Dan & Phil Part 82: now onto the future

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glitterintheair
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I very much agree with @Ablissa's post. I liked Phil's video, it was comforting and relaxing and it made me laugh. However, those kind of videos won't be enough to sustain the phandom - i noticed yesterday on tumblr there was not a high number of gifsets or posts about Phil's video on my dash. Even today, the discussion about the video itself is kind of non-existant. It doesn't surprise me, because while the video was nice and enjoyable, it didn't provide topics of discussion and this fandom heavily relies on that. What I am seeing though are posts saying "I miss dnp", "i miss dapg", "when will the hiatus end" and people panicking about dnp splitting up.

Also, let's be real, Phil has been struggling with views on his solo vids for a while, unfortunately. Looking back at the videos he posted last year, the ones with the lowest views are:
- Drawing My Viewers Challenge (665k views)
- 6 Things I Regret Buying (813k views)
- Reacting to My Deleted Videos (893k views)

I want Phil to succeed on his own, but I'll be honest: I rarely rewatch his solo videos but I rewatch the ones he made with Dan many times. I can't help it, it's like, I don't know, when Jenna makes solo videos vs when Julien is there. I enjoy Jenna by herself occasionally, but the ones I always end up re-watching are the ones with Julien.

Anyway, I'm not saying that Phil is doomed by himself or whatever but yeah, I can't say I'm surprised that the video is not doing that well.
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Amiaw
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Looking at some of the other OG youtubers like Anthony Padilla and Tyler Oakley makes Phil’s views seem huge in comparison but unless something really changes I don’t think that his videos will ever have really big numbers again. The same could be said for Dan - TTLMT was heavily discussed but still only has 2.2 mil views which isn’t a little number but doesn’t compare to what he used to pull.

I was intrigued by the little mentions Phil made in his video about how he should probably talk to somebody about being so pleased about the “cool dude” comment - if he gave use even a small view into who he was it would make his videos much better but still wouldn’t be a replacement for me of joint content.

As for dan, when he comes back his first video will probably pull bigger numbers because he’s dan and there’s always some kind of drama with his videos but I feel like he needs Phil to soften him and make him less abrasive too so I don’t know how sustainable his solo videos would be in the long run.
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Ataraxia25
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You can hear Dan's voice in Phil's latest insta story and i *may* be really really emotional right now.
:gayaf:
Amiaw
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Me too. Apparently we are easy to please.
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glitterintheair
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I literally almost cried and I wish I was joking.
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Ataraxia25
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:happytears: :happytears: :happytears:
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sonicgreen
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dan lives! i miss him! also that sounds like a little cornelia laugh and maybe martyn? family game night
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Finally some evidence that Dan isn't dead. :) This raised my hopes up. Only a bit, but still.
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Stakhanov
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Leave it to this fandom to get emotional about a insta story that's basically one long dirty joke ;) Looks like Dan is at least enjoying his break. Right now. Does anyone recognize the boardgame?
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liola
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Omg the return of Dan's voice! First his newsletter, now a hint of voice the same day Phil shows his face on instagram.. maybe soon we might SEE Dan again? Goshdarn I am excited!

Going back to talk about Phil's video (my oh my am I a chatterbox today) and the talk about the kind of content he makes, in this particular case I feel like one thing that is being overlooked is that this video was a request from a membership viewer. It doesn't surprise me, he enabled the featured the last video and wanted to showcase that he IS going to use it, that people are not wasting their money on it.

Personally, I wouldn't have even suggested it - it's not the kind of video that interest me in the slightest. But it's Phil, and I like Phil for his personality, so I watched and enjoyed it. He had to pick a video from his membership suggestions, chose the one that would be easier to do and wouldn't require a huge investment of money or energy and went with it. The algorithm indeed fucked him up, but if we look at the big scheme of the universe, he is indeed providing content that ar least part of his audience has requested. I mean, let's cut him some slack, the guy has been on youtube for 13 years and is still enjoying it somehow.

I feel like that's still an improvement compared to the meme reviews, just saying. :shrug:
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Stakhanov wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:21 pm Leave it to this fandom to get emotional about a insta story that's basically one long dirty joke ;) Looks like Dan is at least enjoying his break. Right now. Does anyone recognize the boardgame?
It's called Castles of Mad King Ludwig. It's fun :D
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thestigdrivesamini
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sonicgreen wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:14 pm dan lives! i miss him! also that sounds like a little cornelia laugh and maybe martyn? family game night
+1 for being an absolute emotional mess at the sound of his voice (and at work no less). God I love confirmation of them being together and happy playing a board game <3

I thought it was Bry but I may be wrong.
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Stakhanov
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serenlas wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:36 pm
Stakhanov wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:21 pm Leave it to this fandom to get emotional about a insta story that's basically one long dirty joke ;) Looks like Dan is at least enjoying his break. Right now. Does anyone recognize the boardgame?
It's called Castles of Mad King Ludwig. It's fun :D
Thanks! Oh wow it's scoring pretty high on boardgamegeek, I'm glad they are trying some more strategic board games
Will my dream of a 6 hour war gaming livestream session become reality after all?
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thestigdrivesamini wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:45 pm
sonicgreen wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 10:14 pm dan lives! i miss him! also that sounds like a little cornelia laugh and maybe martyn? family game night
+1 for being an absolute emotional mess at the sound of his voice (and at work no less). God I love confirmation of them being together and happy playing a board game <3

I thought it was Bry but I may be wrong.
I thought it was her at first too but after listening again I'm not sure. Still, I just love that they're playing games together and having a good night. I am in the Easy to Please club. <3
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flarequake
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I could only hear one voice besides Dan and Phil, so took it to be Bryony, but we can’t be 100% sure I guess.

I loved the video, love me some sparky, cute, entertaining Phil. Felt like just the sort of thing he’d be likely to do, take a thing and make a video. I’m not expecting more tbh, though I’m open to being surprised. I was surprised by the reflections on self-esteem and overthinking, and the guns comment even.

Been a really interesting read here lately :corn:
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Ataraxia25 wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:11 pm
George wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:39 pm Now that Dan has disappear to Bermuda triangle, I feel like there's much more pressure for Phil's content. If we're only getting bread crumbs, those better be some damn good bread crumbs. And let's be real, Phil's solo content has never really been phandom's favorite kind of bread, and now it shows. I get the feeling Phil sticks to his usual style because he's afraid to make more changes when all eyes are on him (and there has already been big changes). But sadly that just emphasize this isn't really what the people want nowadays. Which is tricky for Phil, Dan's radio silence is hardly his fault.
really? In the flow of each person's preference (and we're a lot in the phandom) I'm always getting lost on this.
In case anyone is interested, this is a question that was asked in the 2018 Phandom Survey.
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"Oh, God. Okay. I say: *shrug* [...] I'd be like, 'I don't know how this works. Put a condom on that thing. *shrug*'"
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jestbee
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All this talk about views now versus views on older videos, is no one going to mention that YouTube changed how it counts re-watch views? It used to be that a rewatch counted as another view, and you could just refresh he page and watch again to count, but now there has to be at least 8 hours between rewatches if you're doing it from the same IP address/account. (Or something like that)

Not saying it's the biggest contributing factor of all the ones mentioned, and older videos are always going to have more views because theyve been around longer so its kind of pointless to compare unless youre doing it at the same point after upload for all videos, but I imagine it's had a bit of an impact on how popular older content looks compared to newer content. Especially as I'm someone who will watch a newer video a couple of times when it first drops lol I can't be the only one.
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holyshit i napped for like 4 hours and i hve like pages to catch up on...
knq wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:41 pm I wonder if the spiritual successor to Trying to Live My Truth might focus on gender rather than (or in addition to) sexuality. I've recently arm-wrestled Instagram into actually giving me notifications for Dan and Phil's activity, and Dan's likes seem overwhelmingly to be trans performers and drag queens.
this got buried underneath all the phil talk but that would be very interesting if he does. everyone almost always focuses on his "sexuality" but never the gender, and i feel like everyone just sort of accepted them being "tall, rich, white boys" by default.

eitherway, ill definitely be interested in what he says about it because it seems as if hes thinking about it in private. over the years, hes certainly tried to open up to "typically feminine" activities like: painting his nails, casually commenting a lipstick shade looks good on him, and etc. but even from waaaaaaay back when, i remember how dan genuinely liked hello kitty a lot (receipt #1, receipt #2, receipt #3 - if you look at the bottom right corner, youll see their advent calendars and if you just do a quick google of "dan howell hello kitty" youll see more stuff) but HIS brand was black, explosions and llamas...anything "feminine" or "cute" was played up as a joke. it may seem like its not a big deal but theres also the unfortunate societal pressure and misconception that if youre a "guy" and also "feminine" youre automatically "gay" and....we all know what 2012 dan was like.

interesting side-note: found this tweet from when phil broke a bowl and cut himself, and found this comment from someone..because, of course phil is the cute, childish one.

im not saying that we got it all wrong this entire time and 100% dan is the fluffy cute one while phil is the sex dungeon master, im just saying that BOTH of them had these qualities and BOTH of them have been chained to their internet personas for so long and that now theyre starting to peel back those layers like a fucking onion. who cares if phil is still doing some classic AP videos or if hell do a completely new thing, his phil lester personality is starting to shine through the cracks and thats what im all about. hes starting to talk about casually liking "guys" and not being afraid to acknowledge his own insecurities, so i really dont get why people think he hasnt changed at all when past amazingphil wouldnt even say a peep about those things?

but i digress....were talking about dans potential new video.
Ablissa wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:19 pm 320k views on the video so far is low. I'm sad that youtube is fucking up so much, but a part of me does think the problem also lies with the general state of the phandom right now. People are waiting for something big - which will likely never come, because expectations are high and it's hard to deliver when the two people in question are real human beings and intensely private. All those people that are going crazy with wild theories of a break up etc etc are not going to be satisfied with 10 minutes of Phil being cute and semi on brand.
before the start of the year, everyone was anxious and expected phil to pull a BIG CHANGE™ but after he uploaded, the effect was more of our thirst being quenched but somethings amiss, and i suspect people who were expecting that BIG CHANGE™ are now pinning it on dan even harder if they havent yet. dont get me wrong, i think of myself as more of a phillie than a dannie, but im starting to miss the guy. i definitely felt that insta story....his voice, at least we know hes alive. ill still wait patiently tho i cannot argue the fact that the pressure is only gunna get higher for dan the longer he doesnt upload - it doesnt matter what kind of video it is, everyone is just on edge.

also think about it, theyre yin and yang. theres a lot of yang (phil) right now but almost no yin (dan), hence the unbalance in the phandom.
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Hello, I'm sliding in with just a little comment.

I've loved all of you comments in the discussion of Dan and Phil's views. But I just want to say. Why do we have to compare?

Yes, it's sad that they don't pull the same number of views anymore. But I think the most important thing is that the ones that watch the video likes it.

Yes, it's their job so it's better if they get more views. But I think it can get worse if everyone starts to compare them to others. Especially if Dan and Phil also does that. That pressure can't be fun and can even have the opposite effect.

I don't know if any of this makes sense. But my point is that I don't think that is the best to compare youtubers. Because they are different people. Therfore, they probably like to do different kinds of videos that will get different amounts of views.

Maybe they will change, because people change.

Just enjoy Dan and Phil as they are. If you don't like a video then leave a comment with a suggestion for a different kind of video 😊
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lesterchuu wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:02 am before the start of the year, everyone was anxious and expected phil to pull a BIG CHANGE™ but after he uploaded, the effect was more of our thirst being quenched but somethings amiss, and i suspect people who were expecting that BIG CHANGE™ are now pinning it on dan even harder if they havent yet. dont get me wrong, i think of myself as more of a phillie than a dannie, but im starting to miss the guy. i definitely felt that insta story....his voice, at least we know hes alive. ill still wait patiently tho i cannot argue the fact that the pressure is only gunna get higher for dan the longer he doesnt upload - it doesnt matter what kind of video it is, everyone is just on edge.

also think about it, theyre yin and yang. theres a lot of yang (phil) right now but almost no yin (dan), hence the unbalance in the phandom.
I agree so hard. First of all, the longer Dan doesn't post, the more people expect. I have a feeling that at this point, if Dan were to come back with a short explanation and a fairly insignificant video (for example, a sketch), people would still be disappointed, even though we all want him to come back. And like you said, there is an unbalance in the phandom right now,
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so honestly, I don't expect things to 'get better' until joint content is back (DAPG or at least an explanation/plan reveal).
Sadly, the higher the expectations are for Dan's video (and every video Phil posts, lbr), the higher the chance of disappointment. Not to mention the fact that for Dan, who already works himself up a lot when filming, this must be really tough to put up with and I won't be surprised if the video won't happen anytime soon at this point.

Tottrie wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:09 am I've loved all of you comments in the discussion of Dan and Phil's views. But I just want to say. Why do we have to compare?

Yes, it's sad that they don't pull the same number of views anymore. But I think the most important thing is that the ones that watch the video likes it.
Yeah, of course that as long as we enjoy the videos, the videos will remain a good thing! But for Dan and Phil's careers to keep going upwards instead of downwards, it's best if they do the things that are not just the most fun for them, but also profitable and liked by a wider audience. And I don't mean people outside the phandom - I mean things that most of us here, within this already existing fandom, enjoy.

Of course, there's the question of how much they even care about profit, fame and money right now. But I personally want them to succeed, because the longer they are successful, the longer we will keep enjoying their content, so I prefer when their videos 'perform well' :)
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lesterchuu wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:02 am
but i digress....were talking about dans potential new video.

before the start of the year, everyone was anxious and expected phil to pull a BIG CHANGE™ but after he uploaded, the effect was more of our thirst being quenched but somethings amiss, and i suspect people who were expecting that BIG CHANGE™ are now pinning it on dan even harder if they havent yet. dont get me wrong, i think of myself as more of a phillie than a dannie, but im starting to miss the guy. i definitely felt that insta story....his voice, at least we know hes alive. ill still wait patiently tho i cannot argue the fact that the pressure is only gunna get higher for dan the longer he doesnt upload - it doesnt matter what kind of video it is, everyone is just on edge.
i agree that people are expecting a BIG CHANGE™ from both of them but I also think its unfair to place the responsibility, or even the pressure of expectation, on Dan to upload sooner to appease the fandom. IMO the fandom isn't going to be pleased unless we get a. a coming out video of some sort (which I don't think we're never ever ever going to get) or b. the level of engagement and content production we had last year (which I think phandom needs to be honest with itself and admit that we're never going to get again). Like, phandom is too invested in this narrative of DnP Have Left Us and anything less than, what, a gaming channel video or two a week, instagram posts every couple days, and regular solo vids is going to leave some people unsatisfied. I think that's become incredibly obvious from the lack of response to Phil's videos. Those videos are the same content he's been producing for years, and should technically be satisfactory for a fandom claiming to just want any sign of life. Same with when they weren't tweeting and fandom swore up and down they just wanted proof that they were alive, then it was let us see your faces, now its we want a video, no we want this kind of video.

Like, outside of some real unlikely possibilities, there's nothing Dan's going to upload that's going to please what seems like the vast majority of vocal fandom, I just wish people would be honest about what they want instead of dressing it up as "Oh, I just want to Dan to upload". Like no, you want Dan to upload a video that's this amazing deep dive into his emotional interior and gives you information we didn't already have about him and proves that he's ~grown~ as a youtuber over the year off, that proves that he loves us Youtube, but isn't too deep because we also don't want him to be pretentious. Like the bar is so high and it doesn't matter if he posts in the next thirty seconds, he isn't ever going to clear it. And I think vanishingly little of that is actually because of Dan.

(sorry for going off on your response, @lesterchuu, its nothing personal to you, i've just been really frustrated with conversations all over fandom since the beginning of this year)
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Yeah, people are gonna be disappointed with the regular fluff pieces Phil puts out if they're expecting something big. And imo those expectations are pretty justified. Almost a year without DINOF, putting DAPG on 'hiatus', no liveshows, literally no communication from Dan... Yeah no wonder that gets people's expectations up because they want something that makes up for all of that. :shrug:

That last liveshow they did was all ~oh nothing else is changing~ but in a way, everything changed. Because AP, DINOF and DAPG were a circle and that circle already got broken by Dan's hiatus, but now without DAPG as well it's just Phil trying some New Things But Not Really. In order for normalcy to return they need to reinstate the circle to keep the content flow going OR they actually need to have something big up their sleeves again like with the book and tours but I doubt that's happening. If Dan is gearing up for some big solo thing outside of YouTube, then more power to him and his artistry, but that won't help them either. Because the circle will still be broken, and AP will be left behind if it can't sustain itself.
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queerofcups wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:06 pm Like, outside of some real unlikely possibilities, there's nothing Dan's going to upload that's going to please what seems like the vast majority of vocal fandom, I just wish people would be honest about what they want instead of dressing it up as "Oh, I just want to Dan to upload". Like no, you want Dan to upload a video that's this amazing deep dive into his emotional interior and gives you information we didn't already have about him and proves that he's ~grown~ as a youtuber over the year off, that proves that he loves us Youtube, but isn't too deep because we also don't want him to be pretentious. Like the bar is so high and it doesn't matter if he posts in the next thirty seconds, he isn't ever going to clear it. And I think vanishingly little of that is actually because of Dan.
I quoted this part of your comment because these are the very reasons i dread when dan uploads. I don’t want pretentious videos and when he does deep videos I dread the aftermath. His depression video was great because he made that video when he was ready but TTLMT was a mess. He wasnt in the right place to handle any type of discourse that didn’t fit his narrative and the resulting mess wasn’t pretty. Not all of that was on Dan but that experience did make me feel apprehensive about those kinds of videos from him. I don’t honestly know what dan needs and I think he gets a lot of leeway because of this “pressure” to post but as a viewer, even though I care about dnp, I don’t want to feel guilty for expecting content.

I honestly just want dan to either upload something even an isg or just communicate his intentions with us
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I think this kind of argument will forever go in circles.

If phandom wants some deeply emotional videos where Dan and/or Phil are open and honest and give us a peek into some of their real life, we are greedy and insensitive and are going to be disappointed. If Dan and/or Phil give us videos that they want to make that will only please some of the viewers but not the majority because it's not what the rest wants, then THEY are disappointed.

What is the solution? What is the middle ground? Waiting until they're ready to make the videos the phadom wants or accept that they might not make the kind of content the majority wants and not go off people that might want something else?

I don't know, honestly. I want them to make the things that they want to make, and want them to not feel FORCED to make certain things - but I also want them to DO something.

@queerofcups is right saying that the majority of the phandom is expecting (at least from Dan) a coming out of some sort. I don't have a set opinion whether that is ever going to happen or not, I don't necessarily care whether he/they will do. I mean, I never thought Dan would make a video about his depression either :shrug: but the thing is, can we blame people for wishing for a video of any kind? I think it's pretty normal for an audience to wish for the kind of content they want. Hell, generally speaking it's why some youtubers ask fans for suggestions (like Phil just did with the membership)

They won't ever be able to satisfy everyone, I think that's clear. It's unfair to put the blame on them, but it's also unfair to put the blame on the audience imo. But I think that the longer the silence goes on for, the more frustrated the phandom will get, the stronger will be the response the moment something happens.

Maybe the only expectation we should stop having is for them to care about communicating with us :shrug:
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I get all the pleas for communication, but at the same time I feel that communication is a bit of a double edged sword for them (and us). Like, if they communicate their plans for something before it's definite (or before they have a set date for it) then everyone gets into a cycle of expectation and anticipation that can end badly if things don't end up following through (like with Phil's first video this year taking longer than expected after he announced it, or some of the TBC dates during the tour falling through). That messes with us as well because we get all excited for something and then have to deal with frustration and disappointment. On the other hand, holding off of announcing anything until it's fully ready to go is seen as a lack of communication, and leads to phandom tearing itself apart in the periods of silence and over-reacting to the crumbs that we manage to scavenge. (To be clear I'm talking about their professional projects here - I don't think info about their personal lives should really count as 'communication' that we have any right to expect from them.) I fully get everyone's frustration though and I think people should be able to express that, we just shouldn't really expect DnP to alter their plans to appease it before they have something definite to announce in the name of communication, because that will probably end badly for everyone.
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