Crosby YouTuber Puts Isle of Man on the Digital Map

A YouTuber from Crosby has released a new video about the Isle of Man that’s already racked up more than 34,000 views in just a week.

Max, a 28-year-old theoretical chemistry PhD student who splits his time between his studies in Cardiff and creating educational YouTube videos, has once again shone a spotlight on his home island.

His latest upload sees him explore WPlace.live, a collaborative online pixel-art platform where users across the world can draw individual pixels on a massive digital world map.

The twist? The geography matters, each pixel you place represents part of an actual country or region.

‘I saw many creative works on my travels,’ Max says in the video. ‘Elaborate murals of fallen artists, flags that stretched across entire countries, and many, many Undertale and Deltarune sprites.’

But during his virtual journey, Max admitted he began to ‘long for the sweet shores of my homeland, the Isle of Man, the jewel of the Irish Sea.’

When he finally zoomed in on the island, he discovered that it was surrounded by a red border, effectively erasing Douglas, Peel, Bride and Rushen from the digital canvas.

Max decided to change that, adding familiar Manx landmarks and symbols to give the island a proud presence in the pixelated world.

The video, released on October 26, quickly took off. ‘I released a new video on the Isle of Man and I’ve had lots of lovely comments from people all over the world.

‘It broke over 1,000 views in less than 12 hours, so I was hopeful it would get at least 10K by the end of the week.’

Just a few days later, Max updated: ‘The video has massively shot off since I changed the thumbnail. It’s set to break 30K views, three times my initial estimate, and it’s growing faster than my lab video, which went on to break 100K.’

As of this week, the video has surpassed 34,000 views.

And in what can only be described as a huge win for Max, when he checked back, others had started to leave tribute drawings over the island.

His Smeargle (the Pokemon) got redrawn and the Moddey Dhoo’s looking well.

Max has given the island a home on this digital world.

It’s not the first time Max has captured the internet’s attention with a Manx-themed project.

His earlier video on the Manx language reached more than 244,000 views, making it one of his most popular uploads to date.

‘I’ve been studying Manx for like a year or two now,’ Max told Media Isle of Man in a previous interview.

‘I think, especially among people our age, there’s almost a bit of embarrassment around engaging with a language like Manx, because it’s so niche.’

He added: ‘At school, when you could choose between French, German and Manx, people would say, ‘Why would you bother learning Manx? You’re not going to use it.’ That attitude always stuck with me.’

For Max, though, learning Manx is simply about enjoyment. ‘I’m not doing this to build my CV. I do it because I find it funny,’ he said. ‘How can you not laugh when you learn that the Manx word for hedgehog translates to ‘plentiful little pig’?’

His quirky, cartoon-style videos blend science, humour and local culture, and his growing audience, now more than 12,000 subscribers, proves there’s an appetite for it.

You can watch Max’s latest video, How Pixel Art Destroyed a Nation, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCrfS2zKeBE