State of the Channel: 2024

[@bendallow2296]

Might get lost in the comments here, but Ian, I want to thank you for being one of, if not THE, leading historian cataloging as much as you possibly can across a wide array of firearms and engineering. I'd like to imagine one day an entire bookshelf of my home dedicated to your published works, as well as those books being used as reference material for other students of history and engineering, firearms designers, and hobbyists for centuries to come. It isn't recognized very often, but you have devoted a very substantial chunk of your life to doing work that most people don't even think about. Thank you for doing what you do, I sincerely hope your name is high up in the history books, have yourself a happy new year!

[@stephencolley334]

Yes, Ian was contributed a lot of content both educational and commercial. Remember, Ian is not a non-profit. He has accumulated a rather nice nest egg by doing his videos and publishing. There is nothing wrong with that, just remember it is not some altruistic act.

[@bendallow2296]

@@stephencolley334 it may not be born out of altruism, or it may be. Either way it is for sure born out of passion. I'm almost certain that at its start, there was no idea how incredibly successful or lucrative the channel would be. The financial incentive is 100% deserved for all the work that is done

[@dutch1479]

@@bendallow2296 Agreed that it is absolutely born out of passion. Ian works hard and he is one of the only channels I subscribe to that I feel deserves the monetary gain. I have no interest in supporting channels that just shoot and blow stuff up, but Forgotten Weapons puts knowledge before all else. I walk away from each episode knowing more than I did before. That certainly is worth something. Also, there is no way Ian could do all of the gun stuff that he does and still have time for a normal 9-5 job. He literally has to make money at this in order to continue doing it. I say rock on.

[@hdjono3351]

@@stephencolley334where does he say he did it for altruistic reasons?

[@cwj2733]

@@stephencolley334if that’s how u wanna look at it sure. most people do things they love and then end up making money from it. of course money is an end goal but it isn’t THE end goal. i imagine ian’s end goal is to provide truthful and informative videos about firearms, firearm history and little tidbits here and there

[@MrSebfrench76]

Side note. As a french guy watching avidly both for your channel, and for the History Underground's one, i have made a letter to the Ministère des Armées, asking for them to give you some sort of reward, for your relentless work at celebrating as well as the french weaponry history, than the french battles sites. Last week, they gave me a reply, saying that they will look after my request. Hope they'll give a favourable ending to that.

[@nobodynoone2500]

If anyone has spread more love and enthusiasm for french firearms, I could not name them. Ian is the only reason I know anything about them beyond a passing glance when reading history. I would wager he is the biggest champion for french military arms history by audience alone, let alone his clear and infectious passion.

[@liammeech3702]

Interesting 🤔 keep us posted

[@MrSebfrench76]

you put that into words that my broken english is forbidding me to dream of..@@nobodynoone2500

[@MrSebfrench76]

i hope i will be able to.@@liammeech3702

[@DC2022]

That is a great idea! I'll a talk with some military friends! On file bien la légion d'honneur à des types comme Ardisson, ce serait bien que des gens qui font vraiment des choses pour le rayonnement de la France dans le monde bénéficient d'une vraie reconnaissance (bon, même si on peut voir qu'il l'a de la part des pros du secteur, vu ses accès aux réserves de la Gendarmerie Nationale, merci à eux au fait)

[@thekraken1173]

State of the channel hasn’t changed. It is still my favorite youtube channel.

[@johnwayne8494]

Where is this "State of the Channel"? Do they also review guns?

[@Blejk_Karington]

Ian's condition has been the same for many years. I watched a movie from 9 years ago and Ian is still same young. He's real Gun Vampire😁

[@jseal21]

I'm not even in the "gun culture" and this is my new favorite channel on YT. My son tried to get me to watch for years and I would never watch, now I get a backlog to go through.

[@DarthMirasshtar]

😂😂😂 bro I'm dying 🤣

[@dunamoose3446]

Seconded

[@donttrustem13]

Ian's voice and appearance have remained the same over the years just like any of his subjects, and because of consistent presentation a brand new video and one from 7 years ago play back to back seamlessly. Great channel

[@Twilit777]

No, he's definitely more wrinkled now. A definitely more distinguished sort of wrinkling, but compare him to even pre-2020 and he is definitely showing signs of mortality. EDIT: I'm going to blame the constant "definitely" on the hangover.

[@stamfordly6463]

Frankly I dunno how he keeps up the pace, Tom Scott knocked off today after ten years on KZbin saying he'd got close to burnout and that's only doing one video a week.

[@csolivais1979]

​@@stamfordly6463I think, and I don't know this for sure, is that he can film stuff in batches and then release them slowly.

[@-Jester]

@@csolivais1979 Yeah I don't think this is a secret considering Ian often releases a few videos from the same place back to back to back.

[@Sherwoodnt]

This is a really good point, Ian has been amazing from the start and has kept a consistent presentation that makes his content very comfortable to watch.

[@mickymondo7463]

Thank you Ian, I have been subscribed for over a decade now, and your ability to hunt out really interesting firearms to bring to us is what make this my favourite firearms channel on youtube

[@caprise-music6722]

Couldn’t agree more. And he truly is narratively gifted! The way he explain things AND the things he talk about, historically and otherwise really makes for a superbly interesting channel.

[@xoxo2008oxox]

And his publishing work, cooperatives and with other authors! @@caprise-music6722

[@barrydavies998]

Greedy with new channel

[@j.d.saccociates3313]

​@barrydavies998 settle down, if he was actually greedy he'd be selling raid:shadow legends or manscaped

[@dylang3998]

8 years and counting

[@Phynellius]

I support on Floatplane, it's frustrating how difficult KZbin makes things for an incredibly educational channel like yours .

[@olewillyboy]

Its a shame how blatantly anit-2A KZbin is.

[@hansgrueber8169]

Guns are bad...remember?

[@killzoneisa]

@@hansgrueber8169 Don't forget their other saying "History is bad" Seeing Ian cover both topics in his videos an YT hate gun and history channels

[@username1660]

​@@morningfox_ It's less to do with 'muh freedoms' and more to do with simple capitalism being put into action. Advertisers want a non-problematic platform with reliable viewership so that's what KZbin turns into because that's where the money is. I doubt they care about rights/education one way or the other. If there's any agenda to blame it's the commodifying of the Internet by Business

[@Ebalosus]

@@username1660pretty much this, even if it's a bitter pill for conservatives and a lot of lolbertarians to swallow. It's not "the Chinese" or "the woke agenda" that's making content like Ian's unviable on KZbin, but KZbin itself being an enormous money-sink for Google that really needs to start paying its own way, hence it turning into network television.

[@catherinewhite2943]

You are going to be very busy indeed producing five videos per week. Thank you! May 2024 be a very good year for you and your family.

[@VosperCDN]

Looking forward to "more of the same, just better" as it looks to be. Always appreciate the work it must take to bring these videos to the general public.

[@barrydavies998]

Greedy with new channel

[@MAJORSDAD]

One issue that I had when I subscribed to History of Weapons & War was videos lagging or occasionally stopping entirely and then having to restart them. Once that issue is fixed then I will consider resubscribing to that channel, so I don't have to watch the edited or non-existent videos that KZbin randomly censors.

[@columbiawarmachine9795]

KZbin has been messing with my channel as well , it pisses me off . I put so much effort into my videos

[@ecrogue4496]

My favorite content on the net. Adding another video sounds great, just be careful not to burn yourself out. We know you already work your ass off.

[@WhiskeyTape]

Having one more video a week is definitely nice. Hope it won't negatively impact you though. Thanks for another amazing year, Ian!

[@kranky8892]

Wow it felt like the state of the channel 2023 was yesterday.

[@nobodynoone2500]

It was, you've been in a coma, we have been trying to reach you, but you only hear Ian.

[@mikebreakwell3909]

Awesome to hear that the channel is still going strong. Thank you Ian for all the hard work you put into making these videos!

[@spartan8705]

1:40 I’m quite a fan of Floatplane’s setup, with an independent CDN and no VC to appease, but I’d also quite like to get 4K video It’s a shame we have to pick one or the other, but it also makes sense to promote your platform

[@nobodynoone2500]

If you put everything under one distribution platform, it always falls apart. That's what happened to cable, and is happening to the internet. At some point you just need to have a healthy competitive market, and not a by-proxy monopoly such as google/youtube or clearchannel, or oligarchy such as disney, netflix, hulu.

[@Chyrosran22]

My god, you work so ridiculously hard xD . Best wishes for 2024, looking forward to your content!

[@Sharkzy64]

Happy new year! Thank you for the valued and consistent videos. On a side note; one firearm I would love to see make an appearance on the channel is the Czech ZK-423. And I am led to believe that "Military History Institute Prague" owns one if it is in your interest.

[@sparksmcgee6641]

Scholarship vote. Thanks for your work, Ian and team.

[@keaixiaomeinv]

Forgotten Weapons is one of the most timeless and consistent KZbin channels out there. Thank you for being the leading voice in educating the world about weapons and their history. It's a shame that the platform seems unable to differentiate between educational channels and low-effort gun porn.

[@Sean-ot4zq]

Happy New Year to Ian and everyone behind Forgotten Weapons I hope this years goes well. Perhaps at some point this year you get the opportunity to do a few more collaborations with The Chieftain and if possible C&Rsenal. That "Project Lighning" series was great. Keep it up and I hope this years goes well for everyone.

[@evanlangnes2700]

Ian, i have been watching you for most of my life. Please, if you feel 5 videos a week is too much, drop back down to 4. You're one of my favorite educational youtubers, and i dont want you to burn out.

[@AveAtqueVale01]

I had the exact same thought.

[@leflavius_nl5370]

Hey Ian, do you reckon you'd ever dive deeper into the history of the manufacturing side of weapons? Imagine a miniseries, something like Forgotten Manufacturing? I (and many others in this space) are at the very least interested, if not enthusiastic about manufacturing, and the workflows and methods of the past are often getting forgotten, especially now that everything is going CNC. Just an idea!

[@nathanboulton2066]

he has done in the past

[@stancunningham3711]

The state appears to be interesting, educational, and very well presented! Success and health to you in yours in 2024.

[@imadequate3376]

Same update as last year. "We're maintaining the course but i have even more money now so prepare to see even more cooler s**t. Happy New Year"

[@thatguyfromthatthingthattime]

I only discovered this channel within the last year or 2 and I'm happy to be along for the ride, and to see the channel grow and evolve. I love history in general, so this is definitely a channel I enjoy.

[@tankpiggy]

I really like the in person/museum tour videos, like the Malta one and the Guadacanal videos. Obviously you can’t make those weekly, but would love to see more of them.

[@Jello-ou9uz]

I truly appreciate all the work you put into all these different projects and plans! My only worry (as it always is), is that you're going to burn yourself out. Rush or struggle with providing the amount of content you provide if life decides to happen in a less forgiving way. I hope you have a wonderful new years, though. Thanks for over a decade of entertainment and information.

[@steelwheelsminnesota]

Congrats on your new platform, what an endeavor! Heading over there now.

[@David_Crayford]

Happy New Year! Best wishes for 2024, and thanks for being one of the coolest channels on the internet. 🙂

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

The problem with your separate channel is not just cost, but that every new channel adds similar "small" costs. Add them all up, and pretty soon you're talking real money. KZbin is sure not my friend, but I'm not going to start down the road of proliferating low-cost channel subscriptions.

[@Sherwoodnt]

Happy New Year, Ian! Thanks for all your hard work cataloguing all these different weapons. Looking forward to another year of steadily weirder guns and things.

[@renatocoloradaco4673]

A Happy and Prosperous 2024 to you and your family Ian and to everyone who follows this GREAT channel. 😁✌🏻👍🏻💯

[@Simon_Nonymous]

No need to thank me, I thank you. I am sitting drinking Scotch (with a wee bit of water) and very grateful for the most objective and fun and friendly and informative firearms channel on YT. BOTR, C&R, Cap'n'Ball are all up with you in my top 5, so on pay day I am off to your Weapons and War channel ; I did the trial, and it's great. No adverts no filler.

[@MidwesternFC]

Excellent work on the weapons and war streaming service! Happy to see some feasible options for the future of firearms related content. All the best in the new year!

[@brucebello2049]

Happy New Year to you Ian and congratulations on the top 5 in the Gundies

[@jamminman9585]

That schedule sounds daunting. Hope you don’t get burned out

[@kpg-uo1tm]

I just got your newest book in the mail two days ago. Cannot wait to read it. Keep up the great work.

[@sdunn5643]

Happy New Year !!! Love the channel and all the delivery of your work to viewers. :D

[@aaronshippelhoute5011]

Really like your museum tours, looking forward to them!

[@petesheppard1709]

Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to a new year of content--and shenanigans. 😄--Especially whatever you come up with for April Fools!

[@tariktimsiline2617]

Hi Ian! Happy New Year and All the Best for you, your relatives and your channel ! Quite interesting videos/reports you're making and sharing! Thanks for that ! Greetings from DZ!

[@gertgilich3508]

Hey Ian. Happy new year from South Africa. Really enjoy your channel. Much appreciated. Regards, Gert.

[@cessnafly9841]

I miss the auction videos with the sale prices but I understand that you are only one person doing the work of so many and doing a great job. Thanks and I look forward to the coming year.

[@shortyyazzie]

Glad to hear such good news (except for the KZbin issues). Happy New Year!

[@DB-yj3qc]

Ian I hope you and all have a great new year and for you to not over extend yourself. I will enjoy extra videos too.

[@_ArsNova]

Great work Ian. Love your commitment to a relatively unembellished channel as an encyclopedia of firearms and history, with the occasionally fun stuff like a competition shoot or funny gag. Will happily be subscribing to W&W once I'm no longer a poor student wrapping up university. Cheers! (And please consider a remake of your old video on the Type 26 revolver!)

[@HenrykGutmann-kr9tn]

Thank You for being so productive - I really love your channel. What I particularly appreciated were your interviews regarding the Ukraine war - giving imho valuable insights in the "not-so-nice" realities of current weapons history. I would be very happy, if you could provide us such videos as well in future!

[@gerhardris]

Great Channel and best wishes for 2024. Well, to put foward a question I have about the forgotten weapon ammo of the 6.5 mm Dutch ammo for the Hembrug guns. Everyone states that the rounded ammo was obscellesent. Too little stopping power. This is a point I don't realy get. A little hole in most soldiers who are hit will put most out of action. With those that are not taken out by that will not be taken out by rifle bullets hitting them. The 6.5 low recoile and very flat trajectory. Less problem with side wind. So, much more easy to hit what you aim for then much other weapons. For all such other weapons in mentioned cases having hit crucial parts one can stop an elephant with the 6.5 mm. For a GPMG a larger say 7.9 mm is better at stopping vehicules. The will to standardise for ease of logistics is understandeble when seeing GPMG as a more important contribution to any fight. 5:09

[@geoffreyjones2000]

Happy New Year!

[@JerzyLasica]

Forgotten weapons book? (Book with overview of the weapons covered on the channel, practically condesed version of videos). It could be pdf and every year you could buy updates/ new versions of the book which would be cheaper than the whole book.

[@eddaly4160]

You are the Jedi Master...I just started watching some of your video's on my firestick....I think I found them on the Tubi channel. Incredible the amount of detail you go into. Hopefully I can get to your new channel on the firestick....Cheers and happy new year!

[@simonevans343]

HAPPY NEW YEAR IAN. I WILL DO MY BEST TO FIND YOU ON THE ALTERNITIVE CHANNEL

[@mr.whiskers6273]

Loving the channel for awhile now keep doing what your doing and have a good 2024!

[@charlesperry1051]

Still my favorite channel. My youngest son visited for Christmas. He loved the Small Arms of WWII book! I can't wait for future versions.

[@TehAlekzi]

2:58 Sorry, that made me laugh a bit. Your presentation of 4k res made it sound like 4k is a fancy new thing, whilst it has been pretty common resolution for around a decade.

[@lenix-music-official]

First comment, to fill this blank page is that i want to wish you all the best. Ian i love the content you create I've been following you for years. Keep it up

[@dude126]

Happy New year Ian. Glad the future looks healthy for Forgotten weapons/History of weapons & war. Keep up the good work.

[@Vin_San]

Retrospection of 2023 : you French is getting better and better, and you're either "big enough" on YT and "good enough" in French to have access to the awesome collection of French Gendarmerie that you might one of the first one to film! I wish you like to be able to film some forgotten weapons in the Invalid Museum of Paris, they have really some crazy stuff (in reserve for some) from the XVIIth to the XXth century. Also, in some "army museum" (where there are active duty soldier and museum) you might have the chance to shoot full auto Famas, make a video or a "valorised" one, or shoot the crapy AA-52

[@CrewExpendable2007]

So glad you as well as those other channels have continued to educate and present these historic firearms to the next generations and supplying people with this information openly. Thank you Ian, Jonathan and everyone else providing great info.

[@BV-fr8bf]

Happy New Year Ian, love the 4K addition!

[@STEVEN-STEELE]

1st off. Hope you had a Banging new year. Get it umm with the guns and all. 😊 Thank you and anyone involved for all the great videos. I will definitely be checking out History of Weapons and War. You know with you showing us 4 weapons a week. The 5th one with the shooting part would be cool if it was the weapon you found most interesting of the 4 you showed. If the weapon was available to shoot. I know many are rare and in valuable collections. But those you could would be an interesting part of the video.Even if it were just a short part of the video. Anyhow I'm looking forward to another year of awesome Forgotten Weapons and I'm sure what will be a new favorite place to go see weapons that helped change our world.

[@jonathandalton2921]

love the weird guns in backup gun matches. all your content is fantastic.

[@jamesclawson9156]

Happy and good new year,all sounds good can't wait for watching new format

[@Squeezer999]

i was really hoping that Tobacco of the Emporer would of been released in 2023 like the description said. I ordered a copy to give as a Christmas 2023 present and was disappointed that I wasn't able to give the copy I ordered to a buddy for Christmas.

[@ForgottenWeapons]

Sorry - they are still being completed by the printer.

[@sgas]

I really appreciate that you upgraded the camera setup. A thing that ive always wanted you to add to your setup is a better microphone specifically to pick up the sounds of operating and handling of firearms. I think the sound of rare weapons is just as important as their mechanics and exterior. These cool sounds for some of them might never be properly recorded anywhere and I think it deserves to exist in the background of your videos

[@SatansPooper]

Longtime sub; I love your coverage of the Brutality matches. Your bromance with Ziga (Polenar Tectical) is too wholesome for words.

[@MrSumGuns]

Happy New Year bro! Love your work and I have learned so much from you. Thanks for your hard work basically cataloging the history of firearms.

[@Coltbreath]

Happy New Year! Ian Than You for all of the Great content,

[@brunswicksquaremusic5905]

Weird how we’ve been told for gears that KZbin is about to ban gun content, yet there’s still thousands and thousands of gun videos…

[@GordonFalt]

Ive been an avid ForgottenWeapons fan since its inception. keep up the good work Ian. If I ever get my hands on a Time Machine we can go together to see the workings of the Krupp factory circa 16-1700's.

[@Jonny-tr9qo]

Remember to archive these videos and get physical copies of the good juicy ones with internals for future generations will thank you

[@thetank2078]

I think I first found your channel during the pre Battlefield 1 hype looking into the lesser known firearms featured in that game. And since then, I’ve been regularly watching. Keep up the great videos!

[@manythingslefttobuild]

Happy New year Ian. Thank you for being the cool gun guy I wanted to be in high school and sharing.

[@phileas007]

I will support you in spirit, 4k is well beyond my little potato

[@fredericrike5974]

Ambitious schedule, Ian. But hard is only in the mind of the beholder, my late uncle said. And I can afford to believe that now I have retired from his construction industry! Looking forward to another amazing year and finding out tons of things I didn't know. Btw, if you are ever topic bound, so something on the co dependence between making weapons and the development of harder metals and how gunpowder changed the equation.

[@matthayward7889]

Good news start to finish! Thank you for all your hard work, Ian.

[@sparksmcgee6641]

Thank you for your channel. I grew up around guns. Then I moved to a city where shooting wasn't worth the hassle. At 53 I've inherited some guns I loved when I was a kid. That pulled me back into learning the engeenering of those guns. You are without a doubt the best source for information on interesting guns. Thank you for keeping the format simple and educational. I'll toss in a few bucks if you get a chance to do a scholarship for people going into material science or CAD with an interest in firearms. I bet your viewers will help out quite a bit. Dardick revolver looks like a good one to do a video on. Thank you again.

[@sparksmcgee6641]

I did thw search for thw dardick AFTER I posted the comment Should have known you did one already.😅😅

[@murkypuddle33]

we're with you ian. we understand youtube is not gun friendly. if they give you any crap, we'll follow you to whatever platform you decide to go with.

[@chpet1655]

Some will follow some won’t it’s a big gamble to leave KZbin altogether. But it’s just so bizarre how YT shoots itself in the foot by censoring almost every content creator except the very largest. A very strange business model

[@stevensparks3126]

Sadly some political views are frowned upon too. @@chpet1655

[@GatCat]

Weapons and war is $10 a month. I love the channel, but I can’t afford $10 a month for FW at this time and I hope you can find a way to either partner with more channels or lower that cost somehow.

[@ethanclark5513]

That’s so awesome you’re gonna be making videos on new stuff, whenever I want to know something about a gun the first thing I do is see if you have a video on it, I’m looking forward to it!

[@stevezielinski9257]

I hope we get a museum tour of that museum from the Christmas video!!!!!????

[@ForgottenWeapons]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnXOo5Sag7CUkJY :)

[@hbrock0094]

For one of your new additional videos, you should consider visiting the John M Browning museum in Ogden, UT. It has some very interesting prototype firearms which I think could make for some awesome videos!

[@patrickmcglynn5383]

Great news Ian. Looking forward to all of the new content. You're still one of the few channels that I hit the like button before I watch the video.

[@Magic_monkey_man]

Happy new year!!!!

[@bassplayersayer]

You do You and I will watch. Rock on and Happy New Year!!!!!

[@bigsarge2085]

Happy 2024!

[@BackPackBadger]

If I decide to only support Forgotten Weapons on Patreon will I miss out on the exclusive Forgotten Weapons content on History of Weapons and War? Or is there separate exclusive content just for Patreon members?

[@ForgottenWeapons]

Almost everything is available to Patrons, just not the Chauchat Challenge series.

[@Hagop64]

State of the channel: Ian is going to continue to work way too much and give us all great content!

[@rackhuff928]

God bless you Ian! Your channel has changed my life in so many ways! Thank you for your dedication to history and sharing it with us! Love ya brother❤️

[@davesaunders568]

Happy New Year, Ian .

[@ElChris816]

FW is one of the few channels I look forward to when I receive an alert, and I'm very excited to see and extra day of content.

[@rmax2]

You've got a great channel, very interesting content, always one of my favorites on KZbin. If it ends up disappearing and going to a $10 per month streaming service that's where I'll part company.

[@Basti444Ever]

One of the best channels on youtube. Very entertaining and educational. I've been watching since 2018 give or take and will continue. Thank you for all the hours of cool guns and history facts.

[@ryanweintraub9448]

There's a select few channels that are a mainstay of my life that haven't changed. Channels like Cleetus McFarland, LA Beast, and Forgotten Weapons are on that select list among others. Im so glad this channel gets better and better

[@benoitbergeron8858]

I'm a bit sad to see this channel turning its focus away from youtube, but it's well understandable. The Wild West era of the internet is slowly passing us, leaving us with new business models. Let's all just consider ourselves lucky to have lived through that unique time.

[@nobodynoone2500]

Why sad? What comes next will be better than this.

[@benoitbergeron8858]

@@nobodynoone2500 The concept of having everything free in one place is great!

[@Ebalosus]

@@nobodynoone2500yep. Blip, Dailymotion, Vidme, Bitchute, and Odysee will eat KZbin for breakfast and will be around for the next decade or two.

[@bradweinberger6907]

Fragmentation gets worse 😢 I don't blame you. I blame KZbin

[@MadMarlin1964]

Love the museum and auction house episodes.

[@peterpohan3850]

Leaving KZbin will kill your channel. No matter how many of you created an alternative together.

[@evanwilliams3645]

He’s not. KZbin will eventually get to the point firearms channels won’t make money or even be allowed. Leaving all his eggs here would affect it more if he doesn’t try and build elsewhere

[@davidbowman2716]

Happy New Year Ian!🎇🥳🍾🥂🖖🏻

[@drmaudio]

I just saw Tom Scott's sign off video, and when I came back to my subscription page here was this video. I thought, "Oh no, Ian, don't you leave me too." Happy to see that's not the case. I really have to re-arrange some things so I can start get back to regular attendance at the monthly match. I miss the match and hanging with all you guys.