MadV (partially found deleted videos from YouTube channel; 2006-2010)

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MadV.jpg

YouTube user MadV's latest profile picture.

Status: Partially Found


Keep your chin up, always!

— MadV

MadV was an early variety YouTuber, whose uploads included illusions, music and collaboration videos, which he was most famous for. He is often seen donning a Guy Fawkes mask, although his face is briefly visible in one of his videos.[1] For some time he was within the top 100 most subscribed YouTube channels.[2]

Despite prominence and influence on the platform in its early days, much of MadV's content has become rather obscure or inaccessible. Most notably, the full extent of content he was able to get the viewers to generate through his collaboration videos is unknown, due to having his account hijacked and YouTube retiring the Video Responses feature, which was used to gather these response videos.

History

Early Videos

MadV started his YouTube channel in April 2006. His early videos were illusions and magic tricks. His breakout video 'Teh Maddest Skillz Ever!!', has him levitating and manipulating the trajectory of a playing card. Later renamed Anti-gravity, this video racked over 2 million views between 2006-2007[3][4].

MadV continued uploads in this style until May, when he abruptly announced that he would be leaving YouTube. Despite having claimed that he had been hired by a TV production company[5], there is evidence to indicate that he had migrated to the now-defunct eefoof.com[3].

One World and The Message

MadV returned to YouTube in November 2006 with One World. One World was a collaboration project, MadV holds up his hand, with "One World" written on it, and asks viewers to respond to his video with a message they would like to get across. Responses would have the users' message written on their hand, in a similar fashion. MadV has stated that he got the idea from seeing his sister write something on her own hand to keep herself motivated.[6]

This is an invitation. To make a stand, to make a statement, to make a difference: ONE WORLD. Join in, be part of something. Post your response now!

Submissions were collected via YouTube's video responses feature. One World went viral, gaining thousands of video responses[7], going on to become the video with the most video responses, until that point.


On December 22nd, 2006, MadV uploaded a compilation of these video responses fittingly titled The Message. The Message earned MadV a nomination for the most Creative Video of 2006 YouTube award.

Hope you've gotten the message by now.

Following the major success of The Message, MadV would receive press attention, which now serves as a testament to the video's significance at the time.[8][9]

In October of 2007 he posted a similar video, titled Remember, which has since been lost. [10] In November, instead of posting another compilation he submitted his own entry in the form of a video titled Inspire:

MadV draws a circle and spells out INSPIRE using fire.

First Hacking Incident

MadV's account was compromised, in February of 2008. All of his videos were deleted and a single upload was made with the message "OMFG! MadV Haxxord!" over a black background.[10]

After regaining control of his account, on February 7th, MadV updated his channel description to explain the situation to his viewers. He stated that YouTube was able to restore his old videos, but at the cost of loss in view counts and, more importantly, the two massive collections of video responses[2]:

Dear All

Thank you for your patience following the recent events concerning my account. It seems that an individual managed maliciously to gain control. The kind staff at Youtube have managed to salvage old videos and reinstate them, though not without loss of recorded statistics and, most importantly, your valued response video contributions.

I'd like to thank those of you who showed your support. I am still overwhelmed by the sense of community here, and am very proud to call Youtube my virtual home.

For now, let's forgive and forget.

Chin Up MadV

Although One World and Remember would receive a handful of responses following the account's recovery, their number was only a fraction of the original collection. Some of the reply videos in question are still available on YouTube, although they haven't, as of the writing of this article, been reassembled.

The "Humans" Project and Later Projects

About a month after the hacking incident, MadV set up a new project, this time themed around describing what it means to be human through community responses[11]:


In May he released a collection of these responses titled: The Meaning

What it means to be human.


Shortly after, MadV organized yet another collaboration titled One World - HD. This was a remake of One World to take advantage of YouTube's improved upload quality[12]. The responses to One World - HD were compiled into We're all in this Together.

Following the release of We're all in this Together, MadV's account was seemingly hacked a second time, resulting in him having to re-upload The Meaning in December. This is also around the time the announcement videos The "Humans" Project and One World - HD disappeared for good.

In an interview on Collabdocs [6] where he brings up both hacking incidents, MadV states that he has plans for another project but does not give any details. This project would end up being his final (original) video: You Are Not Alone. You Are Not Alone one was unique in that although it is a compilation of YouTube videos, a comment he made on the video suggests that he compiled these from videos he hand-picked personally, instead of hosting a video-response collection.

"For a friend".

Departure From YouTube

A fan migrated a lot of MadV's illusion videos and the original One World to another account under the name of MadV's Backup Channel in 2009. This was likely done as a protective measure to ensure the videos' safety in the event that MadV's account was compromised yet again. Most of the content no longer on MadV's channel survives here. MadV has shown his approval, by linking to these videos from his own channel.

After the release of You Are Not Alone, MadV would occasionally show up on his channel, either participating in comment sections or by editing his channel description. Such was the case until April 5th, 2020 when he re-uploaded We're all in This Together under the name Remember - We Are All In This Together [13]. The channel has since remained dormant.

His legacy is upheld by his fans who have worked hard to document his uploads and account activity, as well as any response video uploads which have remained relatively untouched ever since YouTube discontinued the feature on September 13th, 2013.

Availability

Video Title Originally Uploaded Status Notes
Mad Guitar Solo 11 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
Mad Air Guitar Solo 12 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
To Tha Haters 12 April 2006 Found Reuploaded by YouTube user Zerhynn
Anti-gravity 13 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel, aka 'Teh Maddest Skillz Ever!!'
The Third Best Card Trick Ever 13 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel, aka 'Teh Maddest Skillz Yet!!'
Black Floater 14 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
Where's Your Head At? 17 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
The Brain 18 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
Don't Try This At Home 20 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
String Theory 28 April 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
Unplugged 5 May 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
The Fix 8 May 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
Goodbye 9 May 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
Fusion 8 June 2006 Lost 'the FUture of illuSION', this was a short video which is reported to have only been on the channel for a day. [3]
One World 16 November 2006 Found Reuploaded to Fan Backup Channel
The Message 22 December 2006 Found Most Video Responses on a YouTube video at one point
Let there be loVe 13 February 2007 Lost A Valentine's Video of MadV playing piano, likely removed by himself. [3]
Remember 4-5? October 2007 Partially Found Deleted, reuploaded together with Inspire on December 27 2008, before being deleted again. The text found in the video has been preserved on wikibin. [10]
Inspire 5 November 2007 Found Reuploaded to channel following deletion, On December 27 2008.
The "Humans" Project 2 March 2008 Lost
The Meaning 27 December 2008 Found
One World - HD 2 September 2009 Lost
We're All in This Together 5 November 2009 Found
You Are Not Alone 18 August 2010 Found
Remember - We Are All In This Together April 5 2020 Found

Gallery

Response Videos for One World

Response Videos for Remember

Response Videos for The Humans Project

Response Videos for One World - HD

References

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]