Dan & Phil Part 65: Phabergé

[mermaid blood]

phil's 'pussy' is his asshole, right?

A+ thing to wake up to. made my whole day. i knew i was a fan for a reason.

[alittledizzy]

I got a super angry anon on tumblr re: the gaming sponsorships and I'm really not seeing the huge deal there? I wasn't a sponsor so I don't know firsthand but it just looks like they're not making fans pay for a specific type of content they haven't delivered this month. I would honestly think people would be more upset if sponsorships hadn't been canceled, because that would have meant fans were paying the monthly cost for something that deppy weren't doing that month.

[scientia]

Yeah I'm not really getting the cause for upset either I bet they will either do a liveshow or a stream this week to address it, as it seems like it was a bit of a sudden decision.

[obvsly]

Just gonna hop into this back egg conversation because @dontpanic made a really good point here:

I'm procrastinating like usual and your comment on brand image got me curious, so I went on a research spiral a la Faberge's business model. I'll put all that under a spoiler because it's off-topic as all halibut.

To be brief, Faberge has been operating at a significant loss lately (I may or may not have spent too long snooping around their filing history

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06236931

The company has recently gone through restructuring, like the investment fund Pallinghurst takeover of Gemfields (owner of faberge) which was controversial, especially because some Gemfield shareholders were already annoyed in the first place (it could be argued that faberge a bad investment, and tbh I'd agree). Faberge needs to start making money and to do so they need to get back in the public eye via Millenials.

brand-wise, Faberge isn't seen so much as a jewelry store but rather as a historical idea--richy rich people collect Faberge eggs, but it's not currently the leading luxury jeweler by a long-shot. Going back as far as Feb. 2017 Faberge is working on expanding their reach and marketing more as a jewelry brand for all generations (*cough*as long as your rich af*cough*). They have (had?) Mila Kunis wearing Faberge jewelry as the first brand ambassador, most likely to give off a more "youthful" feel.

A big move by the company is it's decision to try and shoulder into India's luxury market, a goal shared by every high-end luxury brand. That means their target audience is the surprisingly large number of young-ish people in urban cities with high disposable incomes.

[size = 85] off-off-OFF-topic, but damn jewelry companies are weirdly interesting, and Gemfield in particular because like, talk about dubious morals... although I guess all companies affiliated with jewel-mining-things are pretty sans morals, aren't they? If anyone is interested hmu and I can send you links to some of the more interesting articles (I'm absolutely pathologically terrified of one-on-one interaction online and I've accidentally burned some bridges in the phandom by freaking myself out and not replying like a rude person until enough time passes that I'm too embarrassed to contact again, but I swear I'll reply this time, I'd love to bring some good-progress news to my psychiatrist. I'm oversharing, I'm sorry.

but as far as PHIL is concerned, whoever is running their social media has probably been instructed to give off a more "youthful" vibe while still maintaining their high-end luxury brand image, and whoever is twitter-ing no doubt thought hard about engaging before doing so.

I spent less than a few hours researching the company and I only took like, 3 (lol tbh 2.5) marketing classes in undergrad so I'm definitely not an expert or anything, but if I was the social media person for Faberge I would think interacting with our resident fashion disaster is a good move because he's everything they'd want: (1.) it's an easy interaction (2.) he's a #social media influencer with 7 million followers (great for any brand) (3.) he is one of the most uncontroversial people in existence and will most likely stay that way, unlike the volatile reputations of musicians and film actors atm (4.) he has an international audience, which is something Faberge especially wants (5.) has a predominantly female audience, which they also want (6.) and most importantly, he has a very solid relationship with the coveted millennials, aka the people all brands love to exploit and all editorial media loves to hate.

I don't know if we would ever be able to say for sure if Phil's original back egg tweet was a plant by the company (I'd say it's probably not. Hopefully Phil would talk about it in his live show.) But after that tweet, Fabergé obviously jumped on it quickly and milked it for all it's worth. Phil's tweet might have been a lucky coincidence for them, but the big bunch of relatively mainstream news media that picked up the story afterwards is definitely not.

Sorry if it's already been discussed, but within the first 48 hours after Phil's tweet, many popular sites that are happy to run a "viral" story published an article about the back egg incident using more or less the same wordings, same example tweets, and same info about the jewellery itself. (For example: bustle, msn, cosmopolitan, hellogiggles, dailymail, beyondwords, yahoo, turnandturn, brit+co, etc. Simply search "back egg" and you'll see.) This is not the media picking up the same story; it's PR machine at its best. Phil gave them the "viral" status that is legitimate and believable enough. They get to be "talk of the town" instead of an obnoxious advertisement in disguise.

tl;dr - I'm not surprised if Phil indeed gets an egg.

[confusedpanda]

There is no reason to be upset, however, it was just noticed about five days ago (January 26th) that the feature was missing. Meaning that many might had already had the sponsorship taken out for this month. If they chose to close sponsorships on January 26th (when it was first noticed from what I can see), ironically it would’ve been five months to the day of their first gaming live stream. People who sponsored them from the start didn’t get billed on January 26th or later, but people who might have done it later than that most certainly did get billed this month.
Basically anyone who sponsored after the 26th of any month, didn’t pay this month. But people who sponsored between the 1st-25th of any month in the time they did have the feature might have paid for nothing this month. And if the anon falls into that, then I can kinda understand the frustration.
Dan and Phil should’ve found a way to clarify that sponsorships were gonna end or something before people who did sign up got charged for something they didn’t do this month. And they still really should say something about it, even if it’s a small post on the community tab on the gaming channel or something. I mean it wasn’t much to begin with, wasn’t it like a dollar or something? But if someone’s upset about it, it wasn’t because they didn’t get charged but because they probably did get charged for nothing this month.

[captainspacecoat]

So does this indicate that they're stopping gaming livestreams, and so sponsorships were cancelled because they're no longer necessary? Or does it just indicate that they cancelled sponsorships so that people wouldn't be charged for a month in which there was no livestreaming content? I am confusion.

[obsessivelymoody]

I have a feeling they're taking away sponsorships until they're able to livestream more consistently and who knows when that'll be, probably 2019 because I think they must have planned some sort of schedule similar to what we were getting before gamingmas last year but were unable to carry through with it hence the hasty cancellation. I do think morally that was the best thing to do (which is why I can't stop rolling my eyes at the people who want to start drama over it), but communication would have been a lot better, especially to the sponsors.

also, I don't know if this is just me being super over tired but I feel a phabergé conspiracy brewing based off obvsly and dontpanic's posts lol

[JustMe]

Obviously it's their choice to share/interact how much they want, and they might be very busy. But I do really get where people are coming from when talking about less content and interaction. It does kind of feel like they've been pulling back a lot, with fewer liveshows, gaming livestream cancellation and less interaction on social media (from Dan anyway). Part of me thinks it must be a conscious decision, because replying to people on twitter for 5/10 minutes or spending 30 minutes talking to a phone or webcam surely can't be impossible even while planning a tour.

I really feel that basic interaction and communication with their audience (more than content itself) is the basis of all the rest they do, but seems to be the first thing that gets pushed to the side when things get busy, without explenation.

Btw, I really have been telling myself that the person that put the icing on the cake thought it was meant for someone called 'Philussy', feeling bad for whomever had such a weird name and wondering why someone would ask them to 'show me your birthday'.

[flarequake]

From an emotions-are-valid point of view, there are reasons to be upset about anything if you feel that way. Acting on it makes us look irrational and people judge

I hope the liveshow gap is just due to being too busy lately, though it is sad things like that are the first to go. Maybe it wasn’t meant to get this far into the month before Phil even did one, but he knew he’d be booked up this week so last week would have made sense.

I don’t know how well using instagram or something else more would really replace them, even a short liveshow is way more than a photo and caption or 30-second story, there’s room to relax and chat even if it’s not deep. I’d miss all those extra anecdotes, giving our input on which tshirts to keep and them telling us more about what they’re working on (those are some of the best bits, it’s so interesting to hear about what else they do and what goes into their videos). Reducing them would lose some of what they’d have talked about weekly, like we’ve already got Phil’s birthday so how much does everyone remember Christmas, though only last week it was still relevant. If they really stepped up sharing more elsewhere then I guess they could tell us a lot of the same stuff, just more short and snappy. I can see them planning to do that more while they’re on tour, but even with Dan saying he wishes he had more interesting photos to put on Instagram, generally I get the feeling they’d rather not share much more.

[mermaid blood]

eh, they did this in late 2014/2015 with the book and then the tour and we all freaked out. apparently also went m.i.a during the early days of the radioshow too. they're just kinda crappy at the balancing aspect of their public personality job, lol. for me it's equal parts annoying and reassuring (eg. they're not outsourcing their lives and content to a team, which Zoella has just vlogged about being her plan in 2018). but not cause for conspiracy theories or anxiety.

well, any more than the usual.

[George]

Dan did say that weird sentence about there being only 2 gaming livestreams left back in the days, so it sounds like they knew they'd be cutting them back.

Maybe live content is just really stressful for them? They had to be on the edge the whole time trying not to overshare. It's sad though, live content is what makes them humane and approachable. Or maybe they have some sort of the master plan, who knows.

[susan2]

Interesting development re the sponsorships....although I think there's perhaps been a misunderstanding in what some people thought they were going to get in return by sponsoring. As far as I know, D+P have never offered gaming livestreams in return for sponsorship.

What they were offering (big image, sorry!)

I'm at work so can't look it up, but didn't one of them say recently something about new/different ways of interacting live? I thought it was in reference to communications with the wider audience during the tour, but I wonder now if it was meant more broadly and perhaps they're working on something that isn't quite ready yet. Does anyone remember the reference/wording?

[flarequake]

eh, they did this in late 2014/2015 with the book and then the tour and we all freaked out. apparently also went m.i.a during the early days of the radioshow too. they're just kinda crappy at the balancing aspect of their public personality job, lol. for me it's equal parts annoying and reassuring (eg. they're not outsourcing their lives and content to a team, which Zoella has just vlogged about being her plan in 2018). but not cause for conspiracy theories or anxiety.

well, any more than the usual.

Good point and helpful for perspective. Anxiety is a horrible thing and doesn't leave much room for logic.

When they talked about new forms of interaction never been seen before, they meant the new show itself. I don't remember anything about what they'd do the rest of the time they were on tour, but my memory took a dip last year so there might have been something else.

[Stakhanov]

Man looks like content is about is rare this week as water is on Arrakis.

Phil's birthday being the only bright spot to trash around a bit. And it sure seems to inspire some on social media. The comments I've read about Dan's happy birthday tweet makes "extra" just sound way to nice a term. They've either triggered some really good trolls, or some very young or naive fans (and probably a mix of both ). If you seriously think Dan is trying to "score" birthday sex by method of a message on a cake that's based on a meme , all the while involving an audience of millions and prompting Phil to explain to his parents the intricacies of "thrussy" vs "bussy" ... well i don't know what to tell ya

I found it a clever find by Dan. Many hoped for a "sweet" tweet so he brings out an actual sugary cake with a vague sexual reference, disguised in a meme. Sickingly sweet you could say, but with that zest of sarcastic Dan spice all over it
The pictures of Phil on the other hand were just really nice and it looked like a fantastic winter sunny day in the UK.
May you live long and prosper, Philussy.

[hello9217]

20:35 of Dan and Phil Q&A livestream!!1
[talking about tour]
Dan: "We're going to try and do some livestreams on tour...or something"
Phil:*discussing how they have plan for the wifi to "have wifi everywhere" and hopefully do some live shows*
Dan: "Do some live shows or maybe something different. Something live."
Phil: "Something...We'll wait and see. We got some ideas"

You definitely have to watch that part to gather full context but to me it looks like Dan wanted to share more but Phil kind of held him back bc they didn't want to share too much.

Try not to worry because I think Dan and Phil actually do have a plan. I think they are aware how much the core audience likes seeing them live and take that into account. I'm assuming the radio silence on all these matters is because they are trying to work out something solid and don't want to give out information that could be changed. Also they said TBC dates would come out end of December or beginning of January... well January's over and still no word about it so it's probably stressful to work with all those venues and sort that out.

[Catallena]

D&P always give me a headache when I see their lack of communication with their fanbase. Tell us things! Even if you're still planning stuff and can't really say anything specific, tell us that that is what's going. If you're gonna cancel subscriptions, announce that on social media before you do and explain why the best you can, maybe with a quick apology for the mess. "Hey guys, sorry but we're deactivating sponsors on the gaming channel for now. Can't give any details about why yet, but you'll find out soon. Just wanted to give a heads up before anyone freaks out." <<< IT'S. THAT. SIMPLE. And Phil really needs to say something about liveshows if he isn't doing one soon.

They always do this. Something seemingly drops out of thin air, the phandom is in uproar about it, and then they take their sweet ass time to clarify stuff. How does this benefit them or their brand? It's just messy and frustrating. I appreciate that they do their social media themselves instead of their management but sometimes they could really use some help in how to properly use it. Social media is an important part of their job, and if they don't feel up to it for any reason (mental health, other personal stuff, tour) then maybe communication of things like that do need to be handled by someone else. Choices lads. If you wanna do everything yourselves, fine. But actually do it then.

I'm sure the liveshows and gaming streams will return at some point, but as long as tour takes priority again (groan) it's probably the least likely content we'll be seeing from them in 2018.

[LtrllySusan]

D&P always give me a headache when I see their lack of communication with their fanbase. Tell us things! Even if you're still planning stuff and can't really say anything specific, tell us that that is what's going. If you're gonna cancel subscriptions, announce that on social media before you do and explain why the best you can, maybe with a quick apology for the mess. "Hey guys, sorry but we're deactivating sponsors on the gaming channel for now. Can't give any details about why yet, but you'll find out soon. Just wanted to give a heads up before anyone freaks out." <<< IT'S. THAT. SIMPLE. And Phil really needs to say something about liveshows if he isn't doing one soon.

They always do this. Something seemingly drops out of thin air, the phandom is in uproar about it, and then they take their sweet ass time to clarify stuff. How does this benefit them or their brand? It's just messy and frustrating. I appreciate that they do their social media themselves instead of their management but sometimes they could really use some help in how to properly use it. Social media is an important part of their job, and if they don't feel up to it for any reason (mental health, other personal stuff, tour) then maybe communication of things like that do need to be handled by someone else. Choices lads. If you wanna do everything yourselves, fine. But actually do it then.

I'm sure the liveshows and gaming streams will return at some point, but as long as tour takes priority again (groan) it's probably the least likely content we'll be seeing from them in 2018.

Thank you for writing what I was thinking as I had no energy today to rant myself.

Is there anything we could discuss while the boys are busy? I'm currently preparing to co-host a fic over in the book club thread so my mind is formulating questions about everything. Should we do rewatches? Discuss dog breeds? More hair styles photoshopped onto Phil (I swear I won't call it Hitler hair anymore)? Split into groups and present our analysis of one year of D&P content at a time (Who wants to take 2012?)?

[alittledizzy]

I do agree, their communication is shit. I think people are projecting some kind of emotional importance onto the livestream thing and I don't understand that, but maybe there's a reason I don't do younow questions or sponsorships or anything like that; it would be very much a a transaction to me and not a means for the pretense of emotional connection to them. But when I look at it like people who are upset are not upset over the money but upset over feeling like they had a bit of ownership of the gaming channel by sponsoring it and that's been taken away from them by Dan and Phil, with no explanation, I can understand how someone who projects importance onto that feels bad. So I don't get it, as in firsthand understand, but I still objectively get it. I just wish people wouldn't try to phrase it like it's Dan and Phil making a shady business decision in terms of money (referencing the anon I got on tumblr that I mentioned earlier) when what they mean is their feelings are hurt because Dan and Phil didn't communicate properly.

And I do agree with their communication being shit. Full stop, that is true and correct and I'm annoyed about it. But I also think that keeping in mind what mermaid blood said is important; this has happened before, this is a predictable pattern. We can hope for it to change but there's nothing new here and I wish I could take out a billboard to phandom to say that none of this means The End of Deppy Days, it just means... they're busy and shit at time management.

Am I grumpy today? I feel grumpy today. I'll make some herbal tea, I'll put on some soothing music, we can all take naps. I just want everyone to chill and enjoy that at least this time around they're still making videos - which is an improvement over pre-TABINOF/TATINOF preparation when they disappeared entirely.

(Who wants to take 2012?)?

Not it.

[fancybum]

And I do agree with their communication being shit. Full stop, that is true and correct and I'm annoyed about it. But I also think that keeping in mind what mermaid blood said is important; this has happened before, this is a predictable pattern. We can hope for it to change but there's nothing new here and I wish I could take out a billboard to phandom to say that none of this means The End of Deppy Days, it just means... they're busy and shit at time management.

K the thing about it being a predictable pattern isn’t good enough for me, because during and since that last tour, they’ve actually shown in a big way that things can change. And after such a good content-and-communication filled year, this feels like that much more of a twist of the knife. I wasn’t a sponsor and I’m not even that into the gaming streams so I don’t care about them cancelling the sponsorships or whatever, but it’s another indication of content being stripped away that they couldn’t be arsed to acknowledge. And that’s something they could have communicated quite casually in a liveshow, but oh wait. Phil stripped those without acknowledgement too, at least Dan’s off the hook there. It all comes down to lack of communication and that’s very frustrating and coming in with “ok but remember when they did this like 3 years ago lol calm down” is meaningless noise because I remember a lot of things they’ve done that they don’t do anymore and that I have no reason to believe they’d do again. The past few years have been full of little changes alongside a semblance of consistency and reliability that they just threw off a cliff in January. A one sentence tweet is truly all that’s needed here and every day it doesn’t come is just more spit in the face. IMOOO

lmao you think you’re grumpy? Get on my level.

[flarequake]

Grumpiness, chamomile tea and naps are my life too. Also Paul McKenna hypnotherapy recordings which I can't recommend highly enough. When I get down I can rarely lift myself out without something like that.

Random thing if anyone else might find it funny cos it was making me laugh earlier. A while ago the cheese costume, as the latest in an admittedly-short line of food costumes (after the squid), gave me the idea for a different kind of tour (if I mentioned this here before, I'm saying it again. I said it somewhere at the time, probably Tumblr) - Dan and Phil as human cheeseboard and sushi table (respectively since Phil hates cheese and is the one who keeps coming out with the human sushi table idea) while we hang out, have a picnic and chat. They can chat too, but mostly lie there and look pretty, or we could feed them too. Goodness knows they'd moan otherwise.

Might only be able to fit 20 of us comfortably around them, but then they could go to more places, it'd be more intimate, they'd need less security, could charge a lower price than a theatre ticket, and would need less energy to plan and perform. Easy money for them, all of us get to meet them without needing a VIP ticket, no one gets pneumonia from overdoing it, win-win Except for needing a different variety of food in reality, but I hadn't got that far.

Group projects to analyse each year of their videos sounds quite involved, but there's enough of us. Maybe we could break it down more? Going through each video in order from the beginning would take forever, but we've got time

Phil-hair edits could be fun. Someone pointed out a while ago that Jordan Gavaris aka Felix in Orphan Black has a similarly-shaped face to Phil and had a different hairstyle nearly every week in that show so pictures of him could help too.

[alittledizzy]

And I do agree with their communication being shit. Full stop, that is true and correct and I'm annoyed about it. But I also think that keeping in mind what mermaid blood said is important; this has happened before, this is a predictable pattern. We can hope for it to change but there's nothing new here and I wish I could take out a billboard to phandom to say that none of this means The End of Deppy Days, it just means... they're busy and shit at time management.

K the thing about it being a predictable pattern isn’t good enough for me, because during and since that last tour, they’ve actually shown in a big way that things can change. And after such a good content-and-communication filled year, this feels like that much more of a twist of the knife. I wasn’t a sponsor and I’m not even that into the gaming streams so I don’t care about them cancelling the sponsorships or whatever, but it’s another indication of content being stripped away that they couldn’t be arsed to acknowledge. And that’s something they could have communicated quite casually in a liveshow, but oh wait. Phil stripped those without acknowledgement too, at least Dan’s off the hook there. It all comes down to lack of communication and that’s very frustrating and coming in with “ok but remember when they did this like 3 years ago lol calm down” is meaningless noise because I remember a lot of things they’ve done that they don’t do anymore and that I have no reason to believe they’d do again. The past few years have been full of little changes alongside a semblance of consistency and reliability that they just threw off a cliff in January. A one sentence tweet is truly all that’s needed here and every day it doesn’t come is just more spit in the face. IMOOO

lmao you think you’re grumpy? Get on my level.

Anger over lack of communication I get, and respect, even if I'm not on that level myself. I wish Phil would give us a heads up about liveshows, I'm irate every week that passes that he doesn't.

What i'm not here for are people who are automatically linking this to being #phandivorce or the tour being the last thing they'll ever do together or this being a grand goodbye and the nonstop anxiety of everything. Yesterday got me all kinds of worked up over this, the number of people doom and gloom yesterday because Dan didn't tweet first thing in the morning at Phil. I just want to stand on a rooftop and shout Everything Is Not That Bad at people who read into every tiny action as something to do with Dan and Phil on a personal level and leave no room for the fact that they're busy people with busy lives and maybe when Phil's parents are in town and it's Phil's birthday and they're out doing things and living life stopping to satiate the carnivorous beast of fandom with a birthday tweet isn't Dan's top priority, and people assuming that must ~mean something. (Only to immediately be satisfied and switch to celebrating when the tweet happened, which maybe should make me feel better but instead gave me the opposite feeling because I spent all day leeching extra anxiety off of people on my twitter feed that I did not need in my life and because it was fans instead of Dan and Phil frustrating me the slate didn't get wiped clear as soon as the tweet showed up.)

Communication issue aside, people reacting strongly to gaming streams still doesn't make sense to me because it's not like that was some kind of longstanding tradition they had. It feels just like the birthday thing; fans hyper-analyzing every action to the assumption that it must Mean Something. Their lives are not a television show where everything worthy of screen time is a seed planted that'll come to fruition later on. Even if they're gone forever it just means Dan and Phil tried something out for six months, decided they weren't as into it and stopped. But I do think that, just like with yesterday, they realize that we get mad only to immediately forgive them when they do finally say something no matter how long it takes. (Or, idk, people who don't just leave phandom and move on and aren't around still voicing displeasure so it's instant forgiveness from those who are left.)

I'm basically just rambling here. They're not off the hook for me for being shitty with communication, I just don't have the energy to even be mad at them for valid reasons when I'm too busy being annoyed with phandom for making a massive anxiety filled deal over every single thing Dan and Phil do or don't do to the specific expectations of fans.

[autumnhearth]

Tea and naps sound good. I’ve wound up with a sore throat yet again (hello Throat Coat my old friend). It feels like I’ve been sick all of January. And my sleep cycle got seriously messed up this week. I’m too tired to complain (or focus or write), but communication would be great. I think they definitely have something planned for tour as a ls substitute.

What did I come here to say? Oh, right, so I made the “mistake” last night of searching Tumblr for “amazingphil, angel” (I was looking for a very specific image from Australia DITL okay?) and as much as I find it cringe for their young fan base (and Dan) to refer to a 31 year old man as an “angel bean”, once you scroll past some of literal angel fan art there are just some really beautiful photos and gifs of Phil tagged that way. So that was a nice way to end Phil Lester appreciation day. Also rewatched the two future prediction vids with the hubs (who still won’t watch any fetus Phil with me) last night, pretty accurate looking back on their year and oh so enjoyable.

[dancy]

I reeeeeeally hope Phil will do a live show tomorrow (or perhaps a joint one). I wanna hear them ramble about Phil's birthday, Hamilton, the Grammy's etc. and I'd appreciate it if he addresses the lack of live shows. I understand it's probably due to tour-related stuff but I just wanna hear it coming from his mouth. Their communication skills suck and the fact that we have to try and come up with explanations/excuses ourselves annoys me. If Phil doesn't do a live show tomorrow, can he at least let us know? Say he's busy or that he'll do one next week?

I wasn't here during TATINOF, so I don’t exactly know what that time was like but you'd hope they would've learned how to handle this kinda stuff better. I honestly don't have an awful lot of faith in them when it comes to content during the Interactive Introverts tour either (aside from M&G pics and people going to and talking about the show and whatnot).

[susan2]

I'm at work so can't look it up, but didn't one of them say recently something about new/different ways of interacting live? I thought it was in reference to communications with the wider audience during the tour, but I wonder now if it was meant more broadly and perhaps they're working on something that isn't quite ready yet. Does anyone remember the reference/wording?

20:35 of Dan and Phil Q&A livestream!!1
[talking about tour]
Dan: "We're going to try and do some livestreams on tour...or something"
Phil:*discussing how they have plan for the wifi to "have wifi everywhere" and hopefully do some live shows*
Dan: "Do some live shows or maybe something different. Something live."
Phil: "Something...We'll wait and see. We got some ideas"

You definitely have to watch that part to gather full context but to me it looks like Dan wanted to share more but Phil kind of held him back bc they didn't want to share too much.

Try not to worry because I think Dan and Phil actually do have a plan. I think they are aware how much the core audience likes seeing them live and take that into account. I'm assuming the radio silence on all these matters is because they are trying to work out something solid and don't want to give out information that could be changed. Also they said TBC dates would come out end of December or beginning of January... well January's over and still no word about it so it's probably stressful to work with all those venues and sort that out.

@hello9217 Thank you!! That's exactly what I was thinking of

That's what made me think they've got some new/different type of live interaction coming soon (that's not live gaming or live streams).

[apathy]

Does anyone know if YT would have a policy to auto cancel the sponsorship feature if there were no live streams within a month? It would make a lot of sense to me if they did, to prevent scammers and angry demands for refunds, but I don't know if that's a rule.

The "exactly x months since the first one" someone mentioned would line up with this as well. Or it could just be a coincidence, idk. But if it was automatic there's a chance they didn't even notice it was expiring.