So what has changed, and how am I finding the old place now I am back? To understand that, you have to take a look at YouTube Atheist History, to find out at what point I actually got kicked from the field of play:

I joined YouTube in early September 2006 and made lots of videos, but then stopped making new ones around December 2006 while I wrote my book. So actually I left the scene before I was kicked off in February 2007. In fact, during the first week of February I had posted a 'countdown video' which was an indication of how much time remained before I intended to release the book. The count was down to 1 when YouTube received the DMCA notice which led to my demise, along with all the associated confusion over why I was kicked. Bad timing to say the least. The full story of why and how I was removed is here and here.

All in all I was a productive member of YouTube for only 4 months, so I am still astounded at the furore that was kicked up when I was removed from YouTube, and the support I received after I was gone. I want to give credit to those people who campaigned for my return, who uploaded my videos all over YouTube, and who offered immense support to me. I did open another YouTube account, despite being banned, but I did not try to upload any new videos because I knew I would be removed again. The account was purely there so that I could subscribe to favourite YouTube channels, and only a few people knew I was around.

As you can see from supexcellency's great timeline, I was only really a small part in the timeline of YouTube Atheism. And I would not call it the 'Gisburne Era' of course - I prefer to give it the name 'Old School Atheism'! During that time nobody bitched about other atheists, there was no YouTube 'drama', and the small (but growing) number of atheists who were around just attacked religion, rather than individual personalities.

After I was ejected, that did seem to change, and I won't go into it in much detail or name names, but it looked to me like many YouTube atheists were just self-destructing and not really doing anything to help the image of atheists in general. Instead of watching these fights, I tried to look for the good stuff, the people who did have something to say, either promoting atheism or taking down religion. However, others were becoming disillusioned and they stoppped making videos too, and for a time I really lost interest in what the people on YouTube had to say. In fact I really lost interest in what atheism was all about, if I'm perfectly honest.

In early June 2007 I started my blog, and the driving force behind that was the discovery of the newsfeeds offered by Google, Yahoo and others, which I had added to my site. Suddenly my own site was showing me that atheists were extremely active in the world outside YouTube, and far from being a dead subject, atheism was very much a hot topic. My blogs reflected my own opinions based on news stories with an atheist viewpoint. I started to become interested in the subject again.

Then YouTube atheists began to multiply. And I mean multiply. I was still subscribed to the channels of many atheists, and would often see comments from other atheists. Clicking on their names would bring me to a channel with 20 or 30 videos from someone I'd never heard of. What? How did I miss these people? I did a lot of video watching, and was impressed with the quality of their content. There are some very intelligent people in the world, and most of them appear to be atheists!

This brings me to the point where I was re-instated to YouTube. It's been a hectic time, and in fact it was, as I write this, less than two weeks ago, so I am still a little dazed and confused. I immediately received a flood of 'great to have you back' messages, for which I am very grateful. Remember that I was off YouTube far longer than I was on it, so to have people remember me is a great honour. I also found some great people via Stickam, although I am still finding the times when people ask me 'are you THE Nick Gisburne?' pretty surreal. That applies to channels and chat rooms where I don't even go to talk about atheism, but because my channel name is Gisburne2000 I am often recognised. I promise you I would swap it all for money and beer!

What surprised me most of all was those messages which were, again, from people whose channel names were not familiar to me. If someone takes the time to post a message on my channel I will usually look at their account to see who they are, and sometimes they might have 70 or 80 videos about atheism, and I've never even heard of them! I am soooo out of touch with the YouTube atheists, and I never even realised it.

I'm determined to fill this gap in my knowledge of who is who among the YouTube atheists. I'm looking for atheists who stimulate my thoughts, and I'm finding them in great numbers on YouTube - 2, 3 or more new ones every day. It's a very exciting time, and while it would be impossible for me to watch every video of every person to whom I am subscribed, I try my best to watch at least a handful, to find out more about the people who are willing to talk about their experiences as atheists and/or their demolition of religion and promotion of atheism.

This is all possible only because I am back on YouTube. I didn't realise how much being an active part of YouTube is so important. When I was banned, I was just watching videos. Now I am back, I am interacting with real people. The difference is all-important. I'm so glad I'm back on YouTube, and I will make the most of the experience. Of course I really hope I don't tempt fate by adding 'while it lasts'!