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I wouldn't be in the hobby if not for the YouTube tarantula community. Hell, I wouldn't be catching and releasing the giant wolf spiders and huntsmen that come into my house now instead of squishing them like I used to if it weren't for the YouTube community. Watching these people happily interacting with these gigantic spiders is what made me reevaluate my stance on arachnids. It broke my fear and started what has now become an obsession.For information, Tom Moran is my tarantula care guru. I always look for a husbandry guide video on a species from him first to get a good overview, followed by recent posts from here and arachnoboards. I have to shout out The Tarantula Collective as well. I think he has good information, but I am one of the few I guess who isn't a big fan of his voice. To me, it sounds like an over exaggerated movie trailer narrator. Just my opinion. The content is most important though, and he does a good job.I love Dark Den for entertainment and his personality. He is also one of my favorite channels for DIY enclosure stuff since he does everything step-by-step. Exotics Lair is the first tarantula YouTuber I watched (watering videos), so I have to give the guy some love. He is certainly entertaining, though the more I learn and keep myself, the more I find myself disagreeing with some of the practices he does in his videos.Tarantula Haven can talk way too much in his videos, but he seems like such a friendly guy. I'm also a fellow Floridian, and I like to see what he's doing and vendors he uses. His Repticon videos are how I learned Beasley's Exotics was 10 minutes from my house.Tarantula Kat does an okay job too. I'm not sure if I'm just not a fan of her presentation of vlog-esque type videos, but she does a decent job. I do like when she reviews commercially available products like she did for that critter burrow thing.A final note is all the phone camera small channels out there. The ones where its just regular people trying to rehouse their first T, or they are dealing with their first OW. These are the people I identify with and give me the courage as a beginner to try things.Overall, I think YouTube is great for keepers. It gets more people into the hobby. It allows people to see what keeping is like and reduces the stigma surrounding spiders. I don't think I would have ever started if not for YouTube, let alone gotten my wife to agree to let me start keeping them. Just the other night, my wife said she likes tarantulas but still hates jumping spiders. I showed her a Dark Den video of his jumping spider Kiwi, and she changed her mind in 10 minutes!As long as people understand that they need to reference multiple sources for good information and that a big part of most YouTube channels is entertainment, it's an overall positive.
I wouldn't be in the hobby if not for the YouTube tarantula community. Hell, I wouldn't be catching and releasing the giant wolf spiders and huntsmen that come into my house now instead of squishing them like I used to if it weren't for the YouTube community. Watching these people happily interacting with these gigantic spiders is what made me reevaluate my stance on arachnids. It broke my fear and started what has now become an obsession.
For information, Tom Moran is my tarantula care guru. I always look for a husbandry guide video on a species from him first to get a good overview, followed by recent posts from here and arachnoboards.
I have to shout out The Tarantula Collective as well. I think he has good information, but I am one of the few I guess who isn't a big fan of his voice. To me, it sounds like an over exaggerated movie trailer narrator. Just my opinion. The content is most important though, and he does a good job.
I love Dark Den for entertainment and his personality. He is also one of my favorite channels for DIY enclosure stuff since he does everything step-by-step.
Exotics Lair is the first tarantula YouTuber I watched (watering videos), so I have to give the guy some love. He is certainly entertaining, though the more I learn and keep myself, the more I find myself disagreeing with some of the practices he does in his videos.
Tarantula Haven can talk way too much in his videos, but he seems like such a friendly guy. I'm also a fellow Floridian, and I like to see what he's doing and vendors he uses. His Repticon videos are how I learned Beasley's Exotics was 10 minutes from my house.
Tarantula Kat does an okay job too. I'm not sure if I'm just not a fan of her presentation of vlog-esque type videos, but she does a decent job. I do like when she reviews commercially available products like she did for that critter burrow thing.
A final note is all the phone camera small channels out there. The ones where its just regular people trying to rehouse their first T, or they are dealing with their first OW. These are the people I identify with and give me the courage as a beginner to try things.
Overall, I think YouTube is great for keepers. It gets more people into the hobby. It allows people to see what keeping is like and reduces the stigma surrounding spiders. I don't think I would have ever started if not for YouTube, let alone gotten my wife to agree to let me start keeping them. Just the other night, my wife said she likes tarantulas but still hates jumping spiders. I showed her a Dark Den video of his jumping spider Kiwi, and she changed her mind in 10 minutes!
As long as people understand that they need to reference multiple sources for good information and that a big part of most YouTube channels is entertainment, it's an overall positive.