Since you are occasionally visiting other schools which presumably have higher level instructors, you might want to vet your skill level against the blue belts in those schools. I don't think belt colors are really all that significant, especially at low levels, but if you can get an opinion from a visiting black belt, that certainly would help to know if you are implementing your training material well or not. I think it is extremely difficult to learn exclusively from videos, especially when your only feedback comes from other folks who haven't had experience with higher level practitioners. You may be able to perform the moves, but trial and error can only take you so far, and the subtleties and reactions that ultimately make you a high level grappler can only come from experience rolling with other higher level grapplers. As to the question of whether you should wear your blue belt when visiting other gyms, I honestly doubt anyone would care one way or the other. Since you do at least know a significant bunch of techniques, it is probably not unreasonable to wear it to differentiate yourself from tyros.

After receiving heavy criticism from the community (the attached pic, which circulated at the time, speaks for itself), effective June 2014, Rener and Ryron themselves have stated that their remote blue belt is actually not an "official Gracie academy blue belt" but a "Gracie university technical blue belt". Which would indicate that they themselves don't recognize you as a BJJ blue belt if you're remotely promoted after that date. Which you were promoted before. You should in either case add lineage and actual evidence to your profile. You can't really "do anything" (especially promote) with just a blue belt, so not the most important to defend the integrity of. I would personally not up vote, if your profile was open for voting. Would have to give it some thought about if I would down vote, but wouldn't be prioritized in either case and with the required total amount of time in BJJ, I wouldn't object to a later purple belt promotion without first getting a non-remote blue belt (which is another option for you and would just require the evaluation of a legit and non-remote BB, not hours upon hours). If a pre 2014 Gracie university remote blue belt showed up to my academy and asked what belt to wear, I would tell them to decide themselves and draw their own conclusions during the class if they can confidently represent that belt in the company of non-remote blue belts. And (if they stuck around) tell them when they were at the point were I could offer them to be a recognized non-remote blue belt under my own lineage, if that would be of interest to them. In either case, your main concern should be to focus on enjoying training together with your local training partners and simply improving your BJJ, regardless of what holds your gi together. Might take longer to BB if you're far from any BB instructors, but with today's technology, you probably have an easier time ahead of you than us early European BJJ adopters who had our instructors half way around the world. And once at BB, you can really be the local BJJ pioneer that the Shetland islands need!

Aiden MacKenzie has an academy somewhere in Scotland. He's not a bad fellow, for a Scot. I don't know exactly where his academy is, As I have never been completely sure if Scotland is real, or just something the English made up to scare the Romans From continuing their Imperial expansion under the Good Emperors. Or so the story goes....

William, you have a good Scottish name like William Wallace. If you ever decide to discover if the rumours are true and go on your quest to discover the truth about Scotland then send me a message and we can train!

I'd ask Rener if HE recognizes your blue belt, and if HE thinks you should be wearing your blue belt at this point in time.

I am genuinely curious as to what these guys would say to you regarding your rank. My guess is that you'd be asked to go out and test/pay a bunch more money. If you decided not to do that, my guess is that they wouldn't recognize the rank as legit, despite the fact that that was what was being sold to you to begin with. How would you feel about reaching out to Rener/Ryron?

I will get in touch with them and see what their response is. I will post the reply up here also 👍

I found this with some digging. "Yes, Gracie University still recognizes blue belts awarded via video evaluation prior to June 1, 2014 as official blue belts. They introduced the “Technical Blue Belt” designation after that date to distinguish video-based promotions from in-person evaluations. But they explicitly stated that anyone who earned their blue belt through the original video process before the cutoff would be grandfathered in as having an official Gracie University Blue Belt. Check out the FAQ at the below link. https://www.gracieunivers[...]nujQ%3d%3d

Hi Scott, putting in my two pence - I don't think people will ultimately care too much at this point, given how long you've had the belt for. Certainly, if you came to my club I wouldn't tell you to take it off. It's can be difficult to run a club in any location with a small population, especially the islands, so respect to you for committing to it and building a wee community. With proper guidance from a seasoned black belt, you'll be able to structure your sessions in a way that you can figure stuff out quicker. Remember, Australia has turned out the likes of Kit Dale, Craig Jones, Lachlan Giles etc when they didn't exactly have a load of black belts running around - this is because they had a good, tight knit group of folk who focused on problem-solving and would adapt their training sessions as needed.

Gracie University have finally replied to me and it’s as Megaton said - Hello Scott, Thank you for reaching out with your question! Since the time you earned your blue belt through our system, we have changed our rank tests to where once a student completes the Gracie Combatives test successfully, they would be awarded the Gracie Combatives belt instead of the blue belt. However, we still honor the students who earned their blue belt upon passing the Gracie Combatives belt test previously, since that was what was required at that time. In our system, you still count as a blue belt.

Gracie University have finally replied to me and it’s as Megaton said - Hello Scott, Thank you for reaching out with your question! Since the time you earned your blue belt through our system, we have changed our rank tests to where once a student completes the Gracie Combatives test successfully, they would be awarded the Gracie Combatives belt instead of the blue belt. However, we still honor the students who earned their blue belt upon passing the Gracie Combatives belt test previously, since that was what was required at that time. In our system, you still count as a blue belt.