COM-TEST

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COM-TEST (commonly stylized as com test or com-test) is a fictitious channel that is said to have been the oldest and first YouTube channel. It is stated to be intended as a test of YouTube's video uploading capabilities. It was invented by an anonymous user who emailed fabricated evidence of COM-TEST's existence to TheTekkitRealm in July 2020, who afterwards brought it to wider attention with a public video in August 2020. TheTekkitRealm's video was later refuted by various other YouTubers (as early as September 2020) through investigation of his own sources and with interviews from YouTube's co-founder. If COM-TEST were actually real, it would be the uploader of YouTube's first video, predating Me at the zoo (the actual first video) by almost 2 months. 
In July 2022, a video was made by Internet Anarchist calling into question the veracity of many claims made by TheTekkitRealm (including those regarding COM-TEST). Shortly afterwards, TheTekkitRealm set his videos about COM-TEST to private, an action that some interpreted as a tacit admission to hoaxing. The videos were set public again in September 2022. No official reason for privatizing and unprivatizing these videos has been provided to the knowledge of this wiki. In January 2023, TheTekkitRealm uploaded a video titled "Finally Responding Part 2", where, after 2 years, he finally admitted his COM-TEST video to be a hoax, though the COM-TEST videos have stayed public as of March 2023. 
== Background ==
This section is based on information that TheTekkitRealm revealed in a 2023 video where he talked about COM-TEST.
In July 2020,Reckoned from the date of the response, which was on 23 July. (See this video at 18:09) a user (whose identity has been kept anonymous) emailed TheTekkitRealm with a pitch for a new video. The user included several fabricated screenshots to back up his claims. TheTekkitRealm investigated the screenshots, but found the story to be fraudulent. However, due to his desire for views, and his "amazement at this ingenuity", he decided to run with the story regardless.https://youtu.be/-RZvXivdza0?t=955
==Hoax ==
In TheTekkitRealm's account of events in his August 6, 2020 video, COM-TEST was the first account on YouTube. It began uploading on February 28, 2005, on which it uploaded 5 videos, titled com-test, com-test1, com-test3, com-test4 and com-test5 (in that order). He states that the videos are no longer retrievable. He surmises that COM-TEST was likely deleted "way before" Me at the zoo (uploaded April 24, 2005, originally April 23, 2005),https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EurHP1DCJg which would date this channel's termination to about March or early April 2005. 
On December 8, 2020, TheTekkitRealm made a follow up video.The REAL First Video on YouTube has Finally Been Recovered He alleges that COM-TEST's first video had survived through a user who later re-uploaded it to vimeo. It was then recovered to YouTube a few weeks before his 8 December upload, although he does not provide a direct link. He does, however, include the supposed first YouTube video into his 8 December upload. (This video from November 10, 2020 is somewhat similar to the sample he uses in his video, but the beeps are not exactly the same. Note that this video is titled "COM-TEST 1", while TheTekkitRealm's original screenshots showed com-test1 to be the second YouTube video, with "com-test" being the first.) 
In addition to showing the alleged first video, TheTekkitRealm also gives more specific information about COM-TEST's termination date. He says that COM-TEST's videos only stuck around a few days after being uploaded, which would narrow the channel's termination to early March 2005. 
Neither video contained any additional links or evidence in the video description. 
==Debunking==
Starting in September 2020, TheTekkitRealm's supposed findings were criticized by various other YouTubers, including Intention (September 2020), Guvoid (April 2021), SuperflyMN (April 2021), and Internet Anarchist (July 2022). TheTekkitRealm's videos were initially given 2 main axes of critique: Firstly, the Reddit accounts in TheTekkitRealm's videos simply did not exist. Secondly, the waybackmachine screenshots had a number of inconsistencies. In June 2021, SuperFlyMN introduced a third critique: Jawed Karim, the co-founder of YouTube, had said in an old interview that Me at the zoo was the first video, and there were no test videos before that.
===Suspicious Reddit accounts supporting TheTekkitRealm's video.===
The information that TheTekkitRealm showed in his video come from either Reddit accounts that were created after the video's releasehttps://www.reddit.com/user/whatsnthere_00/https://www.reddit.com/user/br0belikehttps://www.reddit.com/user/Skylindark_/, or inactive accounts with no post historyhttps://www.reddit.com/user/tess44. One of the accounts, SkYLinDaRK_ (created after the video) humorously has his description set to "THETEKKITREALM IS A FAKE YOUTUBER - REPORT HIM!"https://www.reddit.com/user/SkYLinDaRK_
It is not possible to re-create Reddit accounts with usernames of deleted accounts,"If you choose to deactivate an account, you should be aware that you can never recover or restore the account and the username cannot be reused on another account ever." - Reddit FAQ meaning that TheTekkitRealm's video included screenshots of Reddit accounts that simply did not exist while he was making the video. The only Reddit account displayed in TheTekkitRealm's video that actually existed at the time was /u/tess44, which has no post or comment history. If /u/tess44 had ever posted or commented anything at any point (including hypothetical now-deleted comments), it would register in camas.unddit.com (a search engine for that displays deleted reddit comments among other content) - however, this is not the case.https://camas.github.io/reddit-search/#{%22author%22:%22tess44%22,%22resultSize%22:100} 
===Inconsistencies in TheTekkitRealm's screenshots===
Upon closer inspection, the screenshots found in TheTekkitRealm's video have some strange inconsistencies, like a video page screenshot having a 'subscribe' button in the corner despite that functionality not being added for months afterwards, and the first screenshot showing 5 COM-TEST videos being based off of YouTube's homepage from June 23rd, 2005https://web.archive.org/web/20050623004326/http://www.youtube.com:80/, not the earlier homepage from April and before. One of the screenshots even says "Copyright © 2005 YouTube, LLC™" even though the screenshot is from 2004, additionally this same screenshot almost perfectly matches up with this Wayback screenshot. Another screenshot that supposedly shows Com Test 2 shows the date the Wayback Machine supposedly capturing it as May 16, 2005, which is contradictory to TheTekkitRealm's claims of Com Test shutting down before YouTube became public. Furthermore, if one is to visit YouTube through the waybackmachine on this date, there’s just a pop up message that says “Adobe flash player is no longer supported”. 
===YouTube co-founder confirms no test videos before "Me at the zoo"===
Jawed Karim stated in a 2012 interview that Me at the zoo was the first YouTube video, and that there were no test videos before that. For this reason, SuperflyMN has declared COM-TEST to be definitively debunked, as you would otherwise have to take the word of a random user over that of the co-founder of YouTube, who was involved in development.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c62qEGuzBc Jawed also previously confirmed this in a 2006 conference on YouTube's quick growth.
== Later actions and statements by TTR ==
=== COM-TEST videos set private - Tacit admission to hoax?===
On July 20, 2022,The wayback machine shows that this really happened sometime between 25 June and 29 August 2022, while Socialblade confirms that a large amount of videos were set to private in the week of 18 to 25 July with a sudden view loss of 18.6 million views, which further narrows down the date. The date can be yet further narrowed down to 20 July due to a Socialblade screenshot displayed on 1:37 in this video. TheTekkitRealm set many of his videos (including those on COM-TEST) to private. Although no official reason was provided for this to the knowledge of this wiki, it may be interpreted as a tacit admission that the videos were a hoax, given that this action came shortly after Internet Anarchist uploaded a video on July 16, 2022 titled "How TheTekkitRealm Fakes Videos (and gets away with it)", which covered many hoaxes by TheTekkitRealm, including COM-TEST.
The original hoax video had been viewed at least 5,539,302 times by the time it was set private.https://web.archive.org/web/20220625130205/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EurHP1DCJg Note that this figure dates to 25 June 2022; the actual view count at the time it was taken down was certainly higher.
===COM-TEST videos set public once more===
On 13 September 2022, TheTekkitRealm unprivated a large amount of videos, resulting in a view gain of 18.5 million views.https://web.archive.org/web/20221004160600/https://socialblade.com/youtube/c/thetekkitrealm/monthly The COM-TEST videos were certainly among these videos, being public again by 4 October.
=== January 2023 admission ===
On 22 January 2023, TheTekkitRealm uploaded a 36-minute long video titled "TheTekkitRealm Exposed" (originally Finally Responding) with an unlisted follow-up, "Finally Responding Part 2", linked in the description. At 16:40 in the latter video, he said about COM-TEST: "I will be the first to say, you can take it from me, yes this video was in fact fabricated".
==Videos covering COM-TEST ==
Date 	Video 	Description
6 August 2020 	"Me at the zoo" Wasn't the First YouTube Video... 	TheTekkitRealm alleges COM-TEST's existence for the first time.
28 September 2020	"Me at the zoo Wasn't the First YouTube Video..." Debunked 	Intention criticizes TheTekkitRealm for using Reddit as a source, says the Reddit accounts were created after the video, and finds that the waybackmachine screenshots are inconsistent with those on the actual site.
8 December 2020 	The REAL First Video on YouTube has Finally Been Recovered 	TheTekkitRealm alleges that COM-TEST's first video has been found.
19 April 2021 	TheTekkitRealm: An Empire Built on Lies 	Guvoid makes a rebuttal of TheTekkitRealm's COM-TEST videos, pointing out that most of the cited Reddit accounts were created after the video, and that the screenshots were inconsistent. This is part of a broader point that TheTekkitRealm's channel frequently contains misinformation.
22 April 2021 	No, COM-TEST was NOT the first video on Youtube. (TheTekkitRealm exposed) 	SuperflyMN makes many similar arguments as Guvoid, also pointing out that it would be impossible for the Reddit accounts to be deleted and re-created with different/no content.
29 June 2021 	COM-TEST wasn't the first Youtube video: The final proof (confirmed by Jawed)	SuperflyMN announces he has found a video where Jawed Karim, the co-founder of YouTube, said that Me at the zoo was the first video. He uses this evidence to declare COM-TEST as being definitively debunked.
16 July 2022 	How TheTekkitRealm Fakes Videos (and gets away with it) 	Internet Anarchist calls into question the veracity of many claims made by TheTekkitRealm (including those regarding COM-TEST). This video likely influenced TheTekkitRealm to set his COM-TEST videos private from July to September 2022.
22 January 2023 	Finally Responding Part 2 	TheTekkitRealm discusses criticism of his channel, and has a segment on COM-TEST starting on 15:54. He admits COM-TEST does not exist and elaborates on how the hoax came to be.
==Trivia== 
*Fake reuploads of COM-TEST's videos surfaced after TheTekkitRealm uploaded his video alleging COM-TEST's existence.
*Unlike "Me at the zoo", COM-TEST's supposed first video would not be usable for testing voice clarity.
*The thumbnail that TheTekkitRealm used for com-test4 is actually from a video called "Houston Street in Greenwich Village" (View video), uploaded on June 17, 2005.
*Unpr0p uploaded a supposed COM-TEST video on August 11, 2020. In October 2021, he declared the video to be fake and TheTekkitRealm to be a clickbaiter.FAKE VIDEO (was once com-test)
==Gallery== 
Tekkit com test.PNG|A Reddit post by u/whatsnthere_00 showing 2 com test thumbnails.
Tekkit com test 2.PNG|A conversation between u/tess44 and u/Skylindark_. This conversation inspires TheTekkitRealm to check web crawlers for any sign of com test.
Tekkit com test3.PNG|A supposed screenshot from u/whatsnthere_00
Tekkit com test 4.PNG|A post by u/Br0belike showing that the Wayback Machine managed to save a com test video.
Tekkit com test 5.PNG|Ditto but the image is clearer and bigger.
Com test sok.PNG|The supposed thumbnail of com-test4.
 
==References==
Category:Users who joined in 2005
es:COM-TEST
Category:Tech YouTubers