This sort of thing exasperates me!

[mrodoc]

No helmets, hand torches and an oversensational sound track. These videos are undoing a lot of the work we put into educate the public. The lock was broken I suspect!

 

[Goydenman]

At least they are outside away from computers and phones having adventure. He says he's got a key for the cave and it appears he uses it...if so how and was there not a chat about experience and kit. Thinking back I and mates first started with hand torches plus helmets

 

[Chocolate fireguard]

Seems harmless as these things go.
Although someone should explain to him that white bread doesn't do waterfowl any good.

 

[BikinGlynn]

He does you tube vids = hes a tit period!

 

[mikem]

Various unofficial keys can be bought on the internet (& you've just increased his viewing figures, encouraging him to do more)

 

[The Old Ruminator]

One in Somerset as Mr O'Doc knows. A right pest. All over private property and on sites where we have negotiated access. Cheeky sod in his video said that my fixed ladders were " rickety ". All about look at me. How dangerous it all is and am I not very brave.

 

[mikem]

See Caver Keith's How I vtdeo posts - that is exactly what sells to the public

 

[kay]

Well, at least someone said "careful, don't touch, it's ta million years to grow" about the stalagmite. that bit could have been a lot worse!

 

[Caver Keith]

He does you tube vids = hes a tit period!

Guilty as charged.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Guilty as charged.

I am not sure these " Urban Explorer " types get motivated by other peoples caving videos I think that they trawl guide books and websites. The Somerset pest probably got his locations from the series " Somerset Underground " but you cant really blame the books for that.

 

[mrodoc]

What I have realised rather late in the day is that if you want to get a video watched on Youtube then you have to give it a sensational title. Several postings of mine are (imo) better of some caves than others getting bigger hits so perhaps I should retitle them all! The one that has had the biggest hits of all was a very digging orientated video on Smoo Cave that Fraser the guide had put a link to from the Smoo web site. Until I discovered this it was a great source of puzzlement to me.

 

[Caver Keith]

What I have realised rather late in the day is that if you want to get a video watched on Youtube then you have to give it a sensational title.

I do feel some responsibility for the plethora of over-sensationalised, over-dramatised, cringeworthy caving videos currently garnering huge views on YouTube. In fact, let's be honest, it's probably all my fault.

When I uploaded my ‘Tight Cave-Larger Caver' videos, they were only intended as a piss-take, but they got loads of views.

Around the same time a caver by the name of Rob Spangler produced a series of videos titled ‘Best Extreme Caving Video Moments’ on YouTube 2012-14. They were very popular at the time. This led to me producing a series of annual roundup videos titled ‘UK Caving Video Best Bits 2012-2014’. I couldn’t bring myself to use the word, ‘extreme’. Each gained a few thousand views. I renamed the 2015 and 2016 videos to ‘Highlights of the Caving Year’ as I felt it more accurately reflected the content of the films and the view count dropped a little.

Several postings of mine are (imo) better of some caves than others getting bigger hits so perhaps I should retitle them all!

In 2016 I saw a Red Bull video titled 'This 60-second clip makes you feel claustrophobic'. At the time, I was recovering for a small caving related incident, nothing too serious, although the Major Trauma Unit at Southmead Hospital in Bristol might disagree. For several months I was confined to the house, so for something to do I found all of the horrible clips from the previous 5 years videos and produced 'Caving Claustrophobia - Kill or Cure'. It was used for a UKC competition - name the caves where the clips were taken, but it became the first caving related viral video on YouTube. It has been watched 19 million times!

Based on the success of this video, and purely as an experiment, I called the 2017 annual roundup ‘Best Extreme Caving Video Moments 2017 with Dudley Caving Club’. It’s had 2.2 million views!

In my experience the view count has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the video. The videos that I am most proud of invariably have the lowest views. The only thing that matters on YouTube is giving your video a click-bait title and backing it up with an equally shocking thumbnail image. That’s the formula that has been adopted by the ActionAdventureTwins! and they have the viewing figures to prove it.

These days when I upload a video, I’m lucky if I get a few hundred views. The heady days of being able to boast that mine was the most popular caving channel on YouTube have long gone, but I have a plan! Look out for my next video. The working title is ‘The very best, most extreme, most claustrophobic, caving video there’s ever been in the whole history of YouTube, where a caver gets wedged tight and almost drowns’.

 

[pwhole]

You'll no doubt need some doleful piano music for the worrying part, and then some nice jolly pizzicato violins for the humorous part, when a dog jumps out of a Land Rover or someone treads in some cowshit. To be honest, regular mainstream TV is as much to blame as you are - their shows are mostly structured as clickbait fodder too. So don't be too hard on yourself

 

[Cantclimbtom]

If you want the perfect YouTube video Keith, you need the actors to wear those baseball cap with the little light in the peak. Nobody wears helmets and lamps in YouTube any more makes you look old, that's the way it's done these days duuuude!

Actually, as a short video idea, maybe an alternate reality Keith venturing into giants hole searching for Extreme Clostridium phobia with his baseball cap to light the way, with it ending with Dude-Keith falling down garlands.

 

[shotlighter]

If you want the perfect YouTube video Keith, you need the actors to wear those baseball cap with the little light in the peak. Nobody wears helmets and lamps in YouTube any more makes you look old, that's the way it's done these days duuuude!

Actually, as a short video idea, maybe an alternate reality Keith venturing into giants hole searching for Extreme Clostridium phobia with his baseball cap to light the way, with it ending with Dude-Keith falling down garlands.

That could be as gas!.............gangrene?🙂

 

[mrodoc]

To those who seemed quite relaxed about the video link I posted I would say that they probably entered the cave when the lock was broken as the key is only issued to bona fide cavers. Also if there had been an incident it is quite possible the cave would have been closed and its the only one in the Plymouth area of any extent. It is in a country park area close to several housing estates.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Not sure I would want my rubbish on U Tube. I only put it here not that I am denigrating the forum in any way. Mine are purely for the amusement of fellow cavers rather than the whole wide world. Not really sure what KK gets from a wider audience and viewing figures to be honest. Not that I am critising him for that either. To me its just a lark and most end up like The Two Ronnies anyway. For that I blame the participants rather than the camera man.

 

[mrodoc]

Speak for yourself:

 

[Babyhagrid]

Not really sure what KK gets from a wider audience and viewing figures to be honest. Not that I am critising him for that either.

A lot of students get a lot out of caver Keith videos .

It helps our membership numbers out and it's good to be able to recommend good YouTube to watch.

As new (young) cavers like to search caving up online after their first trips.

 

[Mark]

These days when I upload a video, I’m lucky if I get a few hundred views. The heady days of being able to boast that mine was the most popular caving channel on YouTube have long gone, but I have a plan! Look out for my next video. The working title is ‘The very best, most extreme, most claustrophobic, caving video there’s ever been in the whole history of YouTube, where a caver gets wedged tight and almost drowns’.

"Where a kitten gets wedged tight and almost drowns" would do it for me

It needs some piss take vids out there