It’s a sign of the times I suppose. There are a lot of names not mentioned here that the hobby would not be the same without. Ball Pythons and you tubers are taking over the world I guess lol.
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Its a visibility thing. Many dont bother paying for cable since there is internet. You will have millions seeing a youtuber, but the people putting in work but without a presense will go unnoticed by the majority of the hobby. Not many look to see who is fighting for their rights, creating morphs and learning the husbandry to set the bar for everyone else, but that quarky face on the tube spreading the knowledge and understanding will be seen and known.
That is not to say the unknown heros dont deserve respect and arent legends in their own rights, just means that they will mainly only be known to veteran hobbyists and those who go deep with their research 
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Is that what they’re doing though? Some of the content they share is nothing short of irresponsible, so I have a really hard time thinking that the good of the hobby as a whole is that important to them. Brian recently free handled a cobra on his snake bytes channel which is primarily followed by young children. What about that makes him someone people should look up to? How is that spreading knowledge?
I don’t mean to be combative about it, but putting up irresponsible influencers as heroes is a problem across too much of society these days.
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Trooper Walsh-GTP
Ed Marino-ETB
Bill Gillingham-Mandarin Ratsnakes
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Personally, I do know how they have changed the hobby for forever. They are the legends in my book.
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I mean, the same could be said of Steve Irwin. He free handled just about everything. Now he made sure to emphasize not to do it yourself, but it too was a show meant for all ages.
Its also easy to pick out individual wrongs, but miss out on the overall good, brian has a shaky history and has flip flopped between good and bad over the years, but there are other channels that have been nothing but informative such as snake discovery, clints reptiles, and wickens wicked reptiles.
There is certainly bad or misleading channels, and nobody is perfect, but i think the overall impact is what people are looking at. Just like with Steve Irwin who could be seen as wildly irresponsible, there is no argueing the impact these people have had on bringing fresh blood into the hobby, advancing care knowledge, and producing new and exciting morphs.
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I would say:
Steve Irwin
Mark O Shea
Kevin McCurly
Brian Barczyk
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I think I’ve collected every name mentioned and added them to a poll at the top of this thread. You can only choose one 
Let’s see who wins 
Made my vote😂
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You are missing some true key people from the past.
Bert Langerwerf , Arthur Jones ,Bill Haast.
You can’t speak of true legendary people without having real Legends on the list.
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This poll is shocking!
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Same, I didnt Think would get so much love even today. Growing up he was a hero of mine, but it really shows how much he championed animals and truely impacted people.
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Irwin was a world-class human. He would have brought awareness to any subject he had an interest in… We’re all super fortunate he was a reptile enthusiast and could never thank him and his family enough.
If you’re able, check out his zoo in Australia! It’s so freaking awesome!!!
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Oh I would love to go eventually!!
I still watch the shows about it, an amazing family for sure.
I grew up watching him every day and was devastated by what happened.
Will always remember that man, he may be the sole reason I’m obsessed with reptiles so much 
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There’s people on this “list” that aren’t even close to being worthy of being mentioned.
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I just added the names people had mentioned so far. This I nothing official, just some fun
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I’m a huge fan boy! He is the one that turned me on to ball pythons!
Same lol
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Ralph is the man. I hope his health has improved. It would be cool to see him back one day!
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Noooo @lygexotics I clicked David Attenborough on accident. He is pretty great but not the legend.
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You can click “show vote” to change it