Dan & Phil Part 84: Still Alive

[phanfckingtastic]

Clearly we don’t understand each other so I will not be posting anymore. The world is going to shit anyway so better spend my time following real stuff, instead of debating sttangers about dnp.

Parting thoughts: I feel like in writing is hard to get my ideas about this topic specifically across because it seems as if there’s only place for black or white and many of you responding skip over what i actually said.
I specifically clarified that dan has good intentions and is a good person, for example.
We all have little behaviours and mechanisms developed to make our lives and our exchanges with other sometimes easier (or harder) for one party, for both, or neither. Some of those may be nature, nurture, or both. I’m sorry that you don’t see what I describe about dan, and if I had the skills and time I would put together a compilation of videos etc to illustrate it. He’s not Machiavelian, he’s not some twisted psycho, just someone who behaves in a certain way that in my opinion is attention seeking and emotionally manipulative of his audience, even if as a form of self-defence, even if well intentioned and subtle.

It’s not out of nowhere that dan’s communication stirs such contrasting and visceral reactions in people, especially his liveshows and tweets where most of this behaviour is displayed. Again, a subconscious “tool” to cope with work, anxiety, pressure? Sure. It’s just frustrating for me to witness him pull the strings so well - even if subconsciously - that a lot of his fans make excuses and assign specific messages between the lines without him saying anything concrete, ot even when he’s being an asshole, like with the living his truth explanation. The irony, wow.

In this case, it’s taken him months to say something pretty basic (fine with me, I didn’t need an explanation) and 8 hours after a lame joke that was a blatant excuse to say the basic thing , which followed a string of depressive tweets and a sad looking selfie that even had irl acquaintances concerned. It’s the celebrity equivalent of a friend vagueposting sad shit on fb and then not giving a straight answer. Attention seeking 101.

Oh I stan a drama queen that loves attention, just own it.
I hope the coming years of his creative projects are expressed and shared more honestly and nobody is left feeling conflicted about something (the content itself, the creator-fan relationship) that should be nice and fun. The rest should be resolved and deconstructed in therapy or at home with phil, not thrown in our faces to share the load of something we can’t even name. That’s all.
Bye

[somethingsketchy]

I've come to the conclusion that it's not worth my time and energy to be angry at Dan and/or Phil. I won't (nor can't) stop hoping that joint content comes back one day, but since there's nothing I can personally do to make it happen (faster or at all), I'm just going to focus on other things in life while Dan is away. I'll also admit that I'm sad about the absence of Dan and joint content mostly because of the selfish reason that I miss feeling like a part of a community. Obviously the Phandom and IDB still exist, and I lurk here almost daily, but it just doesn't feel the same as it did before.

[flarequake]

I thought @phanfckingtastic made some good points. I love Dan, first his sharp humour before I got in more deeply, then realising he was probably a soft sweetheart behind the sarcasm, and he is, but pft’s posts makes sense to me too. I also didn’t find them aggressive, though I’m tired and a bit surprised how relaxed I am right now (could do without the tireds, I’ve got a deadline tonight) and also didn’t register Dan’s tweets yesterday as anything to think much of, maybe cos I was upset about the photo the other day and just feel more chilled about things right now.

The thought of joint content actually being gone, but just left without them directly telling us, that would be more than sad. I keep forgetting they haven’t been in a photo together for months, it does seem off to just pull back without a word about half of it, but I can only think it’s sensitive stuff for them if they’ve decided to stop sharing as much long-term and awkward to explain so easier (you might argue also cowardly) to just leave until we finally get it, though we have to keep guessing and hope that between the thousands of us that we hit upon the correct answer. I can easily compare them to someone else eg Draw with Jazza who just moved house and planned some great content around it, had to do a bit less for a while and informed his audience, but obvs totally different person and situation, so like all comparisons it’s just unfair to compare (ooh, I like that, love a good accidental rhyme).

[noodlebum]

In this case, it’s taken him months to say something pretty basic (fine with me, I didn’t need an explanation) and 8 hours after a lame joke that was a blatant excuse to say the basic thing , which followed a string of depressive tweets and a sad looking selfie that even had irl acquaintances concerned. It’s the celebrity equivalent of a friend vagueposting sad shit on fb and then not giving a straight answer. Attention seeking 101.

Oh I stan a drama queen that loves attention, just own it.

I agree with this.

The thought of joint content actually being gone, but just left without them directly telling us, that would be more than sad. I keep forgetting they haven’t been in a photo together for months, it does seem off to just pull back without a word about half of it, but I can only think it’s sensitive stuff for them if they’ve decided to stop sharing as much long-term and awkward to explain so easier (you might argue also cowardly) to just leave until we finally get it, though we have to keep guessing and hope that between the thousands of us that we hit upon the correct answer.

I've also wondered about this. The difference between a year-ish ago and now is big. Who knows what the future holds for joint content, or Dans type of content?

[lionandllama]

I agree with so many things that have been said here the past few weeks, I was just honestly too tired to engage in fandom discourse.

I’ll try to keep this really short (even though I have a lot of thoughts on this given that I’ve liked and watched them since 2012) but I just ended my Phil membership because I’m just generally not happy with the content and non-content in 2019.
5€ a month for a text post and a cactus next to my name in some comment section on YouTube isn’t worth it for me. And I was really weirded out when he posted that yawning video on FB, wanting us to share it. What the heck happened to their content after New Year’s Eve. lol Is that what trying new things meant? Facebooks memes for middleaged people and radio silence from Dan I guess.
I did like some of Phil’s videos this year but they didn’t entertain me much, I’d much rather watch Try Guys or SimplyNailogical. I realised I only enjoyed his videos because I really like him as a person.
The solo content just isn’t for me and that’s ok.

So to answer the question that came up here: no, if joint content won’t return I’ll just gently part ways with the dnp fandom and move on.
I’m already in the process of moving on anyway, I don’t really check fandom spaces anymore and their sparse IG stories and tweets that don’t say much don’t really grab my attention either.

It’s kinda sad because I got pulled back into the fandom because of the Mukbang video and the feeling that they’ll be much more honest and real with us, more quality content, more open joint content.
If last year someone would’ve told me that in April 2019 we still wouldn’t have ANY joint content and no Dan video I wouldn’t have believed them after the tone change we got during II and everything that followed in 2018.

[gnostic]

Recent discussions remind me of one of the main reasons I stopped posting on this forum (still lurking tho, love y'all). Because people don't just see DnP as favorite entertainers but have so much invested in them emotionally calling out their unprofessionalism or expressing disappointment is met with a stonewall.

(And yes I do think Dan has been unprofessional for a while).

And God forbid someone expresses frustration or annoyance with them without qualifying it with 20 thousand softening words.

As regards yesterday, let me remind you all of the golden rule: it is not a good April Fool's joke if a person pranked isn't laughing at the end.

[sapienveneficus]

Recent discussions remind me of one of the main reasons I stopped posting on this forum (still lurking tho, love y'all). Because people don't just see DnP as favorite entertainers but have so much invested in them emotionally calling out their unprofessionalism or expressing disappointment is met with a stonewall.

(And yes I do think Dan has been unprofessional for a while).

And God forbid someone expresses frustration or annoyance with them without qualifying it with 20 thousand softening words.

As regards yesterday, let me remind you all of the golden rule: it is not a good April Fool's joke if a person pranked isn't laughing at the end.

Exactly, I posted about this a few pages back, but what sent me to my rage place yesterday wasn't even his tweets, it was all the responses people were sending him. They went from understandable frustration with his first tweet to, "Oh, it's okay sweetie!" type comments after his second. Dan's a professional entertainer (and an adult) it's okay to call him out on his nonsense.

Changing gears, as we enter month 4 of this hiatus from content, I thought it might be fun to try a thought experiment. What do we think they do all day?

This is something I genuinely wonder about (not in a creepy way, I promise). I'll start with myself as an example. I have a full time job. So I'm at the office Monday-Friday from 9-5. My job also requires that I work the odd evening or weekend event. When I'm not at work, I might be running errands, watching tv (anyone else gearing up for the return of GoT?), hitting the gym, or going to the theater (I do that a lot). So between work and life, my days are pretty busy.

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

[fancybum]

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

Count their money while laughing maniacally between Mario Kart rounds?

(It’s what I’d do )

edit: just saw Tomska’s merch store bit it; probably would have been better off sticking with IRL in hindsight. Wonder if he’ll end up with them this year?

[CapriciousCrab]

This middleaged person thought the yawning video was relatively harmless and mildly amusing but to each their own.

[noodlebum]

Changing gears, as we enter month 4 of this hiatus from content, I thought it might be fun to try a thought experiment. What do we think they do all day?

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

Depending on what's in the pipeline which we don't know about, there may be lots of emails/skype calls regarding future projects, and also regarding future merch. Now they're not planning a tour/on tour/not doing gaming videos, I imagine their days are a lot less full than last years.

[000dia000]

Recent discussions remind me of one of the main reasons I stopped posting on this forum (still lurking tho, love y'all). Because people don't just see DnP as favorite entertainers but have so much invested in them emotionally calling out their unprofessionalism or expressing disappointment is met with a stonewall.

(And yes I do think Dan has been unprofessional for a while).

And God forbid someone expresses frustration or annoyance with them without qualifying it with 20 thousand softening words.

As regards yesterday, let me remind you all of the golden rule: it is not a good April Fool's joke if a person pranked isn't laughing at the end.

Jesus, this!!

I understand that people have an emotional connection to Dan, but brushing off everything as a mArKeTiNg sTrAtEgY and implying that everything will be okay if we don't have any joint content in the future? The phandom would collapse with no joint content, phan is what keeps 90 percent of people with Dan, and the other 10 percent would stay because they're attracted to his sad boy™ brand. I'm genuinely stumped as to how people are content with the absolute misery that is everything Dan is doing.

I'm personally just annoyed at the passive aggressive comments on why people don't post as much on IDB anymore...there's obviously a reason.

/rant

[alittledizzy]

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

I think they probably have a whole lot of meetings and calls - probably more meetings than anything since you can video in to meetings sometimes. But between management, potential sponsors and brand deals, merchandise, and I would imagine their own personal financial situations (accountants, advisers, etc) they have far more meetings in their lives than most of us do and a lot of them either never pan out (like we know they've ditched merch before after it got past the planning stages) or just aren't things relevant to the audience. They are top of the food chain in the situation that is their career and they're not the type to delegate easily so I think their need to have final say in everything eats a lot of time up.

I think a lot about how not that long ago (mid-November) Phil literally ended up in the hospital with the doctor telling him that his passing out was a result of his body not being able to handle stress and him working too hard. That's part of my basis for a pretty strong belief that they are in fact very busy people and how that played into why a hiatus seemed like a good idea on his end even if it was physically possible for them to buckle down and keep churning the content out while they sort out whatever else is behind wanting the break.

[Grey]

I’m resigned to Dan not returning but I’m upset by how he went out. 2018 was a good year, so why couldn’t he have just said “I’m ending this on high and leaving YouTube. Thanks for the good times.” And then left. I would have liked that a hell of a lot better than him ghosting us and then occasionally suggesting he’s going to post a video (eg merch letter) only to turn around and guilt people for then wanting a video. If you don’t want to post anymore then don’t!! But stop playing with us. I don’t understand what his thought process is.

I’m trying to come to a place of acceptance. I will keep watching Phil. His videos are hit and miss for me, but they’ll do if I’m bored or need to veg out for a second.

[noodlebum]

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

I think they probably have a whole lot of meetings and calls - probably more meetings than anything since you can video in to meetings sometimes. But between management, potential sponsors and brand deals, merchandise, and I would imagine their own personal financial situations (accountants, advisers, etc) they have far more meetings in their lives than most of us do and a lot of them either never pan out (like we know they've ditched merch before after it got past the planning stages) or just aren't things relevant to the audience. They are top of the food chain in the situation that is their career and they're not the type to delegate easily so I think their need to have final say in everything eats a lot of time up.

I think a lot about how not that long ago (mid-November) Phil literally ended up in the hospital with the doctor telling him that his passing out was a result of his body not being able to handle stress and him working too hard. That's part of my basis for a pretty strong belief that they are in fact very busy people and how that played into why a hiatus seemed like a good idea on his end even if it was physically possible for them to buckle down and keep churning the content out while they sort out whatever else is behind wanting the break.

Yes I agree with all this, I think there's a lot going on we don't know about/don't realise takes up a lot of time. I forgot about sponsors/brand deals, I can imagine some of them take a lot of time to organise. I can totally understand needing a break after Xmas, what with the tour/editing the DVD. Just hoping (as I keep finding myself saying the last few months) that there's stuff that's been happening in the background for them both which will soon start showing in their content too soon, be it videos/merch/projects etc.

@Grey - agreed, 2018 was a really good year for them (minus solo Dan videos). Also agree that if this is the beginning of the end for that era I'll still watch Phil's videos every now and then, but probably won't be too invested apart from that. The joint bants is what it's mainly about for me.

Also agree that Dans April Fools was in bad taste. At least Phil's rickroll made me roll my eyes good-naturedly Dan not uploading due partly to mental health, alongside his rather sad instagram photo, doesn't personally make for much of a prank (imo)

[sapienveneficus]

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

Count their money while laughing maniacally between Mario Kart rounds?

(It’s what I’d do )

edit: just saw Tomska’s merch store bit it; probably would have been better off sticking with IRL in hindsight. Wonder if he’ll end up with them this year?

Do you reckon they're building one of those Scrooge McDuck style money pools in the forever home?

[sapienveneficus]

Changing gears, as we enter month 4 of this hiatus from content, I thought it might be fun to try a thought experiment. What do we think they do all day?

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

Depending on what's in the pipeline which we don't know about, there may be lots of emails/skype calls regarding future projects, and also regarding future merch. Now they're not planning a tour/on tour/not doing gaming videos, I imagine their days are a lot less full than last years.

I hope you're right about the future projects. Gosh, if they came back with a podcast that would be AMAZING! But the idea of new merch doesn't sit well with me. "We're not making videos right now but, here, buy this stuff to remind you of the times when we did!" doesn't seem like a wise move.

[alittledizzy]

I think it's pretty clear that emotions are very heightened since Dan 'returned' to social media. I don't know that there's any way he could have managed that aside from not posting until he did have a video, which people were also upset about. I said this before but I'll just repeat it: he's in a lose/lose situation. People have months of negative emotion and a sense of betrayal and loss built up, and for a lot of people that may never go away. That's fine; I mean, it sucks to lose posters here, but it's okay to walk away from something if your overwhelming emotional reaction to it is negative in a way that you think isn't benefiting you. It's also okay to walk away right now and decide to come back when Dan and Phil return to joint content.

On the same note, it's okay to not be angry at Dan and Phil and the lack of anger is not inherently coddling or babying. (I'm responding to a sentiment more than specific posts right now, hence the lack of quoting.) The accusations of that are something I've struggled with for a while but not been sure how to respond to, and I'm still not sure. But I do resent the common implication that if you aren't angry you just aren't thinking clearly enough or you're blinded by fan goggles or are making excuses for them. I don't know what's in Dan's head and I'm definitely frustrated by that. But some people just don't have that anger reaction click into place like others do and when you're not angry the speculation you want to indulge in seems to be read by those that are angry as excuse-making or babying and met with resentment or ridicule.

I don't really have a solution to that. It's just the biggest issue in phandom for me right now and I see it happening here. Anger is a valid emotion but it's not a superior one.

[waveydnp]

i feel like at this point we kind of know the deal? like, dan’s not in a good place. vilifying him for it is just unproductive. which yes, makes me a hypocrite given things i said a few months ago, but hey! i’m human. anyway, i feel like his recent influx in social media activity is a good thing and we should be cautiously optimistic that things are starting to feel a little less bleak for him.

that being said, i also kind of feel like we have to start to accept that he may never be at the capacity that he once was in terms of producing content. like maybe we would all be a little less angry if we moved on to the acceptance phase of this weird pseudo-grieving process.

[sapienveneficus]

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

I think they probably have a whole lot of meetings and calls - probably more meetings than anything since you can video in to meetings sometimes. But between management, potential sponsors and brand deals, merchandise, and I would imagine their own personal financial situations (accountants, advisers, etc) they have far more meetings in their lives than most of us do and a lot of them either never pan out (like we know they've ditched merch before after it got past the planning stages) or just aren't things relevant to the audience. They are top of the food chain in the situation that is their career and they're not the type to delegate easily so I think their need to have final say in everything eats a lot of time up.

I think a lot about how not that long ago (mid-November) Phil literally ended up in the hospital with the doctor telling him that his passing out was a result of his body not being able to handle stress and him working too hard. That's part of my basis for a pretty strong belief that they are in fact very busy people and how that played into why a hiatus seemed like a good idea on his end even if it was physically possible for them to buckle down and keep churning the content out while they sort out whatever else is behind wanting the break.

I imagine that there are some meetings going on behind the scenes, but I just can't imagine an avalanche of sponsors beating down their door. They're content creators who aren't producing content, with an audience that grows less engaged by the day. Are there really that many sponsors who are wanting a piece of that action?

[alittledizzy]

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

I think they probably have a whole lot of meetings and calls - probably more meetings than anything since you can video in to meetings sometimes. But between management, potential sponsors and brand deals, merchandise, and I would imagine their own personal financial situations (accountants, advisers, etc) they have far more meetings in their lives than most of us do and a lot of them either never pan out (like we know they've ditched merch before after it got past the planning stages) or just aren't things relevant to the audience. They are top of the food chain in the situation that is their career and they're not the type to delegate easily so I think their need to have final say in everything eats a lot of time up.

I think a lot about how not that long ago (mid-November) Phil literally ended up in the hospital with the doctor telling him that his passing out was a result of his body not being able to handle stress and him working too hard. That's part of my basis for a pretty strong belief that they are in fact very busy people and how that played into why a hiatus seemed like a good idea on his end even if it was physically possible for them to buckle down and keep churning the content out while they sort out whatever else is behind wanting the break.

I imagine that there are some meetings going on behind the scenes, but I just can't imagine an avalanche of sponsors beating down their door. They're content creators who aren't producing content, with an audience that grows less engaged by the day. Are there really that many sponsors who are wanting a piece of that action?

Phil did a Firebox promotion last week and a Honey one in late February, so yes, I'd say sponsored content is still happening. It also takes from weeks to months for sponsorship deals to be worked out and then the content has to be approved by the sponsor.

Dan's latest instagram picture got over 600k likes, their tweets get in the tens of thousands range, and every time they breathe there's a flood of thousands of social media posts. They still have one of the most engaged audiences in the youtube sphere, particularly for being a couple of 'generations' removed from the latest waves of youtubers. Anyone looking at their numbers will absolutely try to beat down their door.

[gnostic]

I think it's pretty clear that emotions are very heightened since Dan 'returned' to social media. I don't know that there's any way he could have managed that aside from not posting until he did have a video, which people were also upset about. I said this before but I'll just repeat it: he's in a lose/lose situation. People have months of negative emotion and a sense of betrayal and loss built up, and for a lot of people that may never go away. That's fine; I mean, it sucks to lose posters here, but it's okay to walk away from something if your overwhelming emotional reaction to it is negative in a way that you think isn't benefiting you. It's also okay to walk away right now and decide to come back when Dan and Phil return to joint content.

On the same note, it's okay to not be angry at Dan and Phil and the lack of anger is not inherently coddling or babying. (I'm responding to a sentiment more than specific posts right now, hence the lack of quoting.) The accusations of that are something I've struggled with for a while but not been sure how to respond to, and I'm still not sure. But I do resent the common implication that if you aren't angry you just aren't thinking clearly enough or you're blinded by fan goggles or are making excuses for them. I don't know what's in Dan's head and I'm definitely frustrated by that. But some people just don't have that anger reaction click into place like others do and when you're not angry the speculation you want to indulge in seems to be read by those that are angry as excuse-making or babying and met with resentment or ridicule.

I don't really have a solution to that. It's just the biggest issue in phandom for me right now and I see it happening here. Anger is a valid emotion but it's not a superior one.

Hard disagree with two concepts of this post.

Dan could have much easier returned to social media if instead of vaguepranking he popped in with "sorry I've been absent, been having a tough time, [... Etc]". In fact, the most professional would have been to lead with that a few months ago. A lot of people in bad mental places (or in another troubles) manage that response. People would fall over themselves to support him and proportion of angry people would be much smaller.

We can discuss a lot of reasons why Dan Didn't Do Any of That, from his mental state to personality. But it's fully disingenuous to say he had no winning options for his return, or that the reaction has nothing to do with how he chose to go about it.

Also, while it's totally okay not to be frustrated with them, it's okay and justified to be frustrated too. And expressing them on forum dedicated to discussion of them, as long as said without rudeness. or derogatory language, is natural. Yet reaction to that seemed downright hostile.

[sapienveneficus]

Dan and Phil are professional entertainers who aren't currently producing content (well, Phil's making 1 video every 10 days or so so we can subtract 2-3 hours from his schedule every 10 days) so the question remains, what do they do all day? Anyone want to hazard a guess?

I think they probably have a whole lot of meetings and calls - probably more meetings than anything since you can video in to meetings sometimes. But between management, potential sponsors and brand deals, merchandise, and I would imagine their own personal financial situations (accountants, advisers, etc) they have far more meetings in their lives than most of us do and a lot of them either never pan out (like we know they've ditched merch before after it got past the planning stages) or just aren't things relevant to the audience. They are top of the food chain in the situation that is their career and they're not the type to delegate easily so I think their need to have final say in everything eats a lot of time up.

I think a lot about how not that long ago (mid-November) Phil literally ended up in the hospital with the doctor telling him that his passing out was a result of his body not being able to handle stress and him working too hard. That's part of my basis for a pretty strong belief that they are in fact very busy people and how that played into why a hiatus seemed like a good idea on his end even if it was physically possible for them to buckle down and keep churning the content out while they sort out whatever else is behind wanting the break.

I imagine that there are some meetings going on behind the scenes, but I just can't imagine an avalanche of sponsors beating down their door. They're content creators who aren't producing content, with an audience that grows less engaged by the day. Are there really that many sponsors who are wanting a piece of that action?

Phil did a Firebox promotion last week and a Honey one in late February, so yes, I'd say sponsored content is still happening. It also takes from weeks to months for sponsorship deals to be worked out and then the content has to be approved by the sponsor.

Dan's latest instagram picture got over 600k likes, their tweets get in the tens of thousands range, and every time they breathe there's a flood of thousands of social media posts. They still have one of the most engaged audiences in the youtube sphere, particularly for being a couple of 'generations' removed from the latest waves of youtubers. Anyone looking at their numbers will absolutely try to beat down their door.

That's certainly true (about Honey and Firebox), but I wonder if the sponsors reached out to them or their management is in "find sponsors, we're hemorrhaging revenue" mode. I suppose either reality would necessitate meetings every now and then, thought not enough to fill their days. And while, yes, they do still have engagement, their overall engagement (month to month) is trending downward. I don't think that's the sort of trend businesses are looking for, but who knows.

I guess I want to hope that they're spending all this time working on content (like a podcast or the return of DnPGames as a joint content channel) rather than what they're probably actually doing (skype meetings from their couch, lots of video games, and the occasional jog).

[noodlebum]

Also, while it's totally okay not to be frustrated with them, it's okay and justified to be frustrated too. And expressing them on forum dedicated to discussion of them, as long as said without rudeness. or derogatory language, is natural. Yet reaction to that seemed downright hostile.

Yes I think it's ok to come here to vent too, I'm not sure why some seem to think it shouldn't be allowed here? It's a lot more of a positive place than most, and the occasional vent/criticism shouldn't be met with outright horror

In fact I think I was moving on from the frustration and feeling pretty positive until Dan's April Fools 'joke'. But it's true, the slowly-increasing online presence might be an indicator of things actually coming back very soon.

I wonder if a little liveshow would be good to do just before the next Dan video? Just to catch up the more dedicated fans (as opposed to casual viewers) on where his heads been at? I doubt he would, but was just a thought.

[waveydnp]

i think a live show would be a disaster i really hope he doesn’t do that, unless it’s a joint one and phil can field comments for him

[alittledizzy]

Also, while it's totally okay not to be frustrated with them, it's okay and justified to be frustrated too. And expressing them on forum dedicated to discussion of them, as long as said without rudeness. or derogatory language, is natural. Yet reaction to that seemed downright hostile.

I'm burnt out on debating the Dan issue so I'm gonna sit that one out.

I strongly agree that expressing things on the forum is fine, and I tried to make very clear in my post I wasn't condemning people who feel upset or angry or frustrated. My point was just that it's frustrating to be on the other side and be accused of babying or codding just because you don't have the intensity of negative reaction that someone else does.

i think a live show would be a disaster i really hope he doesn’t do that, unless it’s a joint one and phil can field comments for him

Hard agree with that.

I also think the reason Phil isn't doing liveshows is just to avoid every question being about Dan. Doing one together, with the purpose of addressing Dan's absence, would really be the only way a liveshow would work.