Rainmaker
Smosh Philip Defranco Markiplier
Ashens. Released a video the other day about microwavable burgers that I couldn't immediately tell whether it was brand new or 10 years old.
The crime that was his hotdog bun cut will never be forgotten!
TheinfographicsShow channel is consistently good, entertaining and educational.
Northernlion is very consistent
FPV Flying - Josh Bardwell
https://www.youtube.com/@JoshuaBardwell
3D Printing - Thomas Sanladerer's
https://www.youtube.com/@MadeWithLayers
Machine Shop Related Stuff - Cutting Edge Engineering
https://www.youtube.com/@CuttingEdgeEngineering
PC Related Stuff, I like the more laid back Paul's Hardware
I've been watching TheCrafsMan explain DIY techniques for almost a decade now.
The topics and explanations have always made for great videos but the effort put into videography and music has definitely skyrocketed as the channel grew. He's never strayed from the wholesome, zen-like tone or given clues about his real identity.