Transport Evolved

An important announcement:

This channel does not, nor will it ever, support fascism in any way shape or form.

After Elon Musk made two openly-obvious N**I salutes today at the Presidential Inauguration, it's time for us to adopt a new policy.

We will not tolerate, nor will we discuss, any defense of Elon Musk's Behavior. If you step up to defend this abhorrent behavior without any thought to the historical or cultural significance of this - other than to denounce it - you will be asked to leave.

Immediately. Permanently.

Anyone who defends Mr. Musk and tries to explain away his behavior will also receive an immediate and swift ban from this channel.

1 day ago | [YT] | 575

Transport Evolved

Hey everyone.

Nikki here.

For reasons that I'm not going to go into great depth about - namely an issue with edits taking on our edit program and my inability to math, there are some pretty big errors in today's TEN.

For that reason, I'm re-editing it - and it will be uploaded shortly. I am so very sorry for the screw up on sales numbers. We're a small team, and we do post-production edits on this entire show in less a day. That's no excuse, and I'm sorry.

3 days ago | [YT] | 256

Transport Evolved

Nikki here. 

I'm jumping in here with a few quick updates. 

First, I want to formally announce that TE is no-longer following a Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday posting schedule. Instead, we're moving to Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. 

This is partly because we're becoming increasingly burnt out - but also because we want to double-down on our production values and context in our videos (rather than becoming a content farm). We're a small team of three full timers and one part-timer. TEN (the weekend news roundup show) is something that really should be taking up at least three full days of my time - and right now, I'm working ridiculous hours to make that happen in just two days, and it's not sustainable. And if there's a video due on a Monday (which means a Sunday pre-release) I'm ending up working through the weekends every few weeks. That's leading to severe burn out for myself and other team members. 

Next, I want to let you all know that this channel no-longer has a presence on Facebook, although we do have a presence on BSky at @transportevolved.bsky.social (and of course our Mastodon at mastodon.transportevolved.com/@show)

Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg made a pledge to remove and chance the policies of Facebook that help protect minority groups - and while Facebook still claims a zero tolerance policy for harassment, changed its rules to explicitly allow derogatory and harassing language relating to LGBTQAI+ groups and people.

As per Facebook's latest guidelines (transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards…) : “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like “weird.”

That makes Facebook even less of a safe place for us and our community - so, instead we're focusing on deploying our own platform, and our own Discord.

You can find our (moderated) discord server online at discord.gg/gdYCCUPma8 - and keep your eyes peeled for future plans for the team and where we post. 

In a world were empathy, kindness, and respect seems dead, please keep it running in your world. 

Nikki. x

1 week ago | [YT] | 389

Transport Evolved

Hello, wonderful Subscribers!

It's the start of January, and we're getting ready to start our normal production schedule next week. Some things are going to be changing however, so expect it to take a few days for the 'new normal' to set in.

I also want to remind you that after two blissful weeks of not being bothered, our trolls are back.

Don't engage. I'm not sure if they were away from a computer for two weeks because they were visiting their parents upstairs, or they actually have people who they're nice to and thus spent holidays together - but now they're back, angry, and spoiling for a fight.

Don't let their hate win. Let kindness, empathy, inclusivity and a desire to lift all people up (not just those willing to buy their way into power) be your guiding force this year.

Nikki, and the rest of the team x

P.S. what do you think of the new setup for our DP?

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 141

Transport Evolved

Hello, wonderful Subscribers!

It's the start of January, and we're getting ready to start our normal production schedule next week. Some things are going to be changing however, so expect it to take a few days for the 'new normal' to set in.

I also want to remind you that after two blissful weeks of not being bothered, our trolls are back.

Don't engage. I'm not sure if they were away from a computer for two weeks because they were visiting their parents upstairs, or they actually have people who they're nice to and thus spent holidays together - but now they're back, angry, and spoiling for a fight.

Don't let their hate win. Let kindness, empathy, inclusivity and a desire to lift all people up (not just those willing to buy their way into power) be your guiding force this year.

Nikki, and the rest of the team x

P.S. what do you think of the new setup for our DP?

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 77

Transport Evolved

Hello, wonderful Subscribers!

It's the start of January, and we're getting ready to start our normal production schedule next week. Some things are going to be changing however, so expect it to take a few days for the 'new normal' to set in.

I also want to remind you that after two blissful weeks of not being bothered, our trolls are back.

Don't engage. I'm not sure if they were away from a computer for two weeks because they were visiting their parents upstairs, or they actually have people who they're nice to and thus spent holidays together - but now they're back, angry, and spoiling for a fight.

Don't let their hate win. Let kindness, empathy, inclusivity and a desire to lift all people up (not just those willing to buy their way into power) be your guiding force this year.

Nikki, and the rest of the team x

P.S. what do you think of the new setup for our DP?

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 106

Transport Evolved

TE Fam!

We're so happy to be taking some time off for the holidays, and wanted to remind you all that our posting schedule is going to be a little different for the next ten days or so.

But while we get ready for 2025 - we'd love to know what your favorite video of ours this year was? Tell us about it in the down below, remember to be kind to each other, and share your favorites with those near and dear to you!

Nikki and the rest of the team! x

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 137

Transport Evolved

It's the Holidays!

We're officially done until next year - and so that means breaking news stories won't be covered. We're all exhausted, and are taking a bit of a break.

Instead of putting out TEN or our other content roughly every-other-day, we're planning on two or three main videos for the next few weeks, and then normal service resuming starting the week of January 5th.

Our first special drops on December 25, with a bit of a trip down memory lane for Kate and Nikki, followed by a blooper reel over the weekend.

Next week, we'll follow with a video a few days later explaining just how we make our review videos, and an actual car review for you all to enjoy.

After that, normal service will be resumed (and for those curious, ‪@TransportevolvedTake2‬'s weekly videos are already set for the next two weeks, as we filmed those some time ago!)

This year has been mentally exhausting for everyone. The increase in attacks shown against the channel, the topics we cover, and the team (both as a whole and individuals) hasn't been particularly fun, but our hope is that we won't be going anywhere any time soon!

In the meantime, we want to wish you all a very wonderful and peaceful holiday season, however and whatever you're celebrating - and we'll see you for normally-scheduled content in 2025!

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 224

Transport Evolved

Good morning everyone. Happy Sunday!

The office is quiet, and we're ready to create some more amazing content next week.
Today though? Today I want to talk to you about our comments section. So, because I'm proud of it, have a clean edit suite photo, and a dog.. or two... because dog tax. They're the nice bits of this post.

----

After talking to some folks this past week, I've realized that many of you don't know much about the comments section, or indeed the difference between what YouTube says happens and what's actually going on.

EVs are now a target. And the team that makes this content are a target. And we're seeing a... very eclectic group of people airing their grievances here.

YouTube says that it's possible to block folks without impacting channel income. Our experiences suggest that's not true, and in the past, when we've blocked some of the most egregious hate-mongers, our income has fallen.
Youtube also says it's not unsubscribing people, yet we're hearing almost daily from folks who say they're being unsubscribed, or no-longer get notifications about our content. We've forwarded complaints to YouTube and heard nothing. We've talked to our YouTube contacts about the problem and only heard "oh, that's not our department" kind of excuses.

This leaves us in a very weird position where we can't remove non-spam comments, and only report egregious comments that directly threaten our staff or others.  Even when we do however, the commenter disappears for a few days, then comes back. Often with more hate.

(YouTube doesn't mind if you mark something as spam, because the spam bots tend to go OTT and YouTube doesn't like advertising it's not getting a cut from. It seems to turn a blind eye to hate.)

This all means that... sadly, our comments section, like most of social media these days, has become more than a little toxic. And, I wanted to let you know that some of our nastiest haters are now taking to chasing and harassing commenters on our channel on their own channels. If this happens to you, report them. Hopefully, Youtube will ultimately get its act together and fix it, but for now, YouTube is broken... and greedy. #Enshittification.

Additionally, YouTube's comment engine now sometimes tags the wrong people in replies, or makes it look like we are replying to someone else. Know that if you get a notification from us telling you to pack it in or be nice... it's probably aimed at one of a dozen or so regular trolls or bots that try and inflict hate here. Unless of course, you're one of the trolls. In which case, you're probably getting an endorphin rush or listening to the greatest speeches of your favorite n....asty person. We try really hard to tag the right people, but if we're replying on mobile, it's sometimes exacerbated by the mobile app trying to guess what we're trying to say. (Wasn't it easier when we didn't have predictive algorithms trying to speak for us?*)

So, to be clear, a couple of reminders:

1) If you comment on YouTube, expect a troll or hater to harass you, especially if you come from a minority group. Unfortunately, Mr. Musk's recent alignment with the Republican Party and Project 2025 has made that type of hate more common. We've had people threaten us with guns, tell us to go to Syria, and make allusions to concentration camps. It's really that bad. And yes, we report those to YouTube and where possible, authorities.

2) Keep it civil. Think before typing, and if you're arguing something, use your grown up words. Don't be drawn in to someone's bizarre world view.

3) Expect to be followed/tracked/harassed. We're doing our best to report, but we are a small team. There's literally three full time people and Kate (who only works two days a week because that's all we can afford).

4) If you want to continue to build community within TE, join our Discord. It's a far more pleasant and civilized place, and has plenty of different rooms to jump in and out of. Or, become a Patreon member at www.patreon.com/transportevolved. Our discussion there is also very civilized.

5) Subscribe to us on PeerTube peertube.tv/a/transportevolved/video-channels - and watch the content there. We can't afford to have a massive server on PeerTube, but it's ad free and we do have a little more segregation of our content for those who want to only watch some of our shows. If you do choose to consume our content there however, please do consider supporting us financially through Patreon, our shop, Ko-fi or Bitcoin.

6) Spread the word. The more authentic and engaged comments and share we get, the harder it is for hate to thrive.

7) Remember we're doing our best to keep the hate down. Please understand we're no more fans of it than you are.

Finally, please enjoy the rest of your day. It's beautiful up here in the mountains - there's a low fog hugging the ground, and I've got some freshly-made home-roasted coffee. ;)

Much love and respect,

Nikki (and Ghost and Skye, the Border Collies)

---

*on a related note, YouTube now has 'auto suggest' for replies, and let me tell you, some of the 'auto generated replies' it's coming up for on this channel are... both wrong and completely toxic. So it's the AI too, not just humans. Given that AI is trained on real comments, it's no surprise, however.

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1 month ago | [YT] | 89

Transport Evolved

We're now on Bsky!

You can find the channel here: bsky.app/profile/transportevolved.bsky.social

Direct work (EV-related) stuff at Nikki's work account at bsky.app/profile/nikkifromte.bsky.social

(Kate and the rest of the team are working on theirs)

Nikki and Kate also both have their own private accounts on BSKY. You can find them at their usual handles bsky.app/profile/aminorjourney.bsky.social and bsky.app/profile/pyoorkate.bsky.social

Please direct channel stuff to the official channel. We continue to operate on Mastodon, our preferred platform.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 94