DigitalRev TV Restores 800+ previously deleted videos. A huge win for data preservation.

[Fabian Lioner]

Summary

Their 800+ videos were restored upon request. The deletion of the channel happened because of a deadline sent by mail to the unmanaged account of DigitalRev TV, which went unnoticed.

 

DigitalRev TV Restores 800+ previously deleted videos.

 

DigitalRev TV a Photography channel had previously deleted the entirety of its back catalog, containing more than 800 photography videos. Kai and Lok were the main hosts and cameramen respectively on DitialRev TV, and released several hundred videos during the 7 years they worked there. After all those years of work Kai left DigitalRev TV 7 years ago, and continued creating high quality photography content on YouTube, followed soon after by Lok.

 

After the main hosts left the channel, DigitalRev TV saw a significant viewership decline, and uploads became increasingly infrequent. The last videos purposefully planned and made for the channel were published 4 years ago, when they uploaded a 3 part series of challenges in 2019, and 4 equipment reviews in 2018. As we can see, the overwhelming majority of the content found on the channel was made during those 7 years where Kai and Lok worked there. With their main cast not present anymore, it soon became clear that keeping the channel running wasn't financially viable, which was made worse by the decline in video uploads. This I assume, lead to the dissolution of the remaining team maintaining the channel.

 

This ultimately was the cause of the channel deletion, the lack of response from the now no longer existing DigitalRevTV team resulted in a mixup with youtube, better explained by the DigitalRevTV team in the following fragment of its announcement via a Youtube Community Post:

 

Quote

"There is no longer a team for DRTV therefore this channel and its associated email inbox are not monitored. An updated agreement sent to the channel’s email address was not signed passing the deadline this July. Upon contacting YouTube support, we were instructed to remove the channel from its MCN network and an error must have been made somewhere causing the disappearance of videos." - DigitalRev TV

 

Upon questioning by @zoomnclick in youtube it was revealed by DigitalRev's founder and CEO Richard Yu, that even though the channel has been brought back, including all its 800+ videos, it will remain unmanaged and unmonitored.

 

It turns out that when the videos were restored even private videos were set to public, however it was decided in the spirit of preserving history (in true data hoarder fashion) to leave them public. This is one of the few cases where lost media is officially restored, a huge win for data preservation, keeping a library of invaluable educational and entertaining photography content alive, for more people to see and get introduced to the hobby.

 

Sources

 

Original Channel Deletion:

Sebastian, L. , Lafreniere, L. (2023) DigitalRev deleted videos on the YouTube channel. Youtube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOQOQqxemOI

Z3ppelinDude93 (2023) DigitalRev has deleted almost all of their content. Reddit. Retrieved from: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/17jklpm/digitalrev_has_deleted_almost_all_of_their_content/

 

Channel Restoration:

DigitalRevTV (2023) Youtube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxRaGvpuh0qi55KiWFBQAiYApzDL1rMEjP

 

[kirashi]

6 minutes ago, Fabian Lioner said:

Summary

Their 800+ videos were restored upon request. The deletion of the channel happened because of a deadline sent by mail to the unmanaged account of DigitalRev TV, which went unnoticed.

 

DigitalRev TV Restores 800+ previously deleted videos.

 

DigitalRev TV a Photography channel had previously deleted the entirety of its back catalog, containing more than 800 photography videos. Kai and Lok were the main hosts and cameramen respectively on DitialRev TV, and released several hundred videos during the 7 years they worked there. After all those years of work Kai left DigitalRev TV 7 years ago, and continued creating high quality photography content on YouTube, followed soon after by Lok.

 

After the main hosts left the channel, DigitalRev TV saw a significant viewership decline, and uploads became increasingly infrequent. The last videos purposefully planned and made for the channel were published 4 years ago, when they uploaded a 3 part series of challenges in 2019, and 4 equipment reviews in 2018. As we can see, the overwhelming majority of the content found on the channel was made during those 7 years where Kai and Lok worked there. With their main cast not present anymore, it soon became clear that keeping the channel running wasn't financially viable, which was made worse by the decline in video uploads. This I assume, lead to the dissolution of the remaining team maintaining the channel.

 

This ultimately was the cause of the channel deletion, the lack of response from the now no longer existing DigitalRevTV team resulted in a mixup with youtube, better explained by the DigitalRevTV team in the following fragment of its announcement via a Youtube Community Post:

 

 

Upon questioning by @zoomnclick in youtube it was revealed by DigitalRev's founder and CEO Richard Yu, that even though the channel has been brought back, including all its 800+ videos, it will remain unmanaged and unmonitored.

 

It turns out that when the videos were restored even private videos were set to public, however it was decided in the spirit of preserving history (in true data hoarder fashion) to leave them public. This is one of the few cases where lost media is officially restored, a huge win for data preservation, keeping a library of invaluable educational and entertaining photography content alive, for more people to see and get introduced to the hobby.

 

Sources

 

Original Channel Deletion:

Sebastian, L. , Lafreniere, L. (2023) DigitalRev deleted videos on the YouTube channel. Youtube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOQOQqxemOI

Z3ppelinDude93 (2023) DigitalRev has deleted almost all of their content. Reddit. Retrieved from: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/17jklpm/digitalrev_has_deleted_almost_all_of_their_content/

 

Channel Restoration:

DigitalRevTV (2023) Youtube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxRaGvpuh0qi55KiWFBQAiYApzDL1rMEjP

 

Glad to hear they decided to keep the content up, including previously private videos. DigitalRevTV was largely responsible for my foray into the world of cameras between 2012 - 2016, so when I heard that Kai and Lok's content was included in the deletion, I was a bit shocked.

 

That said, Archivist and the fine folks over at The Eye ended up putting together a torrent of videos from various sources that I've been seeding ever since. Data Hoarders shall continue protecting important information that shouldn't be lost to the ethers of time as life goes on.

[Fabian Lioner]

13 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Glad to hear they decided to keep the content up, including previously private videos. DigitalRevTV was largely responsible for my foray into the world of cameras between 2012 - 2016, so when I heard that Kai and Lok's content was included in the deletion, I was a bit shocked.

 

That said, Archivist and the fine folks over at The Eye ended up putting together a torrent of videos from various sources that I've been seeding ever since. Data Hoarders shall continue protecting important information that shouldn't be lost to the ethers of time as life goes on.

Yes! I absolutely love that the community compiled and brought back as much as the content as possiible, I knew that it was happening but wasn't up to date on the details. While the torrent is great, it presents a more difficult barrier of entry for non tech/non data hoarders to access the videos. So I'm still glad they're back up on Youtube. Would you mind if I add a quote of your comment to the post, to provide more context?