What I'm watching this week on YouTube: Internet investigations

The Internet is an amazing and fascinating place. Sometimes the smallest things lead to epic investigations and trips down the "rabbit hole". Here are some of my favourites.

picsmics4

This video is an oddly fascinating look at comments left by one user on a YouTube gameplay video over the course of 15 years.

It started with just a simple comment to the video, which shows gameplay from the game Rock Band and only had a small number of views at the time. User picsmics4 left a simple and unassuming comment that read, "oh excellent... good song, good play, good good good."

The same user continued to return to the video and leave similar comments, and this had some people questioning whether it was a real person or possibly a commenting bot of some sort. Even the video poster was perplexed.

Over many years, picsmics4 continued posting similar comments on the video, sometimes subtly sharing that he was at a high or low point in his life.

Somehow his comments were picked up and became the topic of investigations, resulting in the original video gaining a large number of views and many comments being posted in support of the user. Eventually picsmics4 became aware that his comments had created a large amount of interest and concern for his wellbeing, and he posted an emotional response and explanation.

There are likely several videos on this, but I really enjoyed A Mysterious YouTube Commenter: picsmics4 by ShaiiValley.

8 year quest to find Scott, the President of Domino's Pizza Japan

Somehow, YouTiuber Nick Robinson became somewhat obsessed with meeting the President of Domino's Pizza Japan.

It started as a piece of lost media, a cheesy Japanese advertisement for the pizza chain, featuring the President, Scott.

Somehow this lead to a failed trip to Japan, the discovery of many more cheesy advertisements, and (spoiler alert) eventually meeting Scott.

My 8-Year Quest to Find SCOTT, PRESIDENT OF DOMINO'S PIZZA (lost media documentary)

I found the guy from the「Domino's feat. Hatsune Miku」video

TempleOS

According to Wikipedia, TempleOS is a biblical-themed lightweight operating system designed to be the Third Temple prophesied in the Bible. It was created by American programmer Terry A. Davis, who developed it alone over the course of a decade after a series of manic episodes that he later described as a revelation from God.

TempleOS | Down the Rabbit Hole by Fredrik Knudsen chronicles the development of TempleOS, David's strange behavior, and the degradation of his mental state.

I flew to Japan to visit "Michaelsoft Binbows" in person

Another video from Nick Robinson, this time he flies to Japan to visit a computer store called "Michaelsoft Binbows".

I flew to Japan to visit "Michaelsoft Binbows" in person