Page 13 of 41

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:35 pm
by CapriciousCrab
I only got one ad. Does it typically change like that per viewer?
The video made me laugh a lot. He was there to have fun and he did- he was confident and silly and I liked his energy. Also loved the handwriting guy :)

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:39 pm
by alittledizzy
The ad thing does seem variable right now. I opened it in an incognito window and had two, closed out, opened it in a new incognito window and had none.

The video was cute! I appreciate his humor, I appreciate the queerness. I don't think he's going overboard. It gives me life every time he owns that part of himself with an off the cuff joke or just a pointed giggle at something on the screen.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:43 pm
by Grey
I genuinely laughed out loud multiple times which I usually don’t with solo Phil! I thoroughly enjoyed that. :D

ETA: I didn’t get any ads. I don’t have an ad blocker.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:43 pm
by Amiaw
I got 3 ads. I did love the video though. Sometimes I forget how funny and feel-good Phil really is.
I thought he had a good balance of being Phil and AP and all of those little touches - his phone being called Brian, him not talking at events, average self-esteem, his prom photo - those were nice.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:04 pm
by Grumpybisexual
Aww that was a lovely video! Really liked the face and handwriting analysis!

I know we're only on page 13 but I'm really feeling Big Spending Energy for the next thread name :lol: :ourmoney:

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:10 pm
by Catallena
A Very Phil Video. And maybe that was just the thing I needed.

And even if I didn't I got to make this out of the money finer thing so it's all good.

Image

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:15 pm
by greenergrass
I enjoyed that video! Love a classic phil video, with some added queerness layed on.

When is phil gonna reveal his secret boyfriend Brian to the world?

I found the little honest moment at 8:52ish really interesting. The way he quite honestly nodded and said "yeah" about carrying 'an average self-esteem'. Not that I'm surprised or thought he had a super high self-esteem, but I always like those moments when he goes more 'serious' on camera, like he just reacted to that very casually and honestly if that makes sense.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:26 pm
by phanfckingtastic
Coming out of my cave to say I’m glad Phil has changed his background and I’m 100% convinced they no longer have the filming flat. Loved the vid. Cute, funny light hearted Philly, with one of the most compelling personalities on yt - and you can’t manufacture or buy that shit, kids.

On Dan, I just watched Chris Klemens’ new vid answering to assumptions his audience has about him, and I think it would be the PERFEC T! video for Dan’s comeback. Also, Chris replied to being assumed gay by a lot of viewers in vague but direct (?) way that I also see very in line with how Dan could address the elephant and move on.

Overall hyped about this year for dnp. I guess since I have a lot going on rn in my own life I don’t care that the content is sparse, lol so I’m ready to enjoy whatever they have planned for the upcoming months.

Oh, and I’m firmly on the moving camp, (and I hope I’m wrong bc hi interior design is my passion lmao) but I reckon we won’t see anything of the house if they buy one. Like, Dan will also use a very neutral background and that will be it. Kitchen vids is the only question mark for me.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:31 pm
by Stakhanov
I wanted to like the video, but found it pretty average. It's basically a repeat of the previous fiver video. That made it come across rather uninspired. I'm left wondering: what's the new beginning. Looks like he just got rid of the bed and is filming in the same room. Most disappointingly, his general behavior, tone and acting hasn't visibly changed. It looks like exactly the same old AmazingPhil channel to me.

I don't feel like the set he's using is an improvement. It looks cramped, the plant is to close (and already browning lol) and the wall could use a lick of paint. It would be nice if he styled his set like his real room a bit.
No hint about his future plans in 2019, looks like both of them are just gonna Haru everything for a while.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 5:31 am
by Puffy
Interestingly, he’s changed the title of the video to ‘Buying weird stuff on Fiverr!’ and changed the thumbnail from the one of his face... I was thinking earlier that it feels like he’s trying to move in the direction of Safiya Nygaard videos. It still feels like classic AP and as someone said a few pages back, with more of his recent personality. I don’t always love Saf’s content but I will always click on her videos no matter what they are because I enjoy her as a creator so I think Philly could gain a new audience going in that direction (Saf has 7.2m subscribers, so it’s probably not a bad idea if that’s what he’s going for). I searched ‘bought stuff on fiverr’ out of curiosity to see who else had done it and Shane Dawson has done a weird stuff on fiverr video before too, as have a bunch of other American YTers.

I do feel like he’s doing whatever he’s doing really slowly, and I get the sense he’s working towards something, whether that is more of that kind of content that he can do solo or drag Dan along in the background for or something entirely different but if I were to interpret the ATF stuff from earlier as maybe him branching out to do some more work on his own, this would be a lucrative way to go. It’s fun and light and entertaining but doesn’t pigeonhole him into any one particular type of video.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 5:56 am
by itasca00
I liked this video! It was cute and silly and made me laugh. Here are my highlights:
  • [0:46] Phil is intrigued by the idea of a gay birthday video, but he doesn’t buy it for himself. ☹️
  • [1:39] Phil looks for his phone and reveals that his phone’s name is Brian.
  • [1:42] Phil says that he has a difficult time pulling a neutral face, and the results prove it. :lol:
  • [2:13] Phil finds a guy who will be a “male model for your product or brand.” Phil likes the guy’s “guns” and is tempted to make him wear a “Try New Things” T-shirt, but he decides against it. 😭
  • [3:18] The doodle in coffee froth that Phil bought of the surprised Pikachu meme is revealed, and it turns out the service was for a digital edit. I find the letdown highly entertaining.
  • [4:53] Phil demonstrates that he is able to wiggle his ears.
  • [5:12] The person analyzing Phil’s face tells him that his nose indicates that he has “big spending energy.”
  • [6:27] Phil watches the video he purchased of the dog singing him “Happy Birthday to You.” He is very tickled that he thought it would be a real dog singing.
  • [8:04] The man analyzing Phil’s handwriting says that he has “libido syndrome.” Phil confirms this, but the example he gives of why this is the case just indicates that he’s impulsive. :shrug:
  • [8:50] The man analyzing Phil’s handwriting says that Phil has an average self-esteem, and Phil agrees. He says that magic will happen when Phil’s self-esteem is increased, and Phil wiggles his eyebrows as he repeats, “magic will happen.”
  • [9:15] At the suggestion of the man analyzing Phil’s handwriting, Phil stands in front of a mirror, looks himself in the eyes, and tells himself that he is the best. Truer words have never been spoken. :love1:
  • Interesting choices were made with the merch links. At the top of the video description, www.amazingphilshop.com is listed along with the new US and Australian AmazingPhil shops. Then, with the individual social media links, www.danandphilshop.com is listed.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:40 am
by Phantasy
Since the earnings from the shops are commingled anyways (The US shops are run by Spacepants Online, Inc., which is just a mirror company of IRL Digital, with Martyn, Dan and Phil as the officers), it seems odd that they don’t have a shared cart at least—perhaps they’re working on it, but the coding is complex? You’d think it would work similar to the gap/ old navy/ banana republic shops, each separate entities and urls, but with a shared checkout cart.

I don’t think there’s any conspiracy theory here, just a judgement lapse or technical limitation.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:41 am
by mamaphan
Hello beautiful peoples. <3 So happy to have Phil back. I did order lion. I wanted him so bad last time, so I made the decision to just get em. but there was no way I would order Dans mug too. I cannot pay for shipping twice
When I got my confirmation it was from space pants and I guess that is also a dan Phil Martyn company also?
Also I didnt say it from Phil’s last video but He is using my pink rose quartz in his background it’s on the bottom shelf. He also used it in the sleepless night video. That just made me so happy.
Now if we can just see Dan I don’t need a video I just want to see his face and here him talk to us. That is all.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:41 am
by lesterchuu
wasnt able to post my thought about phils viddy earlier cz idb died on me so here i am to type it again;

its not really a surprise but i liked it! it still felt like an AP video but....something was slightly different. like most of yall said, its sort of a mix of the raw phil lester tgt with amazingphil in there. i wasnt expecting him to suddenly change drastically and i think him doing so gradually, coupled by slowly letting us know his baby steps, is only going to take everyone for a wonderful ride. the handwriting guy was really cute and i loved how he did the mirror thing too. (sidenote: im loving the #movingtheories...my tinfoil hat is superglued to my head now)

overall, i really like it plus the phillie in me missed him so its a bonus....now i just wait for dan to breathe on us

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:27 am
by knq
I liked the original title and thumbnail. The new one is cluttered. ._. I suspect Phil might be the expert there though. I do find it endearing when we get to experience Phil waffling over his decisions a bit, like with the changing YT theme. You're doing amazing philly :prideheart:

The guy who started off his analysis by letting Phil know he was indeed a cool dude, and Phil's reaction, genuinely warmed my heart. :happytears:

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:56 am
by kavat
(This turned out more negative than I intended, I'm sorry)

It was a pretty typical Amazingphil video, which to me is... fine. Solo Phil content has never been my favourite content, I've always enjoyed joint and Dan's solo content more. It did make me laugh a couple of times but I wont be rewatching. I think I just prefer videos that are either more personal or someone being passionate about something, rather than "here are some things I bought that I didn't properly read the description for" which seems to be the main bulk of Phil's videos these days. I'm very aware that that's a me-thing and I'm glad others enjoyed it more, I wish I could too.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:21 am
by jestbee
I never post on here, but I just wanted to share that I wondered whether Phil might have changed the title because of that new thing where yt are supressing/hiding videos from recommendeds with "conspiracy" type content, since it originally had psychic in the title perhaps that could have triggered it?

And then just changed the thumbnail to go with the new title, because the first one wouldn't make much sense?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thegua ... mendations there's an article about it here if you haven't seen it. (I don't know how to do links, I'm really sorry.)

Idk, thoughts?

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:28 am
by dancy
agingphangirl wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:21 am I never post on here, but I just wanted to share that I wondered whether Phil might have changed the title because of that new thing where yt are supressing/hiding videos from recommendeds with "conspiracy" type content, since it originally had psychic in the title perhaps that could have triggered it?

And then just changed the thumbnail to go with the new title, because the first one wouldn't make much sense?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thegua ... mendations there's an article about it here if you haven't seen it. (I don't know how to do links, I'm really sorry.)

Idk, thoughts?
Hm, perhaps but I think he changed the title and thumbnail because of the low views. He did the same thing with that "drawing my viewers" video last year. I actually preferred the original title though for this reason:
Puffy wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 5:31 am Interestingly, he’s changed the title of the video to ‘Buying weird stuff on Fiverr!’ and changed the thumbnail from the one of his face... I was thinking earlier that it feels like he’s trying to move in the direction of Safiya Nygaard videos. It still feels like classic AP and as someone said a few pages back, with more of his recent personality. I don’t always love Saf’s content but I will always click on her videos no matter what they are because I enjoy her as a creator so I think Philly could gain a new audience going in that direction (Saf has 7.2m subscribers, so it’s probably not a bad idea if that’s what he’s going for). I searched ‘bought stuff on fiverr’ out of curiosity to see who else had done it and Shane Dawson has done a weird stuff on fiverr video before too, as have a bunch of other American YTers.
As for the video itself, I agree with what a bunch of others have said, it was a typical AmazingPhil video but with a somewhat more authentic Phil shining through. It was good, liked it, made me laugh. I would actually kinda like to see him moving a bit more into a Safiya Nygaard direction though but he's pretty far away from that currently. Not necessarily when it comes to the type of content but more with the way the videos are executed. Looking forward to him trying out some new things like he said he would in his previous video!

The fact that Phil's new background is most likely in the living apartment, considering the bathroom he briefly filmed in, is definitely interesting. No clue where exactly it could be, so I'm assuming it's in a room we haven't seen before. Perhaps the one opposite the moon room? :shrug: Curious to see whether Dan will have changed his filming position for his upcoming video and if the filming apartment will still be put to use in some way.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:48 am
by Stakhanov
Sidenote: It's noticeable and rather strange to me how many people here apologize before they make a mildly critical observation. Why be apologetic about a comment that could be construed as "negative"? I see no reason to artificially positive about all things relating Dan and Phil, so I hope people don't censor themselves and dare express their views.

yea @kavat I'm in a similar place. I'm at a point where I'm wondering if it's worth it to keep engaging with Dan and Phil. Like what's left to engage with at this point? All channels except AP are on hiatus, there are no liveshows, and no other projects so far. It can be fun for a while to read how people get excited about being 'fed' one video after weeks of building hype and looking forward to *any* move they make, but then you realize there's just to little to keep your interest going. Especially, right now, if you like solo Dan content most or aren't engaged just because you're into their presumed private relationship. I didn't have the opportunity to go watch the show and if I look at it soberly, the last 2 or so years have really been one long 'drought'. The insta stories are nice (though have been decreasing lately) but they don't make up for the decreased content in general. Or the general lack in... passion/creativity I sense. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like that, their channels are now steadily losing subscribers and monthly views. I don't like to say it, and maybe tomorrow it will all change as they return to youtube and announce new things (that aren't merch/ subscription models)... but it feels like I'm following two dying youtubers.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:24 pm
by Catallena
Ok I didn't have time or energy for some proper thoughts yesterday so here it goes now.

Like I said, it was A Very Phil Video. Which was nice and kinda like the home cooked meal we needed during this harsh drought. I enjoyed it, had a few laughs, and I mostly felt satisfied by the end of it. But it also felt a bit rushed and uninspired and I do hope that he steps more out of his comfort zone soon. Fiverr has been done before by everyone and their mother at this point, including Phil. It's not super interesting or new anymore. Phil himself was a bit more 'real' than he used to be, but I'm not sure it's enough for people who aren't crazy analysts like us to pick up on and capture their interest.

As far as Safiya comparisons go, I'm actually not sure if that direction would be the best option for Phil? Aside from the massive amount of time Saf spends on her content, she's also a 20 something year old women who often, but not exclusively, makes videos about makeup and other beauty related things. YouTube's algorithm loooooves beauty gurus because they're uncontroversial (aside from all the people who loved saying the n-word on Twitter in 2011 but that's not YouTube's problem) and advertisers have a lot to sell to the Young Women Interested In Makeup demographic. That she doesn't exclusively cater to that audience and originally comes from the Buzzfeed School Of Cranking Out Viral Videos is a nice added bonus. I'm not so sure Phil's audience matches that demographic? Obviously the Young Women part does and there's probably a good amount of overlap between their audiences, but aside from that I don't think Phil has the same appeal that the AI likes for it to really work in his favor. But he still could take some notes from Saf.

So what direction should Phil go in instead? No idea. But I hope he comes up with something.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:36 pm
by Ataraxia25
@Stakhanov I get that you belong in the category of viewers who are in a bad position content-wise. But saying they are "dying youtubers" is a bit much, imo.

First because they work in a "field" that's always changing, and how can we say what's dying or not? The concept of "Being a youtuber" changes all the time.

Also, don't get me wrong, i want content right now and i'm not pleased but let's cut them some slack. You can't produce content all the time and they stated that they need time right now. This does not please me, i'm sad and bored but saying they are "dying youtubers" when the mere concept of "youtuber" is like the most flexible thing? Nah.

edit : just read it back quickly, this post is a mess but i'm superb late haha

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:38 pm
by liola
What do you count as "dying" youtubers? Because let's be real, their peak on youtube has long and gone just like for the majority of people. And that is normal. They're not the exception, I don't even think it would be fair to hold them to that kind of expectation.

If they wanted to play the algorithm game, they could. They have decided that they don't want to, which is something that has been pretty clear for a while now. And I don't know how many times I will have to say that the majority of the money from Youtube don't come off views alone but rather engagememnt. And they're STILL winning the engagement game, they truly are.

I've heard so many times the "DnP are dying / DnP aren't relevant anymore" that I decided to take an hour off my work and do an analysis of their engagement compared to some of the thriving youtubers at the time.
Let's look at some of the channels that are thriving on youtube right now.

Markiplier is one of the youtubers on the front, was listed as one of the 10 richest youtubers from 2018, and has indeed a very enngaged community. Currently has 23M subs. I'm going to pull out the numbers from Youtube itself, because Social Blade only focus on views and subs which doesn't give information on the engagement.

It seems like, exceptions on the side, his videos get an average of 1.5-2M views.

I took a random video from a week ago, "THE 'OL TYRANT SWITCHEROO | Resident Evil 2 - Part 4" currently sitting at 1.134700 views. It's a series, you'd think the majority of those views come from people that have already watched the other parts, so it's recurrent views - typically people that have a higher level of interest on the creator and the content than the random casual viewer.

5% circa of his total subs have watched the video. It has 28.4K likes, so the 2.5% of the viewers liked the video. Out of this 1.1M viewers, there's 4.623 comments, so around the 0.4% of the viewers, that again we're assuming are mostly made out of returning viewers with a higher interest, have left a comment - which is what we count as engagement.

Let's take a video with a higher viewcount and NOT part of a video just to compare:

"Try Not To Laugh Challenge #18" - 6.345.373 views, 3 weeks ago. 28% of his total viewers.

It has around 300K likes, less than 5% of the viewers that watched. 26.345 comments = again around 0.4% of engagement. And this is for a thriving youtuber.

Let's look at Safiya's - who is in between casual vlog content and beauty guru videos (which are on top of the most watched type of videos)

She currently has 7.205.511 subscribers. Her most recent video - after a brief hiatus - has 3.419.536 views. Almost 50% of her total subscribers, although she's often on the trending page so those number can be pretty skewed, so let's just focus on the engagement.

Out of the 3.4M of views, there's around 150K likes, more or less the 4%. There's 24.263 comments, around the 0.8% of engagement (i'm rounding up)

The video before that has a whopping 12.406.878 views (and was posted on Christmas' eve). Considering the like ratio of 500K, we have again a 4% ratio which is starting to look like the normal ratio.
The video has 63860 comments, which is slightly more than the 0.5% of enagement - again, seems like the norm.

For shit and jiggles I ended up looking at Jake paul's numbers which is something I never thought I would do. I took the highest views video of last week, "LAST TO FALL IN TOXIC POOL WINS $50,000!! (GAME)" with 6.776.815 (40% of his total sub count). It has a likes ratio of 160k, around 2.5% of the views.
It has 18688 comments, slighly above 0.25% of the engagement.

Now let's look at Phil's channel. Let's look at the last video, since this one is too recent and went through a late posting + a change of title and thumbnail so we gotta settle down.

"Time For A Change" first video in months, attractive title and thumbnail.

It has 861.235 views, which is around the 20% of his total sub count of 4.2M. Out of this 20% of views, we have 124K likes, so between the 14 amd 15% of the views.
It has 13.296 comments, so around the 1.5% of the views. Hm. Looks like an above than average engagement!

Let's look at one of his most popular uploads from before tour, solo (yes, I know, time factor is important to consider compared to Safiya and Markiplier but we gotta work with what we got)

"My viewers choose my outfit", 2.585.918 views. More than 50% of the total sub count. Out of this, we have 216.376 likes, slightly less than the 9% of the views.
We have 27.215 comments, so an engagement of 1.1%.

Let's watch at PINOF 10 now, a recent video and the most recent joint content on Phil's channel. We know its views are basically all engaged viewers. We also know videos with Dan in general give Phil more views.

PINOF10 has 1.744.564 views. Slightly more than 40% of the subs. It has around 215K likes, so between 12-13% of the video views.
It also has 23671 comments, so again an engagement of around 1.4% - as expected, higher than a solo video.

If we look at these numbers, they might be dying in terms of totals views, but the % they're pulling will always be higher than what we consider higher youtubers. And the community is what other "more successful" youtubers envy them for, not the amount of times their videos end up in the trending page.
Tl;dr: they might be "dying" in terms of totals views, but the % they're pulling will always be higher than what we consider higher youtubers, hell even Jake Paul. And the community is what other "more successful" youtubers envy them for, not the amount of times their videos end up in the trending page.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:50 pm
by noodlebum
Just dropping in to say I'm in camp 'leaving the filming flat, but not the living flat' 8-) And probably not filming much of the living flat due to the mess, extra furniture/crap needing sorting etc.

The video was pleasant enough. I liked the face and handwriting analysis, the guy calling him a cool dude was funny :D

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:57 pm
by 000dia000
I think a year ago, I wouldn't have called them dying, but now I would for Dan. His channel is dead, that's a fact. If any other person had a channel like his you'd think they vanished off the face of the earth. Fans are unbelievably patient.
The kind of content Phil makes his friends would only get like 30K viewers. They're very uncreative in a lot of ways and I can see why a lot of their YouTube peers could be resentful for the kind of audience they have. They put so little effort in and people still support them and wait around for them. I can't think of any other youtubers that have such a dedicated community, but get so little back.

I remember when pewdiepie released his book 2-3 years ago, he said that his book didn't perform as well as deppy's because he didn't have the kind of audience that would be interested enough in buying merch. ironically his popularity has somehow exploded since, so I'm not sure how relevant this is now So, I think it's the people holding out, buying merch, being edged by mediocre videos hoping for that one video once a year that's actually decent could become something regular. I mean, I would be delighted if they could make insightful, creative videos or content that they enjoy but they don't seem to be in a space of mind to do that.

Also. I was never interested in the "fake apartment" theory, but I indulge in it now just hoping that's why they've been so quiet.

Re: Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:03 pm
by Stakhanov
Ataraxia25 wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:36 pm @Stakhanov I get that you belong in the category of viewers who are in a bad position content-wise. But saying they are "dying youtubers" is a bit much, imo.

First because they work in a "field" that's always changing, and how can we say what's dying or not? The concept of "Being a youtuber" changes all the time.

Also, don't get me wrong, i want content right now and i'm not pleased but let's cut them some slack. You can't produce content all the time and they stated that they need time right now. This does not please me, i'm sad and bored but saying they are "dying youtubers" when the mere concept of "youtuber" is like the most flexible thing? Nah.

edit : just read it back quickly, this post is a mess but i'm superb late haha
Just like people aren't literally "fed" by watching a youtube video and there is no real "drought", just a period of no or little content, I mean the term "dying" to denote their channels are in decline and they don't seem really invested at the moment. Or alternatively, to invoke Dan's words in Tomska's asdf vids, you could say "we're all dying" :lol:
I agree that as people they should first of all take the time they need. Maybe Dan isn't feeling to swell, perhaps they are planning on a much more extensive break than we generally expected, or this could just be the procrastination he said "was really an issue" being an issue. Yea i'm not saying he should put us as an audience as a priority. But as a viewer, my only window on them as people is through what they put out there, and it just feel that connection is in dire straits.

You're right that 'youtuber' can mean all kinds of things but one critical measure in my eyes is that as a professional youtuber you at least semi-regularly, you know, upload some youtube videos. The odd situation I suspect is that with views dwindling, the negative impact of the algorithm, reduced revenue from ads... the income from their channels probably doesn't compare favorably with successful world tours, books, merch shops, subscription models etc.
So while financially they might have less of an incentive to really focus on their youtube channels, that has always been the locus where they forged a personal and strong connection with the same loyal audience that is ready throw money at them and make any of their other projects so lucrative. Imo, after a couple of years where they have put their channels on the backburner a bit, it's time they come back. I'd like for Dan to not just use his channel to communicate messages he think might have value by themselves, but to use it to express himself too as I think that is the only way he can long term stay positively motivated to create more.