I have always maintained that to be an effective educator, one must add tangible value to students' lives beyond the confines of the curriculum. This philosophy was the catalyst for my first personal YouTube channel, "Ades Torres Photo," a project I actively managed from 2017 to 2019.
The project was born from a clear demand. In 2017, I was deeply immersed in researching and acquiring photography equipment. Concurrently, students would often approach me for advice and tips on the subject. The channel was a natural solution: a platform to answer these questions at scale.
While the initial focus was photography, my other facets—as a musician and technologist—quickly expanded the channel's scope. I felt confident discussing audio equipment, such as headphones, and emerging smart home automation. Though my core content remained focused on photography, the videos that generated the most significant traction, surprisingly, were my headphone reviews.
I never harbored ambitions of becoming a "YouTuber" or an "influencer," terms that were still evolving at the time. Yet, the project grew beyond all my expectations.
In its two-year run, I produced over 40 videos. The channel surpassed 30,000 subscribers and accumulated over 1 million total views. One video alone breached the 300,000-view mark. For a personal project driven by passion, these numbers were a resounding and unexpected success.
So, why did I stop?
The truth is, I didn't stop by choice.
In mid-November 2019, I was the victim of a data breach. My channel was compromised, and a hacker—seemingly operating from somewhere in the Middle East—began uploading content that directly violated YouTube's community guidelines.
I managed to briefly regain control, but the channel was invaded again. I sent a new appeal to YouTube, but this time, the recovery was unsuccessful. The channel was permanently banned.
To this day, any attempt to access the URL is met with a message stating that I violated YouTube's policies multiple times. I sent more than three emails appealing the decision, all without success. The channel was gone.
Lessons from a Digital Collapse
This experience, though painful, taught me two invaluable and harsh lessons.
- The Non-Negotiable Need for 2FA: The first lesson was in digital security. Any critical Google account must have two-factor authentication. A secure account requires a validation layer of "something you have" (a physical phone) in addition to "something you know" (a password). I now universally recommend validation using SMS or an on-device prompt.
- The Hard-Earned Wisdom of Backups: The second lesson was the importance of redundancy. Several of my videos existed only on the YouTube platform. With the channel gone, they were gone forever. Backup, I learned, is never superfluous.
Despite the abrupt and frustrating end, the experience was profoundly valuable. I significantly honed my video editing skills, which became a technical foundation for production support I later provided to other channels (a topic for a future post).
Furthermore, the positive feedback was immensely gratifying. I vividly remember a new student approaching me once, saying, "Oh, I saw your YouTube video about those headphones I wanted to buy!" It was a powerful reminder that our audience and impact are often larger than we anticipate.
Today, that channel exists only in my memory and in a few surviving thumbnails. I never earned a single dollar from it, but the experience was, without a doubt, worth it. I had fun.
