# YouTube urbx vids speeding up the rate of site deteriation?



## matt_uk (Feb 5, 2019)

So I signed in to my account for the first time in years and years, frankly I'm amazed my account hadn't been removed it had been that long. I'm more of a viewer than contributor, mainly as Im rubbish at taking pics, or usually forgot but also if it's been done before why add to it. Plus always found loading pics onto photobucket then copying the links a faff back in the day, but now it's easier to laid pics and vids I can't help thinking the rise of YouTube Urbx vids have accelerated further the speed at which sites deteriate through increased visits and vandalism, even more so than the forums. Am I just being a grumpy sod?


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## BikinGlynn (Feb 5, 2019)

U are absolutely right about youtube, it frustrates the hell out of any genuine explorers I think most people on here will agree.
Don't get me wrong there are some good vids out there but there are a lot more complete idiots lol


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## Gromr (Feb 5, 2019)

I think they do. Youtube is a much more widely viewed platform, so you get a lot more casual viewers than 'proper' explorers. The whole exploring scene has been getting so popular now that its no longer considered a weird hobby, but a nearly a mainstream activity. Youtube and the culture surrounding it doesn't gel well with the idea of keeping our exploring low key and not shouting to the world about it, the way a lot of us forum dwellers prefer to be.

The cans of worms has been opened now and I don't think theres anyway to stop the rush of complete novices rushing to every derp they see their favourte youtube explorer visit. It's perhaps a slightly elitist way to look at it, but all it takes is a few idiots who don't know what they are doing and it can ruin it for everyone.


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## HughieD (Feb 5, 2019)

YouTube is a world-wide multi-million viewer social media platform. Urbex is a covert hobby that needs to be kept off the mass-media radar. Hence the two are not compatable with each other. Just a shame the Urbex YooToob goons don't understand this. No I don't want to look at you going "This is awesome guys". No I don't want to sub and like. No I don't want to buy your urbex merch.


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## krela (Feb 5, 2019)

In all honesty it's not really changed things that much, it's just accelerated the time it takes for a place to be trashed from 3 months to 1 month. You can't really blame YouTube for it all, online is online, google indexes and links everything. If you post a place online at all, anywhere, you have to accept that you're contributing to its downfall, whatever your personal ethos and ethics may be. The irony is that all those who bitch about the demise of urbex and the rise of urban tourism are the very people who contributed to and participated in it's evolution in the first place. The whole thing started with us. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, as they say. 

On the whole, urban exploration (in both senses of the word) died and became urban tourism many (at least 10) years ago, arguably urban exploration has never really existed at all, it's just an edgy phrase people used to make themselves sound cool (also reflecting YouTubers attitudes now, oh the irony). There's really nothing special about it, there's barely any exploration involved, you're just looking around mouldy old buildings like many before you have and many after you will. That doesn't stop it being interesting though, and it's simply human nature to want to do things that you find interesting.


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## smiler (Feb 5, 2019)

Krela has nailed it, folks watch a video on the tube and want to try it themselves, they have no feckin idea of the dangers or gear they should have and there isn't anyway to stop it, I started nosing around tin mines, granite quarries, pillboxes and farms in the late fifties and I reckon I got in at the best time.


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## matt_uk (Feb 5, 2019)

I've noticed it on here abit aswell, not touched for 6 years, get posted and within 6 months ruined. I'm off to look at a place this weekend, I saw it on the report, not location listed but through the a rough area and pictures the posted, I knew where to look roughly and 45mins of google maps I found it, hmmm my moaning I'm sounding like a right grump


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## KPUrban_ (Feb 5, 2019)

I'm not necessarily saying the YouTube "scene" is not destroying places but there are several more things to consider. If you look at other forums and Facebook groups lots of new guys are sharing the locations without trying to hide much. For example it's never that hard to find places as people will put "Just went to this cement works in Barrington with the lads" on Facebook, Instagram or whatever else and often share entry easily details if asked. Once that happens that is when places get exposed. (Also, only used Barrington as an example as they are gone now.)


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## krela (Feb 5, 2019)

KPUrbex said:


> I'm not necessarily saying the YouTube "scene" is not destroying places but there are several more things to consider. If you look at other forums and Facebook groups lots of new guys are sharing the locations without trying to hide much. For example it's never that hard to find places as people will put "Just went to this cement works in Barrington with the lads" on Facebook, Instagram or whatever else and often share entry easily details if asked. Once that happens that is when places get exposed. (Also, only used Barrington as an example as they are gone now.)



You're being very naive here, this has ALWAYS been the case, for every person who hides the name there are 50 who don't, since time eternal. None of this is anything new, none of it. Not to mention the fact that code names do nothing to protect places, they just make people feel a bit better.


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## HughieD (Feb 5, 2019)

However you phrase it YouTube doesn't help. Ultimately if you do find a 'new' place that is so far undiscovered and not common knowledge then don't put it on the web.


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## Electric (Feb 7, 2019)

I'd like to think we still tried our best to protect buildings and uphold UE values.
The reduction in time till trashed (ooh - 'TTT' let's give it an abbreviation) makes it much harder for people who don't have much time to explore.
Codenames can be a bother as you struggle to find a site in the archives.

It seems Youtube tourist videos can have annoyingly little substance and get excited about mundane objects.
On here, we might discuss a stunning staircase or original architectual features. Over there the highlight can be finding a dead bird, creepy doll or old TV.

I can go to my local waste tip to see old TVs. Hell. I could just go up in my attic.


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## BikinGlynn (Feb 7, 2019)

krela said:


> You're being very naive here, this has ALWAYS been the case, for every person who hides the name there are 50 who don't, since time eternal. None of this is anything new, none of it. Not to mention the fact that code names do nothing to protect places, they just make people feel a bit better.



Fact is Im finding it much easier to find places than I did 5 yrs ago, I think this is due to the rise in social media in general...Or maybe Im just brilliant now ;-)


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## mookster (Feb 7, 2019)

The rise of social media has unquestionably changed how this hobby is done, even in the decade I've been exploring it's changed remarkably from what it was in 2009 when I was still carrying around printed off google maps screenshots.

Certain corners of the community that had at one point been kept on the downlow have now been splashed all over Youtube and Instagram and whatever else, and this has had the direct result of High Court Injunctions placed against trespassers on high profile and not-so-high profile locations in large cities. The antics of a few fame-hungry kids has made exploring certain things in certain cities a lot, lot harder than it ever was before.


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## 5t3tcv743 (Feb 7, 2019)

I do YouTube myself. None of the 'vlog style' shit. I tend make mini documentaries. I completely understand how YouTube has a helping hand in the destruction of places, but doesn't everything? Tonnes of reports out there have town names in the titles. That is how I used to find my locations back when I first started exploring. All medias destroy places really. Plus the local yobbos always find these spots that are near by to go fuck them up. Me being a student still, I know this first hand that loads of people talk about local spots. I often hear children as young as year 7 talking about going to the local abandoned garage, (which is trashed beyond belief now.)That particular garage hasn't had any media coverage. Yet its trashed beyond the point of refurbishment. I think at the end of the day, people will always find these places. There isn't really away to stop it in my opinion. Just one immature person to see it out the car window as they pass is enough to destroy it.


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## mookster (Feb 8, 2019)

ExplorerX said:


> There isn't really away to stop it in my opinion. Just one immature person to see it out the car window as they pass is enough to destroy it.



This.

It's also arguably why code names don't help anything anyway, because all the local skagheads and idiots with half a brain know the location of these places already. However the exposure does speed things up for ~some~ kinds of places without a doubt.

I mean look what happened to Chateau Lumiere - it's location within the exploring community isn't really secret as it's one of the most widely known and visited abandoned chateaux in France, however all it took was a couple of pissed up drunk locals walking past who went in and smashed the big mirror and threw loads of stuff through the skylight.


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## UrbandonedTeam (Feb 8, 2019)

I can't see YouTube having more of an effect that the forums because with specific forums to post your report, the rule is that you must include the name of the site, therefore if I were to search a location on Google, or a town/city, there is more chance of a report on it coming up rather than a YT video. Most YouTubers or particularly in the UK, the ones that visit the sites that you wouldn't want anyone dodgy to access and damage don't disclose the location/name of the place on their YT videos. If someone who wished to inflict harm onto a building were to make an account on an urbex forum, they would find places 10x easier than by using YT videos.


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## MrSovieticus (Feb 8, 2019)

I don't mind good videos, but the moment someone starts talking about ghosts and other nonsense I close the tab.


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## Sabtr (Feb 9, 2019)

Oh blimey yes. YouTube is definitely more the thing that people watch - terrestrial television is rubbish. YouTube allows viewers to customise preferences and bingo! Wannabes and the ill informed ruin or advertise sites.

I'm guilty of destroying a site. It would have happened anyway but I made it well known - Groverake Mine in Upper Weardale.
Yes the head frame is still standing but various shafts and adits are now sealed. Most of the buildings are demolished.
Back when I first mentioned it, you could do several 'through routes' using shafts and adits. Now sealed.
Long story short I've actually been underneath the underground mine at Groverake - that's another story lol!

Speaking of idiots on YouTube and sites. There's actually a video of an annoying bloke on the site blabbing some (incorrect) history and claiming no shafts etc. He's actually stood on a thin sheet of damp old board that's covering a 200 foot deep shaft. He's very dangerous because he also claims sites are safe. They're not. He's the same bloke who used to carry a cigarette lighter around with him to test if mines were safe to be in. Yup - he knew about lack of oxygen but not about flammable things. Like I said - dangerous. In the end he bought an O2 detector following heaps of people shouting at him. He lost it on his first underground trip with it. Yeah - not a 4 gas detector..
I see YouTubers doing explores to look cool and be Ninja and that. They're just dangerous idiots. I don't care if they die - I care about viewers who trust those words and go explore themselves and die.

Reminds me about one site which has a Lister 3 cylinder generator in a shed. It's dismantled but complete and like new. I was followed across many sites for months by one person who wanted to know where it was so they 'could take photos' like I did. Obviously they wanted it for monetary gain. It became quite mad how they'd stalk me. It began as nice and friendly photographer stuff. Next came the 'we used to walk past it as kids' excuses and finally it ended with they'd find it anyway and I'd be sorry stuff. That was 7 years ago and the genny is still there!

As Krela has said, we're to blame. It's just one of those things. I'm always keen to help people into this world of urbex and you really do have to start somewhere. It's that trust once you meet though. I've had people seem really really good for this, had a meet and within an hour they ignore your words. That's lethal underground and I've actually led someone back out a mine when it happened. One day I'll find a body underground and it'll be a YouTuber wearing plimsolls and a neckerchief because Ninja doing it innit.
I never post everything up online. Some sites are either too damned special, too bloody dangerous or I have respect for the people who own them. I've been crawling through drains and cable ducts since I was 5 years old. I'll never stop doing what I do but I would stop posting sites completely.


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## The Wombat (Feb 9, 2019)

AS the internet has become an integral part of our daily lives, I suppose the rise of Youtube exploring videos was inevitable....

But, it doesn't mean I have to like it!


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## Bad wolf (Dec 28, 2020)

matt_uk said:


> So I signed in to my account for the first time in years and years, frankly I'm amazed my account hadn't been removed it had been that long. I'm more of a viewer than contributor, mainly as Im rubbish at taking pics, or usually forgot but also if it's been done before why add to it. Plus always found loading pics onto photobucket then copying the links a faff back in the day, but now it's easier to laid pics and vids I can't help thinking the rise of YouTube Urbx vids have accelerated further the speed at which sites deteriate through increased visits and vandalism, even more so than the forums. Am I just being a grumpy sod?


Hi, Matt.yes I've been away for a while too but it's good to be back.Got to get back out there exploring next.


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## Naked Explore (Aug 5, 2021)

krela said:


> In all honesty it's not really changed things that much, it's just accelerated the time it takes for a place to be trashed from 3 months to 1 month. You can't really blame YouTube for it all, online is online, google indexes and links everything. If you post a place online at all, anywhere, you have to accept that you're contributing to its downfall, whatever your personal ethos and ethics may be. The irony is that all those who bitch about the demise of urbex and the rise of urban tourism are the very people who contributed to and participated in it's evolution in the first place. The whole thing started with us. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, as they say.
> 
> On the whole, urban exploration (in both senses of the word) died and became urban tourism many (at least 10) years ago, arguably urban exploration has never really existed at all, it's just an edgy phrase people used to make themselves sound cool (also reflecting YouTubers attitudes now, oh the irony). There's really nothing special about it, there's barely any exploration involved, you're just looking around mouldy old buildings like many before you have and many after you will. That doesn't stop it being interesting though, and it's simply human nature to want to do things that you find interesting.


Spot on.

Been exploring buildings since before it was ever referred to as Urbex ect and way before the internet.

Since about 2004 I have taken a camera simply as a record as a lot ends up being destroyed and all that remains is memories.


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## night crawler (Aug 5, 2021)

I feel we go around and record the moment as the next it will be gone. Look at us as documents of the dereliction around, it will soon be gone. I personally do not watch the videos I do feel it brings more attention to a place that it does not need and I really do not agree with drones. IMO a camera is for taking photos with not video though I dare say a lot of it is done with phones now


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