♐RESET STRANGE YD, uploaded on Friday, September 15, 2017, was the last video to be added to the unfavorablesemi YouTube channel. It was removed from the channel less than half an hour after being discovered. Minutes later, the Twitter account and both YouTube channels, as well as the never used Google+ page of Stabilitory Newing, were also removed. The Google+ page of Unfavorable Semicircle remained active.
This was the last posting from UFSC until the subsequent twitter reactivation.
The video has since received the bittersweet nickname of Reset “strange YouTube data” - the data being UFSC’s strange videos themselves, of course.
Discord user Super Nerd mentions that the Strange Reset happened on the day which the Cassini space probe was retired. Given the many astronomical references in UFSC’s body of work, it could’ve been a deliberate thematic choice to “decomission” the You Tube channel on the same day the probe that was operational for nealy two decades was destroyed.
Mirrored version of the video.
The video itself is 1:35:05 long, without any obvious visual component.
The video has a mono soundtrack with a dial-up modem communication sound (not the initial handshake which most people think of when they used modems to connect to the Internet in its infancy).
The audio (and hence, possibly the entire video file except the title) is nearly identical to UFSC’s previous upload, ♐HOLDOUT. It appears that the two videos have the same audio, but processed slightly differently — the start of the sound is offset by about 2600 samples, and ♐HOLDOUT’s audio is slightly “louder”. This means that the two files cannot be made to invert cleanly.
Whether this is the result of slight differences in the upload workflow/conversion process or a deliberately-introduced extremely minute variation is impossible to say for sure.
Discord user ArchmageNydia mentioned it seemed to have 3 “modes” to it but a cursory viewing made it sound uniform at first.
Interestingly enough, some videos were deleted before the channels themselves were — ♐HOLDOUT, for example, which had a striking resemblance to ♐RESET STRANGE YD was removed even though it was still available on the channel mere days ago. Community members refreshing the channel while this was happening said all videos were deleted in sequence before the main channel itself was gone. The fact that ♐RESET STRANGE YD itself too was removed right before the account vanished, seems to indicate this termination might not have been entirely planned ahead by UFSC: why remove some videos individually first if the entire channel was about to be deleted?
The Google account of the “side” channel Stabilitory newing wasn’t initially removed like the channel itself, indicating that the channel was not banned but deliberately removed by Unfavorable Semicircle. However, the entire Stabilitory newing account, including the G+ page, were subsequently deleted shortly after. Although it was not noticed at the time, it was subsequently presumed that the OT channel — wisely presumed to be a copycat channel until the fourth G+ post — was deleted at this point as well.
After the “reset” the only known account connected to UFSC is the G+ page.
The “strange reset” implied in the video title seems to accompany this “reset” of social media accounts too. What sort of relationship the content and timing of the video has with the removal of the YouTube and Twitter accounts (and videos, prior to that) is unknown.
A russian YouTube channel released a video mentioning UFSC days before the “Reset”, receiving over half a million views. Since a similar gain of exposure is rumored to have played a part in the very first YouTube channel being banned, as it was brought to mainstream attention, it could be that the “Reset” was a measure to prevent a second ban. In this case though, why the Twitter account would also be removed remains unexplained - as plain removal is not entirely different from the final outcome of having it banned.
The reasons why the author(s) of UFSC would have for eliminating the videos are unknown. The videos have been public since when the first channel was uploaded (and subsequently banned). There had been four separate public accounts up to this point. It could have been a matter of garnering more unwanted exposure as time went on — or some completely unrelated fact according to the main objectives of the videos themselves, which are hard to identify given their meaning is not known.
The time-frame of about 30 minutes between the video being discovered by the community and the subsequent removal of videos and accounts would imply ample time for the video to be downloaded by a peer (and possibly sending a confirmation of it being received back to the source). This would lend some credence to the theory of UFSC being a Internet-based number station, in which case the removal of the accounts might have some extrinsic meaning to it. such as the end of the necessity for transmission or the communication protocol having been potentially compromised. Or in the case of it being a black-box attempt at exploiting or reverse-engineering YouTube itself, it could indicate some sort of success - but still the reason for uploading a final “Reset” video would be left unexplained.
In other scenarios (such as an art project or an ARG), removing the content itself makes less logical sense as it’s hard to imagine why this would be necessary at all. This is, however, conjuncture, as it’s impossible to prove or disprove any theory right now.
The term “reset” also would imply a new beginning or a rerouting of communications. It could also have a more personal meaning in the case of an art project.
In November 2017, the Twitter account was reactivated with a garbled tweet before posting ♐FMI and ♐DDR DONE on December 6th. Whether this is the original author coming back to resume his work after the “Reset” or just an opportunist making use of the recently-vacant Twitter handle, is still up to debate, although the content posted has a more authentic look-and-feel than any of the impersonators that appeared so far. It has been pointed that out that it would be easier to reclaim the deleted Twitter account using the same name as before rather than doing the same with the deleted YouTube channel since there still is a Google Plus account linked to that particular profile.