YTMND Returns

In May of 2019, Max Goldberg, creator of YTMND, awoke to discover his site was no more.

While rumors swirled that the legendary looping site was effectively shut down and that its vast library of ancient memes was lost for good. In reality, the site, which Goldberg rarely checked, had suffered a "catastrophic technical failure." Writing on the site's homepage at the time, Goldberg said, "YTMND has suffered a catostrophic failure. Whether or not the site will ever be back is still undecided. I am actively working on data recovery, but who really knows what the future holds."

Today, we know what the future held: YTMND is back.

In a news post written over the weekend and published yesterday, Goldberg alerted followers of one of the internet's oldest oddities that over the past year, he had saved most YTMNDs, moved them to new servers, and updated the site's code for modern web browsers.

Hey pals, #YTMND is back. https://t.co/xO3Lp3smKJ

— Max Goldberg (@YTMND) April 1, 2020

"I thought now might be a good time to reopen the site," wrote Goldberg. "YTMND's anniversary is coming up this week. Also, the world is being plunged into chaos, millions of people are stuck inside with nothing to do other than dick around on the internet, and the last few weeks have provided me with ample time to narrow my focus. So welcome back."

While YouTube remixers and sites like Vine and TikTok overtook YTMND in the realm of bizarre looping video content long ago, the news that the site returned gave people a welcome bit of good news during the Coronavirus.

Not an April 1 joke! After severe downtime and a catastrophic database failure, Max Goldberg brought internet fixture https://t.co/V5mGAhJGmo back to life, rewritten to work with modern browsers, restoring new site creation and the complete archives. https://t.co/BNmt095Us0 pic.twitter.com/HdtcvvUZMh

— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) April 1, 2020

I cannot believe this is real. Now, I know a lot of you kids on the internet these days think memes originated from places like Reddit and 9gag, but you owe it to yourself to check out YTMND.

I thought this place was dead forever, and now I have a lot of reminiscing to do. https://t.co/eqAvRWXgG0

— Drakodan (@Drakodan_) April 2, 2020

There are glimmers of light. Even in these dark times. @YTMND is back. Which also means I can put this on repeat all day while I'm working. https://t.co/TPDkjy5x0V

— Rick Turoczy (@turoczy) April 2, 2020