Dan & Phil Part 8: Clickedy-dick

[Philena]

Oh, I bet you're right about the flying ahead alittledizzy. I have a feeling they will be doing that quite a bit, especially later in the tour when they start zigzagging out west.

[akui]

Won't quote anyone cuz I'm on phone.

Imagine how hilarious i would be, if Dan hasen't come out to his parents yet, but his parents learned phan from internet and just assume phan is real because they don't understand shipping.

And Mark, if you truly love Dan (and your ex lover Phil), write them into Doctor Who dammit.

I've always had the dream that plays Doctor Who characters. Like the Doc and companion wonders into a video game world and meet two boys who are best friends and have adventures together, everyone in that world thinks they are in real life but turns out they are just trapped inside a video game because of some elaborate alien scheme. Doctor finds a way out and saves everyone, Dan and Phil promises each other they are going to find each other in real life, but Dan wakes up in real world only to find out that Phil is on the poster on his wall. Phil isn't real, he is a video game character.

[trashqueen]

i'm going to end up being known as 'the person that can't shut up about the bus' on this forum BUT

see that mirror? well (awkward screencap because this company's website is literally hell)



meaning: the red bus is indeed the one in the 'slides' category of the website aka it has a lounge and not a bedroom in the back

say goodbye to the suggestion that they slept in different buses (not that that made much sense to begin with but hey)

edit: sorry got excited and posted this too quickly, but this confuses me even more about them tweeting about the bus having a bedroom at all, if they hadn't we would have to consider the possibility of them having two lounge buses, they literally made it easier for us, wtf boys i thought you were smarter than that

[akui]

meaning: the red bus is indeed the one in the 'slides' category of the website aka it has a lounge and not a bedroom in the back

say goodbye to the suggestion that they slept in different buses (not that that made much sense to begin with but hey)

So Martyn and Cornelia doesn't get their own bedroom So yeah, today's Dan and Phil lie is…

[alittledizzy]

say goodbye to the suggestion that they slept in different buses (not that that made much sense to begin with but hey)

Bless your little bus-stalking heart.

[majitzu]

It's May.

[sweetmm]

HAPPY LABOUR DAY

[spaceguitar]

polyamory?
(Some day I'm going to accidentally post from 1 of your blogs)
http://spacecattle.tumblr.com/post/143387062286

[oqua]

Random snapshot of Phandom history!
(September 2012)

So, as usual, I am going to post something random and unrelated to anything currently going on, but I've been researching a lot of stuff about what went down in the Phandom in 2012 and it's really fascinating. It also requires a lot of scrolling through the danisnotonfire tag from 2012, which is kind of a nightmare… A weird mix of bizarre pictures where Dan is photoshopped on animals and text posts blaming people for starting drama. It seems like "drama" was everyone's favorite word back then. Every day something was causing new drama: Dan's tweets, someone stalking Deppy's families, Dan answering a question on Tumblr, someone posting Dan's nakedbooths in the danisnotonfire tag, someone asking Dan if Phan was real, Dan and Phil being distant in a liveshow (it was 2012, you know), Phandom members attacking each other...it makes me want to pull out my hair and tell them all to just shut up. Idk, the "tumblr Phandom" has its problems but it's a DREAM compared to what it was back in the day.

[note: The following post includes a lot of screenshots of Tumblr posts that I found in the “danisnotonfire” and “phan” tags. I didn’t include the names of the blogs, in order to protect their privacy somewhat, but I promise that these are all real and the dates should be clear from context. If you want to go through the tags yourself and see ALL the posts that were made on these days, be my guests. It’s, um…an experience. Also, all times are UK time]

Okay, now that that intro is out of the way, I just want to share that I've discovered some info on the leadup to and fallout from Dan's “we need to talk about drama“ tumblr post, in which he introduced his (in)famous Customer Service Department blog.

Apparently at 5:03 PM on the evening of 8 September 2012, he promised a long text post was coming.



Then hours passed, and he still hadn’t uploaded said text post.

Which caused — you guessed it! — DRAMA in the Tumblr tag. People started calling it “textpocalypse 2012.” Some people were furious at Dan, sending him angry asks, badmouthing him, etc., because he said a text post was coming “soon” and then still hadn’t posted anything hours later. Other people were furious at the people who were furious at Dan. Some seemed legitimately concerned about Dan’s physical well-being. They were also terrified of what the contents of the text post would be. Popular guesses were that he was leaving YouTube, he had a girlfriend, or he and Phil were not friends anymore.

Some people got a tad dramatic lmao:

When Phil did a liveshow that night, he mentioned that Dan was at home in Reading, which placated people somewhat. Then at 10:30 PM, Dan himself tweeted that he was with his grandma celebrating her birthday:



Which caused more drama, because everyone started jumping down each other’s throats for being mean to Dan when he was with his grandma.

At about 10:45 PM, Dan tweeted a some commentary on the current general Phandom insanity, and kind of hinted at the subject of the upcoming text post:




Finally, just after midnight on 9 September 2012, he posted the text post.



Complete text below the spoiler:

danisnotonfire:
We need to talk about drama.

Okay. After much pondering, it seems ridiculous to me that I feel the need to post this, but I think I do. This only really applies to the ‘hardcore’ 10% of my followers so if you just randomly followed my blog because you like pictures of dogs, or are a happy prancing deer that sees the best in everyone, you can just merrily scroll past this like a gif challenge.

Once upon a time the danisnotonfire tag was a wonderful place filled with joy and insanity and Dan could happily check twitter or tumblr and always expect to leave with a smile on his face. This doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.

As much as the joy and insanity are very much still there, recently I haven’t been able to visit tumblr without seeing at least one person posting absolute crap about me having ‘changed’ and posting and tagging ‘opinions’ about me that are literally just lies.

Of course I’ve changed since two years ago. Back then I was a big facepalm who made awful, terrible videos once a month (if that) and hardly ever replied to my followers. However now for the first time I’m thinking ‘like every other youtuber who posts 5 videos a week, I will start actually trying so people aren’t constantly wondering if I’m dead’ thinking you’d be pleased, and people are turning it into something negative!

I’m a friendlier, smarter, funnier person than I used to be who is infinitely better at making videos and now I spend hours every day replying to you guys to let you know I appreciate you supporting me (unlike any actor/guy from band/most youtubers). Phil is still my best friend. I still love my followers more than probably anyone else you know. And the only reason I’m trying harder at youtube is because I enjoy it, and I want to make more, better things to brighten up your day and anybody out there who hasn’t discovered me yet.

Literally 99.9% of the people that I reply to are wonderful, hilarious, beautiful people that are a joy to interact with. You can read my youtube comments or just look at my facebook/twitter to see this. To this day, when I am feeling down the -first- thing I will do is go to my ‘liked’ posts on tumblr because it completely restores my faith in humanity and pretty much shows you are the some of the most incredibly funny, clever and creative guys on the internet. It’s literally 1/500 times that I will see something that annoys me, but the thing about negativity is it stands out from the good. People will say something to me, be it a hater comment/someone trolling me or just something completely stupid, and instead of getting mad, I always try to just say something funny back to keep things positive. And this is where the 0.1% get it wrong.

I don’t know how new to me and my personality you may be, but here’s the thing. I am never a rude person. I don’t have a bad bone in my body. My childhood role model was Winnie The Pooh ffs and I used to let kids beat the crap out of me at school and I wouldn’t retaliate because I’m not interested in conflict. Yes, sometimes I can sound blunt and extremely rarely may lose composure, but I will literally never be flat out rude to someone.

I am a sarcastic guy. That is my sense of humour. It isn’t negative or aggressive, it’s supposed to be silly and make you laugh or groan at a terrible pun I made. It’s my way of not taking the world too seriously by taking something and turning it into a joke. If you see me reply to someone who called me a twat or spammed me saying ‘PHAN IS REEL!!1’ and think I’ve been ‘rude’ to them, you are literally wrong. You just didn’t get the joke. You read it the wrong way. It was a misunderstanding.

I wish sometimes it could be like early 2010 when the only interaction I got were lovely people asking me things and getting to know me, but I have a lot more followers now and with more people comes more diversity. I don’t think it’s tumblr’s fault, or my fault, or ‘12 year olds’ fault that there’s ‘drama’, it’s just the individuals that choose to be negative. Regardless of whether it’s me, Larry, Sherlock or bloody masterchef - the nature of tumblr breeds a culture of attention seeking (for lack of a better word) where people know that if they give a strong opinion, or tag it, or just latch on to something as it’s happening, they will get notes. It means that people deliberately seek conflict, whether saying something negative, opposing it, or even saying ‘why is this drama happening’ as they know there will be an audience, and it snowballs. The more people say something, the more blown out of proportion that-thing-no-one-can-even-find will be. And they might not even care that much about what they are saying and are venting angry emotions from a crappy day at school, but as the target of it, I do feel it.

The thing is, Kristen Stewart and One Direction don’t use tumblr, so they have no idea what’s being said about them, but I do. And when it doesn’t hurt, at the very least it’s despairingly irritating seeing people publicly talk rubbish about me with no reasonable way to talk to them about it. Should I leave tumblr then? Stop checking my tag? No that would be silly. It would be much better to solve the problem.

I don’t think it has to be like this. I can’t change the whole Internet but I can certainly make ‘Dan’ a nice place to be. The next time you think I’m being rude, carefully read what I said, and try to decide if really I was just making a joke. And if you have an opinion or a criticism or a theory - before you go & post it to twitter/tumblr in caps lock and cause another dramallamageddon, ask me about it. I won’t bite. I will totally politely start a conversation with you until we understand each others thoughts.

Therefore I have decided to make:
http://customerservicedepartment.tumblr.com/

From now on, if you genuinely have something to say, instead of causing an alpacalypse, you can talk to me about it. I will not shout, I will be calm and polite and like the civilised wizards we are, can talk about it. You may be totally wrong about something, you may be totally right and make me think something I hadn’t realised before, but either way we will keep this over there, and leave everywhere else to have fun.

I think this is a wonderful idea if it works, but that’s up to all of us.
So I urge you. ALL of you that would ever identify as Danosaurs, if you have something to say about me, don’t be another drama llama, go to:
http://customerservicedepartment.tumblr.com/ and talk to me about it. And if you see someone post something that’s about to implode the internet slap them with a wet tuna from me don’t attack back, or post saying ‘why is there drama’ - tell them that if they aren’t just attention seeking, there’s a better way they can go about it without spoiling someone else’s afternoon when all they want to do is have some lols.

Hopefully now the internet land of dan and especially my twitter/tumblr/tag can be the wonderland of hilarity, creepy drawings and pictures of Delia Smith photoshopped onto inanimate objects we all want it to be and we can all hold hands and dance in a circle and make daisy chains. I hope you are doing well, have an absolutely fantastic weekend and I look forward to the next time we talk. :]

*tips top hat and flies out the window*
Normal broadcasting service will resume shortly.

So that was that.

And apparently, everyone loved it! They just started gushing about what a great role model Dan was, how amazing he is, how much they love him. So many people said the post made them cry. Someone printed out the post and hung it on their wall! The outpouring of support was unbelievable to me, especially in light of the dark blot in Phandom history that the customer service blog would go on to become.

People seemed to think that with his Tumblr post, Dan had somehow restored order to the Phandom, and from then on, the Dan and Phil tumblr tags would be lovely positive places again and the phandom would be a wonderful happy loving community. Consequently, that morning, the word “phamily” began to gain traction. From what I can gather, this is the day when that term first started to be used, though I can’t pinpoint exactly where it started. Anyway, people really embraced the term.

They even got #phamily trending second on twitter in the UK.



The Phandom continued to ride the wave of feels and goodwill for the rest of the day.

The good vibes continued that evening, when, at around 7:00 PM on (this is still 9 September 2012 btw), someone edited the Delia Smith wikipedia page:



By 7:23 it had been expanded, little by little, into this (click to enlarge):



And then this:



Dan took notice and commented. He seemed to love the whole thing:





Soon #DanLovesDelia was trending on twitter in the UK:



And the Delia Smith page underwent further edits:

By about 8:00 PM Delia Smith page had been locked for vandalism and restored to its original form:



But that didn’t deter the Phandom, who then began what they termed the “Wikipocalypse” — basically the mass-vandalism of every page even remotely related to Dan and Phil (glabella, microwave, llama, dinosaur, lion, whiskers, pancakes, placenta, maltesers, etc.).

A small (lol) selection of examples:

Phandom members started being blocked from editing and many pages got locked, but the “Wikipocalypse” literally continued for like two days.

People were really proud about it.

(post from 9 September 2012)


…HAHAHAH not.


Dan and Phil released PINOF 4 on 12 September, and the bloopers (originally titled “HOT SEXY PHANTASTIC ACTION”) on 13 September.

Then on 15 September Dan posted this comment on the bloopers video:



There was some drama over it in the “phan” tag.

And in the coming days, the shitstorms only multiplied.

On 16 September people started freaking out about Georgieboom’s vlog from a New Year’s 2012 where it looks like Dan and Phil are kissing in the background. The vlog and the key screenshot started circulating in the tumblr tags.




Rumored Phan kiss → DRAMA:

The same day people started talking about the Valentine’s Day video. It’s possible that Voldy got brought up because it was the day before the one-year anniversary of when it originally got unprivated (17 September 2011), but I’m not sure. Anyway, discussion of Voldy, of course caused even more confusion and drama.

(Post from the next day, 17 September:)

16 September 2012 was also the day that Dan started answering asks publicly on the customerservicedepartment blog (about a week after his “we need to talk about drama” post). Presumably, he saw all the shitstorms floating around, and decided that answering privately wasn’t cutting it anymore.

He answered several questions on that day, including this one about the Valentine’s Day video and the kissing controversy:



People weren’t pleased, although there was some appreciation for Dan’s “sass” and people generally didn’t seem that fazed by what he said. Below is a selection of responses (more can be found on Tumblr and Twitter if you search):

Dan basically admitted he couldn’t actually stop the drama:

(From 16 September 2012 at 1:33 PM)


He got more and more vitriolic throughout October, and people got more and more unhappy with him and everything. Then on 31 October, Voldy re-leaked.

And yeah, 2012 sucked, have you heard?

[vogonsrock]

polyamory?
(Some day I'm going to accidentally post from 1 of your blogs)
http://spacecattle.tumblr.com/post/143387062286

Na, just the weird suburban practice of what was known as 'wife swapping' even though husbands were being swapped for a bit of extra marital jiggery pokery too. Think parties with lots of alcohol and fondu. Populated by sweaty seedy fat men with moustaches, and prim middle class women with 'racy' over the top ann summers underwear on under their polyester blouses and skirts. Popular in shitty British 'comedies' of the 1970's. Not that I've ever been to one, just heard rumours about them, and seen them portrayed in the media.

[DryCereal]

HAPPY LABOUR DAY

Bonne fête du Muguet!

I cringed at the "Damn Daniel" clip at the Brits... I'd have paid to see Dan's reaction yesterday..!


*hisses*

[coffee pig]

Oqua, thank you for your archiving skills but there was a reason I wanted to block out all of 2012 Phandom history from my memory. If you are a newer fan and think that the fandom is ''cringe'' now it is nothing compared to what it used to be, be thankful for that.

Won't quote anyone cuz I'm on phone.

Imagine how hilarious i would be, if Dan hasn't come out to his parents yet, but his parents learned phan from internet and just assume phan is real because they don't understand shipping.

I'm mean, but I find the idea particularly funny if they aren't together.
''Reason why Dan's a Fail: Everyone on the planet thinks I'm dating my best friend, including my own family....'' new video idea.

I also don't understand why it's such a popular theory that Dan's parents wouldn't be accepting of him. From what he's said about them being young parents, one of them a Philosophy student, the other one working on film sets, they sound like they would be liberal and not exactly condemning of homosexuality. I don't understand where this come from. I just think he's not super close to them like Phil is to his parents.
I am pretty certain that both of their families have to be aware of the shipping to some extent. If you google Dan and Phil romantic fanart comes up on the first page, it's not much of a stretch to think so. Also, the way that Martin denied Phan being real makes it seem like he was pretty unfazed, as if he expected someone might ask that sooner or later.

[flarequake]

*hisses*

Omg Demeter from Cats, my fandoms have collided

Also, oqua, the 2012 history is fascinating and hilarious. I'd seen the main things before, but the context and timeline is interesting

[majitzu]

Sorry oqua I just can't discuss your post. I hate drama, I avoid it. But I'm glad that the phandom now has more chill.

[Kathrynxjane]

It's May.

Ugh I'm sad I have to change from the police photo

Oqua - I am so glad I wasn't in the phandom in 2012. Everything just seemed so over the top back then. I glad it has sort of chilled out now.

[DryCereal]

I'd have thought it was obvious why Dan's parents disapprove of Phil... That strange older internet could-be-an-axe-wielding-maniac guy who lured their son up north then made him give up his dreams of being a mildly-successful legal something or other..!

As ever, anything 2012-related just makes me glad I'd never/barely heard of back then...
Here's to happier futures, not murky angsty pasts!

flarequake

[swofro]

I haven't read a few pages back, just want to comment on Oqua's post.

Damn, 2012 was wild, and hilarious to be honest. I don't know, I am kinda glad that I am only a casual Dan's viewer (?) (not even subscribed to him, tbh) and I was so busy I don't have time for the internet.

It's May.

Ugh I'm sad I have to change from the police photo

I genuinely wonder what Dan is looking at. Checking himself out at(in?) the camera/monitor?

I have reach a new low of trying to discuss the calendar. Can I have agar.io now please?

[yonahime]

Oqua That is really interesting. So it was not dan and phil themselves that was unbearable in 2012, it was the phandom and them. The phandom caused unnecessary drama, and Dan gave it more fuel to the fire. But i can't really blame him for feeling that he needed to interfere? Of course i'm also not excusing him for being a d**k about it. Not to mention, what was that former title of Pinof 4? 'Hot Phantastic Action'? What.

Anyway, i think it's interesting and hope that this will get archived. Thanks for digging that up, that must have took a lot of time.

[phamnotof]

meaning: the red bus is indeed the one in the 'slides' category of the website aka it has a lounge and not a bedroom in the back

say goodbye to the suggestion that they slept in different buses (not that that made much sense to begin with but hey)

So Martyn and Cornelia doesn't get their own bedroom So yeah, today's Dan and Phil lie is…

so if Marty and Cornelia don't get their own bedroom, do they share the other bus just with D&P? then it'd make sense they're in Philly while the crew is god knows where on the road, they drove ahead/have different schedules. Or took a plane, even, though Phil's motorbike dream makes me think he was sleeping on the road... though that's reaching even for me, I'll admit.

[spider]

oqua that was painful to read but the truth shall set us and the cringe free. Wasn't involved in the phandom during that time so it's enlightening to see what was happening besides Deppy's own drama.

No wonder Dan lost his temper a lot. Who wouldn't with an audience like that? How did stay sane and want to keep this career? It's easy to understand now why Bryony washed her hands of the whole thing.

[mintsans]

i wonder if phil is keeping up with his "buying a magnet in every town" thing cause someone had to remind him when they were in atlanta lol

it's always so weird seeing stuff from 2012 when what i remember from videos made during that time it's that they were really cute. like how is the person making dumb jokes with phil in sexy internet dating the same person writing all of those very angry tumblr posts?? it's just weird imo (v interesting tho)


anyway, back to the amazingphil comments section to find myself a bae ayyyy

[phamnotof]

oqua wow thank you for that, how fascinating. Also, it kind of reads like an apocalypse novel, *dun dun dun* and then, on 31 October, the world as we know it came to an end.

(but yeah, damn. what a mess from both sides, honestly, it just goes to show how terrifying it must have been to come into fame when you had no idea how to navigate it, no idea where it came from, no support systems in place because proper YT fame was only really coming into existence, esp. within the British community... And hate Ben Cook as much as he deserves, but this one line from Becoming Youtube kept ringing in my head as I read this post. It was something like "2012 was the year that Youtube lost its innocence". I guess it's twice as fitting for the phandom.)

[madmadmad]

Thanks Oqua! That was both incredibly interesting and frustrating to read. I am glad I was just a happily prancing oblivious deer in 2012 being just a casual watcher of his videos. It feels so weird that I had no idea of all this other stuff I've been seeing everywhere about the horrible year of 2012 because I have only very good memories of his videos being very entertaining that year. It also makes me realise how big and complex the phandom is, and I'm slightly awed at everything that's happened in the phandom (the only other fandom with this much drama and secrets and conspiracies I've been in being tohoshinkis...). I mean, we have our own scandals and secrets and different groups of the fandom and drama and conspiracies and some real shady shit etc, but then there are also people getting married thanks to them... I mean like what even. It's quite amazing when you think about it. And they're just two guys on the internet you know... (am i drunk...?)

[elias]

polyamory?
(Some day I'm going to accidentally post from 1 of your blogs)
http://spacecattle.tumblr.com/post/143387062286

He has probably seen this film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119349/

[trashqueen]

say goodbye to the suggestion that they slept in different buses (not that that made much sense to begin with but hey)

Bless your little bus-stalking heart.

I'm making that part of my signature

polyamory?
(Some day I'm going to accidentally post from 1 of your blogs)
http://spacecattle.tumblr.com/post/143387062286

He has probably seen this film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119349/

lol if i wasn't so lazy i would check that one picture of their dvds but i wouldn't be surprised if it was there, they do own a copy of the dreamers after all

i wonder if phil is keeping up with his "buying a magnet in every town" thing cause someone had to remind him when they were in atlanta lol

it's always so weird seeing stuff from 2012 when what i remember from videos made during that time it's that they were really cute. like how is the person making dumb jokes with phil in sexy internet dating the same person writing all of those very angry tumblr posts?? it's just weird imo (v interesting tho)


anyway, back to the amazingphil comments section to find myself a bae ayyyy

same here, i was a fan back then and i was on tumblr but all the drama passed me by somehow, i even remember reading the original dan drama post and going 'okay' and moving on, it makes sense bc i have always avoided the tumblr phandom like the plague (can you blame me for that now that you've seen how it used to be when i first checked it out lol) but it's still amazing how my perception of 2012 is so different from the one most involved fans had (i was subscribed and followed them on twitter and occasionally checked the tags -v occasionally because as you've seen it was hell- but i didn't care enough to for example watch live shows)