when/how did y'all first get into the phandom??

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jot11
first-time poster
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I subscribed to their channels on 2011, at that time I was only subscribed to Charlie's but found them in one of his videos and I loved them! But at that time I was into the merlin fandom so apart from following them on twitter and watch a few of their videos I didn't do much tbh. But then when I found out about their book I couldn't help myself and started watching their old videos (mostly Phil's ) and then when I read the book it was a big moment for me I just loved everything and for the first time started to lurk and sold my soul to the phandom and all that jazz lol and here I am, almost two years later still around.
Lara
smol bean
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I had seen them in so many other youtubers videos and to be honest I never had any interest in watching their channels but just this year I decided to watch them,I watched all the PINOFs and then started watching all of their other videos,I started realizing how funny and down to earth they are. I am glad I finally gave them a chance!
GossipLurkingGhost
tol bean
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I first found D&P because of gamingmas.

I never really watched anyone outside of nigahiga, Markiplier, Gigguk, Mother's Basement, and a bunch of Pokemon theory videos. Then last Christmas, I had been binge watching Mark's vids so other gaming yters started to appear in my Recommended videos; D&P being the most prominent. I used to just ignore them until YT recommended the Dil Christmas video which got me curious because Sims can be amusing and I wondered what twist they did to their game.

As I watched the rest of gamingmas, the more curious of D&P themselves I became. Were they dating or something, I thought, since some of their interactions were pretty suggestive and really non-platonic. Eventually learned they weren't, but that didn't completely erase my suspicions.

It was then that I slowly became invested in their chemistry and individual personalities. Subsequently, I began watching their separate channel vids as well. I binge watched them so much that there was a time back in January where most of my recommendations were just their videos.

tl;dr: Came for Dil, stayed for his dads Gamingmas recommendation kickstarted my descent to . Thanks YT algorithm.
/fɪl lɛstɚ/
sad dimple
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I started watching them in late 2011. I was in Portuguese class in my freshman year of high school. As our class was a total joke, my friend showed me and our other friend Dan's first 2 Truth or Dare videos.
When I saw Phil, the first thing out of my mouth was "Is that his boyfriend?" :gg:
After class was over and the school day was done I went home, subscribed to them both, and binge-watched a bunch of their videos. And now I will forever have cringe profile pictures of me at 14 wearing cat whiskers with my friends.

I'm really glad that all happened. Dan and Phil have been a constant in my life since then. I've popped in and out of the phandom but I've never stopped watching deppy and I don't think I ever will.
I am always on Phil Lester's side
quietphan
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Hi!
I binged Dan's videos in November 2014, the gaming videos that December, and Phil's videos during my final exam week in April 2015. Good choices. By the time the boys returned from Japan, I was in too deep.

I had been leaving two other fandoms at the time and was desperate for a new escape. Luckily this turned out to be a great one.
shhhh.
triniwashere
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(First post haha!) before beginning to watch deppy, I thought they were annoying dudes that made videos for money. Of course, I couldn't be more wrong. A friend-of-a-friend introduced me to their gaming channel, and then I binged the sims and subscribed to Phil. No, not Dan. Phil. I don't know why, but I was adamant to not subscribe to both??? It was weird, but I did eventually sub to Dan so haha. Here I am!
llion
living flop
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i'm pretty sure it was sometime in 2012, phil was in my recs (maybe from charlieissocoollike?) and i couldn't stop watching. soon a video involved dan (as they so often do) and i got into his content as well. i honestly loved both of their dorky relatable personalities, and i haven't stopped watching since! it's been so long i feel like i know them, they've been there for me in good times and bad and i've really watched them grow as people as i did as well. it's so fun seeing how everyone found them, i guess starting with phil is a little unusual haha.
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ririair
tol bean
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hi y'all!! just found out about this website today and have been binge-reading everyone's interesting (and very informed damn) opinions for hours. figured i would create an account in case i ever wanted to contribute!

i first got into the phandom in 2014. back then i was a huge fan of tyler and and troye (troye even followed me on twitter!) and was obsessed with troyler. idk what video exactly got me into , but i know that i discovered dan somehow before phil and then went into a hibernation mode where i consumed all the information about them that i possibly could. eventually, i left the troyler fandom when the tronnor stuff started to go down and pretty much converted to the phandom. cut to now: i still love them, and was lucky enough to get to go to their tour, but i'm not as constant in following them as i was. still watch every single solo and dapg upload though...can't get rid of that fangirl instinct ;)
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tacitus
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(First post - hi!!) I found Dan first through his video with Jack and Finn and surprisingly didn't even realise that Phil existed until a few weeks later. As soon as I found them both I was pretty much instantly in the phandom.
nikkii
phillion/danosaur <//3
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hey! this is my first post here! (i found this website a few weeks ago and ive been lurking so much i finally decided to join)
- i started watching dan in early 2012, someone on my old twitter feed tweeted the link to his "DIE EMO SCUM" video and i found it pretty hilarious (i was going through my awkward emo phase at the time lmao) and the more i watched his videos i got introduced to phil and then i was instantly in the phandom - me and my two best friends were huge fans and we would talk about them so much at school.
- I stopped watching them so much around late 2013/early 2014, i got more into other fandoms, less into youtubers and i was getting pretty busy with school but i started watching them a lot more at the start of this year and ive been binge watching all the videos i missed (i even bought tabinof last week hahah)
interruptfireworks
delia smith
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i found them at the same time in september 2014 bc dan's 'photobooth challenge' video was always recommended for me so i finally gave in and clicked, best decision ever. (although i do wish i knew when i subbed to them individually, i think it was the first day i found them lmao)

idk if i knew of them earlier although i did, and still do, watch youtubers react a lot and they appeared in episodes before i discovered them so that's cool i guess, wish i'd been a bit more curious and found them even earlier. i'm also jealous of you older fans as many of you seemed to have found them years before me even, i'm 15 and now i feel like a baby.
ahappydoggo
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I started watching Dan and Phil late 2015 but joined the Phandom in early 2016. I found them from JadienAnimations (hope I spelled her name right) when she animated their DanandPhilGAMES' video "Five Nights at Freddy 4." I started with PINOF; I heard a lot about it from a previous fandom (Aphmau) that had a lot of Dan and Phil fans. After watching it, I accidentally made my best friend join the Phandom when I spammed PINOF in our messages oops.

Wish I have discovered them sooner though, 2015 sounded like a really fun time to be in the Phandom!
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socksparadox
glabella
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I think I actually stumbled upon superamazingproject first in mid 2012. I remember watching SAP videos for a few weeks without even knowing that they had their own separate channels. After that, I wouldn't say i was just a casual viewer of them, I had like a multi-fandom instagram that included like anime, superwholock, and stuff.
After a few months I decided to make a phan account on twitter because that seemed to be where all the action was (this was like a year later in like mid 2013). I sorta left the twitter phandom, and the phandom in general, in late 2013 but returned mid 2014 (seems like I always seem to have a mid-year phan resurgence lmao). Since then, I've sorta focused on other fandoms whilst casually lurking on phan tumblr to keep up w everything (but i guess I'm having yet another mid-year phan crisis rn bc here i am lolz)
♡ 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞. :napsta:
boldmari
smol bean
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it was around 2010/2011 and i was starting english classes so i could actually learn how grammar works (my mother language is portuguese and i learnt english by watching tv shows)
i stumbled upon one of dan's videos since my teacher asked us to look up english speaking channels on youtube and it escalated from there hahahaha
i only became v invested in them by 2015/6 i think. probably end of 2015.
"I spent the majority of 2016 with another person..."
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Marika
phillion/danosaur <//3
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(first post on here, hello!)

I wish I remembered exactly when and how I got into the phandom but it's all blurry. And I wish I remembered the first videos I watched of Dan and/or Phil. Anyway, think I became aware of them trough tweets asking people not to make embarassing 7 second challanges or questions for d&p and I was confused and read something about phan but didn't really care.
Around late 2015 I was looking for British youtubers to improve my English for an oral exam at uni and first I watched some videos of Marcus Butler but somehow ended up at Dan's and later on Phil's videos. Didn't want to admit I was slowly but surely drifting into binge watching all of their videos (procrastination, yay) and becoming way too interested in the phandom.
I've also never been a youtube person, I'd made an account way back but wasn't using it anymore and never subscribed to youtubers. TBH I only subscribed to all of d&p's channels (at once) about 3 months ago. But yeah, I'm finally admitting that I've totally fallen into the depths of the phandom and I'd like to share some of my thoughts online since none of my friends knows/cares about Dan an Phil. Nice to meet you!

(but I should probably leave now, I've already procrastinated writing my thesis for too long and I want it to be over)
Lester_Love
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im pretty sure i stumbled across pancake baking while it was still a new video and fell into a spiral of loving dnp. so ive been around for a while and a long term lurker on here but thought i should finally make an account.
boopydeer
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Funnily enough my story has to do with with Dan's "existential crisis and overthinking" kinda side (I guess?). I was watching a cosplayer's video (SuperMaryFace, if any of you know her) back in October and she made this borderline creepy video for halloween about solipsism. It's a theory where you would be the only conscience, the only "thinking" thing and that everything around you is not real but just virtual. Anyways, in the comments, I kept seeing people with d&p profile pictures commenting "Don't let Dan see this, he would go mental x)" and other similar comments, so I decided once and for all to google them after years of seeing "Phan" in my recommended but never clicking because I wasn't necessarily interested. I haven't found my way out of the abyss that is the phandom since then :D !
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archived
drama llama
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I saw some on Dan's video's in like 2011/2012 but I didn't really watch youtube properly til 2013 so I never subscribed. It was in summer around 2015 when I subscribed to them and joined the phandom. I used to be lowkey obsessed with them. Now I have a few issues with them but I watch basically every video of theirs (which isn't that much of an achievement with their infrequent upload schedules). Now I'd say I'm more then a casual fan but not infatuated, I'm on the border really.
sorry if I come off a bit wanky

... but I'm probably right you know
Roguskii
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honestly, i have no clue.

it's like i just... woke up one day with this curse/blessing.
(roblox death noise)
GdVibesONlyxx
smol bean
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I think I first found out about Dan and Phil when I originally became obsessed with youtube in 2011/2012.
But I never really knew of the phandom's existence, or the depth of this particular rabbit-hole of the internet until this year.
It must have been February when I really started following them seriously for the first time. So I just missed out on tabinof aus, and got here just in time before they moved. My discovering of the phandom has been a revealing experience, and if I'm truthful I think the reason that I have stuck around so long has more to do with the vivacity of this fandom than the draw of dan and phils personalities.
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sonicgreen
woodland creature
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I found dnp back in like November 2013??? Someone must have told me about them and their weird usernames, so i looked it up. I think my first video was the joint Photobooth Challenge Tag, iconic. Then i just went downhill from there. Fully obsessed by spring 2014. Love them both and they have seemed to be the only thing that has stuck in my life so actively for so long. I feel like i started with the same sense of humor as deppy in 2013 and really evolved and grew with them. I am full trash now.
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mathsniel
drama llama
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I used to watch Phil casually back in 2009/2010, when I had just discovered YouTube and the people on it. I think one of my friends mentioned him to me? At that point though, I didn't have access to a computer besides at my grandparents', so I lost interest after a few months. (I wish I remembered more about him from that period besides his hair and smile).
I then rediscovered him - and Dan - in about 2013. I watched them both for a bit but lost interest. About two years ago though I started watching them again after I made a friend who was a huge fan, and I actually became involved in their wider reach - the phandom, etc. I fell in love with both of them, as well as the combination of the two of them and! Stuck around since :-D
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marionrae
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As I was typing the below, I realized it’s my 1 year anniversary in the phandom, although I have been a staunch lurker until right now:

I found Dan and Phil randomly through recommended videos. I have a bit of an obsession with building in the Sims 4, so I was on a kick of watching speed builds on YouTube. Hence, the recommendation for DAPG. Prior to this, I only used YT for guided meditations and yoga videos and had no real knowledge of YouTubers as personalities.

I clicked the video just to check it out and was at first appalled by their lack of attention to detail when building the first iteration of Dil's house, but found myself laughing out loud as they played the game and joked with each other. I actually went back through my YT search history to see exactly what the first video I watched was and it was Dil and Tabitha’s wedding - I watched at 12:04 AM on September 27, 2016.

From there, I kind of randomly clicked through Sims videos from them, probably just looking for titles that interested me. I hadn’t fully invested in Dan and Phil as people yet, but I was on my way because I discovered PINOF on October 2, 2016, just a few days before I watched TATINOF when it came up through my YouTube Red subscription. I was like - what is going on? Who are these people? Is this a big deal? Why are they suddenly everywhere in my life?

I watched my first “phan proof” video on October 6, in between a bunch of drag performances and political commentary. I must have found the phan directory somewhere around this point, although we will never know since I did most of my searching in incognito mode. :lol: I don’t know, it just felt so exciting and mysterious!

But anyway, that’s when I discovered the phandom, and it was all over for me. My watch history gets completely taken over by dnp content around mid-October 2016. I’m 33 years old and I have never really taken part in an online community before (save for some pretty cringe-worthy activity on LJ and MySpace back in the day), but here I am.

tl;dr my interest in (obsession with) Dan and Phil started as a random click on YouTube a year ago, turned into a delicious mystery, and now genuinely brings me joy and comfort on a pretty much daily basis.
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obvsly
#relatable
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marionrae wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2017 3:16 pm As I was typing the below, I realized it’s my 1 year anniversary in the phandom, although I have been a staunch lurker until right now:
I read the whole thing and I love it so much! You're a great storyteller.

I run a McFly blog on Tumblr and I actually first learned about Dan and Phil from a McFly video. :D In a BBC interview, Dougie from McFly was asked to plank all over a DJ and a bunch of comments were screaming, "OMG DAN AND PHIL NEED TO DO THIS!!!" So I thought, what the heck?!? Don't take the spotlight from my Dougie! :lol:

I love doing research so it wasn't long at all after the video that I found out more about them. I started at wikipedia, of course. Then tabloid websites that cover youtubers. Then tumblr blogs that offers faq and stuff such as phan directory. The last thing I did was watch their videos, and that was 5 days after I watched that Dougie video.

From the research, I decided I should watch pinof series first. Next? I watched the V Day video. :shock: Then pretty much all the collab videos of them on their individual channels. I subscribed to the gaming channel last because I wasn't into gaming at all. Needless to say, they converted me. After that I watch every damn thing they're in but I think they already had me at. "I feel special." "You are."
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alch
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I saw people posting in here and I realized I've never done an introduction post myself so I'm going to introduce myself two months late. Warning: it's long.
(Also I'm going to lump the "when did you start shipping phan" thing along with this because it's easier that way)

First I'd like to say that it took me forever to start actually watching them, unlike a lot of people on this thread who saw their videos recommended and instantly started liking them

I first heard about Dan in about June (?) 2014, when a counselor I had in a camp was wearing one of those "I'm a Danosaur RAWR" shirts, and I asked her what that meant. She said that it meant she watched a youtube channel called "danisnotonfire," which was a weirdly long name that I instantly forgot.

A few months later, maybe in November (again, terrible at remembering these dates) I started seeing danisnotonfire videos being recommended in my suggested videos. I remembered the name, but I didn't feel like watching him.
Probably has to do with a weird habit I had of deciding I hated something that I'd never tried because other people liked it (such as hipster right). I basically decided I wasn't going to watch his videos.

I do, however, remember the date that I started watching Dan and Phil, since it was January 1st, 2015. I was visiting my grandparents for New Year's and something possessed me to watch the Photobooth Challenge.
(I feel like that's the most common first deppy vid? A lot of people seem to have seen this one first.)

After that I slowly started watching more and more Dan and Phil and eventually discovered that they were shipped.
Since I was paradoxically both a huge hipster and wanted desperately to be a cool kid, I decided that I, too, shipped them. I didn't realize that there was any possibility of them actually being together, but I thought, hey, seems like a fun thing to pour my heart into.

Then I saw the vday vid and it fucked. me. up. Again, I hadn't thought of the possibility of them being together, so this was truly surreal. I went and found a bunch of proof, and timelines and old tweet, formspring answers, etc.

Eventually, I had run out of steam and didn't have any more phan proof to find, or old videos to watch, so thus ended my first period of deppy fanship, which I call the "only in it for the ship" or the "let's not talk about that" phase.

I went through most of 2016 and the first part of 2017 not really caring much about Dan and Phil, and though I did watch their videos, I didn't know what was going on with them or their fans outside of youtube. Over this last summer, I started watching their videos more, found IDB, you know the rest.
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