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this is a map of the internet it tells the story of our culture our interests and how they change over time before Instagram YouTube Facebook or even Google existed there was a small community that lived on a tiny corner of this map hello Jim can you hear me here you go on a website my friend Jim told me about what do you remember about this what do I remember about velma.com well the most dedicated Velma Dinkley fans Velma Dinkley is the underwhelming nerd from Scooby-Doo this site is dedicated to her it's a place for Velma fans to submit fan fiction fan art Scooby-Doo movie reviews and it even has its own chat room Thelma chat at the core of this small community is an intricate mystery a mystery I've been trying to solve for many months the site's Creator is anonymous he uses the pseudonym John like glass to protect his identity for some reason I think we were just on a big Scooby-Doo craze who's we what does that mean me and the boys and then we got into a hot debate the debate is over who the best Scooby-Doo character is I know but give me a minute so the debate happened and of course I had to do some research online so I seeked out a credible source and I found probably the most credible Source I could find made by this guy who's just a Velma fanatic Jim's debate has gone on for many years and he finally wants to put it to rest he says that having John like glass himself support his argument for Velma Dinkley will end it all but John like glass as Jim tells me is missing I just want to know where you went he's been taking care of this website for like 20 years and then randomly in 2017 he's just done with it Jim wanted me to try to find John like glass or at least try to figure out what might have happened to him but I wasn't sold I think there's definitely more under the surface to this website than it's uh initially looks like that's when Jim told me that he's found some strange things on this website and that he's sure that there's more that he hasn't found yet the farther you dig the more you'll just find to be honest I've only just started to find the hidden pages on velmadinkly.com the pages that have nothing to do with cartoons like here aptly titled skullduggery like glass documents a 1969 event where human remains were found off the eastern coast of Florida a hundred bodies were found by him so I've spent the past five months trying to find John like glass the further I dug the stranger things got as I found more and more it felt as if John like glass himself was on the other side of my screen leaving me personally a trail of breadcrumbs almost wanting to be found I have lost countless hours of sleep trying to answer this one question who is this complicated man that's hiding behind a pen name the first thing I did was ask Velma chat if they knew where Light Glass was but they had no idea they claimed he hasn't been around for five or six years and one member even speculated that he might not be with us anymore it became clear Velma chat also doesn't know what happened to Light Glass I would have to look elsewhere Light Glass is a remarkably influential figure in this fandom of Scooby-Doo fans make memes of him academic articles dedicated to the history of the show proudly mentioned his name his site has reached over a million people gaining over 10 million views how is this guy hard to find here is what we do know he worked in network management which makes sense because the who is look up for the site is also Anonymous we know what he looked like 15 years ago but I don't actually know how helpful that is and that's it I found a blog post that's formatted as if it's an academic article it documents the history of the online Scooby-Doo fandom like glass of course is mentioned the author said that some of the most influential people in the community did interviews for this piece so I reached out maybe they knew like glass they were quote happy to talk with me more about this over email but when I emailed and told them that I wanted to know more about the Scooby-Doo online community the author said they weren't comfortable talking to me I told them they could be anonymous off camera I would even deepen their voice to hide it but after a month and several more attempts to get this Insider to talk I was left with no response what did I just stumble upon does a community of online Scooby-Doo fans have something to hide [Music] luckily someone else mentioned in the article was willing to talk hello I was in the car with my dad and we were driving home and one of the barns had caught on fire nearby all the neighbors were coming out because of my condition he was like uh can someone take my son inside some smoke is it gonna do good for him so a lady took me inside and they got the fire under control the animals were safe whatever anyway she brought me back out and was like I just put Scooby-Doo on for him and he was good and then I came home from there and was just like okay I need everything let's go I was born with congenital heart defects in like very simple terms that means I'm missing the right side of my heart so my heart is on the right side of my body they told my parents like he's not going to be born alive and then once I was born alive they were like he's not gonna last the first 24 hours and then they just keep giving me death dates basically but I was always told 18 is gonna be your max here I am 26. Ashton has a popular YouTube channel where he is a leading figure for the Scooby community and then from there I got kind of like dived into the Scooby Community online the online Scooby community supported Ashton through his toughest moments me and my parents never have had this like emotional connection two years ago I came out as gay and that was a really like a really rough time for me this family is very religious Mormon I came out as gay I had a lot of people leave a lot of people you know be mad this and that he even met his first boyfriend through his Scooby-Doo YouTube channel so sometimes I go like my attaching Scooby to my past self as like my closeted hiding self is it the community is it my past is it you know what is it well no because I've always found comfort in Scooby I'm gonna be very brutally honest about this to be honest I just don't like the community anymore Ashton didn't give me any details but here's what he did tell me like I guess what I see is there's like certain people felt they were the heads of the community if you will and if you weren't doing things to their liking or to how they do it or whatever not that they would turn people against you but they wouldn't like even give you the time so then it started to like cause this chain reaction said that the plot and the characters of Scooby-Doo have changed significantly over the years and those changes brought in a lot of new fans I didn't expect to be getting into the drama of online fandom nor did I really want to but trust me it's worth it these people that were say on the online community longer than us kind of felt like they were the legacy of Scooby online the old members of the fandom decide what's right and what's wrong because their version of Scooby-Doo at least to them is the pure one can I share my screen and show you this website and I'd love to get a gauge on if you feel like this is some of the Legacy people or if this has changed into the new type of community okay this is Velma dinkley.com beautiful the creator of the website seems to have gone missing in 2017 and we're trying to figure out where he went I think in order to understand where this guy went we have to understand what he was doing in the first place that's an interesting year wait what Ashton says next is really important and it actually brought me to my first major breadcrumb listen because I feel like that's like the Year everyone started to pop up in the Scooby community so maybe this person's mixed in some somewhere and we don't know this is my friend Jordy hey buddy hi jordy's getting to large following on her YouTube channel for her deep Dives on pop culture and its impacts believe me when I tell you Jordy doesn't watch cartoons she studies them is this normal is a literal I would never eat this dance moves are so 2006. when you go to velmadinkly.com [Laughter] oh my God I wanted Jordy to get into the brain of John like glass which version of Velma did he love but that's gonna take someone who's capable of watching a lot of hours of Scooby-Doo [Laughter] [Music] jordy's busy so I dove in a quick Google search for John like glass revealed that he was actually a character in an episode of Scooby-Doo the bad guy's name was John like glass and that the episode was released the same year that like glass disappeared maybe this could lead us to him maybe this is why he dropped off the face of the internet so I asked Jordy to add it to her list to watch the 15th episode of season three of Scooby-Doo original Mysteries the episode is called Fred and the creature but we ran into a problem what is happening right dude there is nothing what what the episode was wiped from the internet nowhere to be found aired on Cartoon Network but it's not part of the this is weird this is very odd I have someone that may be able to help us figure this out a walking Scooby-Doo encyclopedia you're gonna meet him in a moment no way hey Ashton hi we cannot figure out where this episode is yeah it's one that doesn't exist and so I'm wondering where this came from don't I've been like knee-deep in this for for weeks but there's some weird about Velma chat dude I think my favorite thing is that this like picture that's made with like him and like Velma hugging him and saying thank you John for making a sight about me your wife must be so proud and his wife's just like kind in the background like really like eerily when talking about digital breadcrumbs Clues often lurk in unseen Corners this isn't just an ordinary photo albeit objectively hilarious it's metadata holds a secret though Sandy is an absolute Banger of a name I'm not really sure that this helps a ton I really didn't want to disappoint Jim I'm ready I'm ready to hear it all I know right I figured I found this one tiny clue deep in the site itself maybe if I look deeper there will be more in the about the author page it says now in its 20th year the site has had over 1 million visitors and well over 10 million page views internet archive has backed up this page 71 times in October of 2002 the site had 37 000 visitors all right this is where the work begins [Music] [Music] look at this this graph shows how many people came to Velma dinkley.com over the years but this graph shows how many times John Light Glass updated this site I showed this to Ashton he said the timeline lines up perfectly with one person do either of you know who Scott Innis is okay hi this is Scott Annis he was like a big big Scooby fan oh Scott Innis then became Scooby-Doo [Applause] no seriously because that was back in the late 90s 94 movies are considered like the Legacy Scooby movies it's like everybody bows down for them it's like if you don't like them you're not a Scooby fan but then Innis lost the role the same year the John Light Glass started losing interest in the site hello hey Scott hey but first for as long as I've made videos I've used story blocks they're also the sponsor for today's video storyblocks is a place for you to download an unlimited amount of professional stock media and it's curated too they make Available to You 4K footage templates for After Effects Premiere Pro and apple motion not to mention music sound effects illustrations and like way more you get all of this for a predictable subscription cost the subscription model really does make sense here because stock media usually costs an arm and a leg for just one clip because of this storyblocks has no royalty fees and no hidden fees ever it's really nice if you have a storyblock subscription you can test out any of the assets they have to offer if you download that asset and it's not the right fit for your specific project it doesn't cost you any more or any less if you don't use it you can get all of this through their website or through their Adobe plugins whether you're in video production marketing education I could go on check out storyblocks there's a link in the description description that will get you there that link is storyblocks.com c-h-u-p-p-l if you click that link not only does it help you by getting you to store blocks but also helps support our Channel and helps us make more videos like this one again it's storyblocks.com Chapel c-h-u-p-p-l thanks to our friends at storyblocks HQ for helping us good on any and all rabbit holes I really appreciate it and your After Effects templates I'm super serious all right back to the guy who voiced Scooby-Doo that's crazy hello everybody do you by chance have a favorite character in Scooby-Doo how do you feel about Velma as a character [Music] Jordy felt like that line alone disqualified in us from being like glass what's interesting is that Velma dinkley.com was created in 1999. so we really are working with a couple of versions of Velma that would kind of inspire John lyglass to create Velma dinkley.com and this is before her tighter fitting turtleneck or before hot Velma and Jordy was right I stumbled upon a website I'm curious if you've heard of it it's called velmadinkly.com [Music] he's not John like glass Jordy said that this is the Velma that light glass loves but she's also like a really good friend she lost her glasses classic iconic moment she thinks that the night is Shaggy yes you are Shaggy and she thinks that he's still sick with a cold and so she's like looking for his medicine lucky I brought your medicine she's like almost kind of nurturing and a really good friend but she's also like very kind yeah okay check it out I was wondering what happened here so I went back to the internet archive and searched for sites that John Light Glass was updating around that time I found another page that's completely unrelated to cartoons it's about an 80s rock band called witness that page linked to another site called witnessrocks.com and here's how things went updates page boring journal entry titled deleted okay I'm interested Sandy whoa like wife Sandy that goes to Disney every year okay continue on April 2008. Sandy again keep reading anybody that has some good pics of last night email them in what's the email at Velma dinkley.com whoa like glass goes by JD command F JD JD back left attached photo not helpful email JD even though I don't have photos of last night no response find YouTube channel JD from witness okay but I look like a fast get in there as I do there you go okay yeah just roll it say hi everybody it's him [Music] find his bio worked with bands such as AC DC Cheap Trick Thin Lizzy REO and the tubes damn go off John Light Glass links to his website call every number I can find [Music] close JD is in a band with friend Lisa and a choir Lisa again beekeeping YouTube channel didn't see that one coming but again with Lisa so call Lisa hello hi is this Lisa it is ask about JD yes in fact he's gonna be here at 4 30. I'm so glad you reached me would you mind calling it like 4 45 whoa this is John John I cannot believe I'm speaking with you right now what was the website well does the name John like glass mean anything to you yes yes actually it still exists uh Velma daily.com [Music] hey this is a huge moment for me you're the guy this is JD the lighting man tell us little do you design the lighting for this particular Club no for the band I travel with the band [Music] born in Long Island John like glass moved to Pennsylvania there he found community Through music eventually joining a band I was working with a band and we'd all rehearse at the manager's house on Friday's nights and there was a cake involved and most of the members didn't make it out the front door they ended up asleep on the asleep on our manager's floor and his kids would come out in the morning and turn the TV on you know and you're like wake up a little bit say what's that and I just remember waking up one day to you know it was a Scooby-Doo episode and and there's this girl with glasses going on and on you're very sarcastic I was like wow that's a neat character I started watching Scooby-Doo and got stuck on that why Velma Dinkley out of out of the five that goes back to grade school I actually had some you know childhood friends that are reminiscent of of the character so you know it was like um a little bit of a flashback there you know it was just uh someone who was very much similar to the character I moved into this area there weren't too many people in the area that I live and I had maybe two three neighbors so we ended up you know playing together all the time and then you know life happens and you know she went her way I went my way and that was that then the characters developed that's when most people came into the community as Velma was becoming more attractive and more complex I can only assume that light glass no longer saw his friend in the character and lost interest this seems like at one point in time it was something really special to you has your interest in the character and the community dwindled well you know the thing being is this was a cartoon about four characters and their dog going on adventures you know it's very simple very straightforth there wasn't there wasn't the depth of characters that they're trying to generate nowadays you know when you watched it you watched it for the fun of it it's changed over the years and I was having a chat with a good friend of mine who you know Lisa and I said you know I kind of missed the old original series and and she said very matter-of-factly that one worked nowadays you know if you tried to put that type of series on it just wouldn't take and that's the sad truth you know For Better or For Worse times have changed the only thing you know being left is the the Velma chat I popped in a couple of weeks ago just to see the names and the names have changed there's you know two or three characters that still pop up but most of them I don't know how does that feel for you that you don't recognize the community that's around your own creation here well time moves on life action very many directions but at the end of the game you know I like the idea that I've had the ability and the experience to get into all these different fields and have a little fun with them while we were making this video Ashton made a leap he exited the online Scooby-Doo community and rebranded himself I am very much the black sheep of the family in every possible way I am the only one with a major medical issue I am the only one that's not straight I am the only one without kids I'm the only one without a career I'm you know I'm like the list goes on and on of how I'm just different because I felt like my life was becoming I was my best friend's best friend I was my parent's son I was never me you know I was the Scooby-Doo YouTuber I never had a name it's fine but I just felt like I didn't have an identity fandom served its purpose for Ashton it provided him with a community that empowered him to feel comfortable in his own skin and to find himself can you read off this letter that Ashton posted I went down a rabbit hole of making mainly Scooby-Doo content for a bit and while it was really fun it became almost all of who I am now that astron's found himself he really doesn't need this type of fandom anymore for as long as the channel has been alive it has always been called smash but I'm ready to embrace all of me and that's why I'm changing it to my name so allow me to introduce myself or reintroduce myself my name is Ashton Hardy and I'm so excited to meet all of you friends [Music] why an alias I don't know any of those original sites where the person actually put their name up there I found a few pages on Velma dinkley.com I wanted to ask you about one of which is skullduggery oh yes I know what you're talking about my aunt Uncle owned a place out on Sanibel Island off of Florida and they had opened up this island that they were going to move into they went to start moving a little Earth around and found all these skeletons it was very creepy you want the update you ready for this so I found John like glass I told him about your argument this debate you've been in yes and he thought that he might chime in here hey Jim you got the right character to be interested in she has depth as much as of course thanks for watching this is our first episode of a new series we're tentatively calling internet archeology if you have a better name seriously let us know I'm really not kidding about that let us know we're hoping to tell stories from the early internet or the Deep areas of the internet that most people don't often go to so if you have any of those in mind please send us an email even if it's not internet related if you have a big question that you've always wanted answered let us know I I got the phone number of the guy that voices Scooby-Doo and Shaggy and I talk to him on the phone dude who went to every corner over the Internet is there any character you want to sign off with here Scooby Dooby Doo