Okay, I’ve had breakfast and here’s a more complete post.
I love how polarizing my post about 2012 was! haha.
I agree that it’s kind of a cringey and painful time to look back on, so I definitely don’t blame anyone who tries to avoid rehashing of it. I personally find it utterly fascinating though, and my nosiness and curiosity give me the strength to wade through the the angst lol. (Although that being said, I don’t think I’ll ever have the guts to go through the tumblr tags from the time when Voldy re-leaked. I’ve considered doing it, but I just can’t. I think it would make me scream.)
yonahime wrote: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.
Yeah, it does seem that both Dan and Phil themselves and the Phandom at large were unbearable at times, and they fed off each other’s unbearableness. I have to say that I do think Dan started off relatively admirably with his text post. He was pretty reasonable. Then it seems like the incessant shipping and unrelenting drama got to him and he started to lash out more.
Just to clarify, “HOT SEXY PHANTASTIC ACTION” was the original title of the PINOF 4
bloopers video, not PINOF 4 itself.
spider wrote: 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.
As usual, I agree completely
spider.
biatchqueen wrote:Ps the delia edits are hilarious, the thought of her bopping around a kitchen whisking pancake batter whilst humming ass and titties has just made me laugh my arse off
swofro wrote:Damn, 2012 was wild, and hilarious to be honest.
You know, I have to agree there is a certain amount of hilarity to the whole thing. The sheer over-the-topness of EVERYTHING is unreal, and frankly sort of amusing. It’s like a soap opera.
These reactions to Dan not posting for hours made me laugh:

^ we all relate to this sometimes -_-
And I must admit, the Wikipedia thing was really cringeworthy and I got major secondhand embarrassment from it, but secretly I was kind of living for some of the edits.
Plus I love how representative of old-school D&P the pages they edited were. Like glabella, llama, etc. It's hilariously cringe.
Honestly it warms my heart a bit that Dan went along with it. It’s like with the PROTIP thing. He secretly loves when the Phandom is united and obnoxious. The stuff might drive me crazy but on some level, I’m glad he and Phil supports their fans and I’m glad (for his sake!!) that he isn’t annoyed.
(It’s kind of funny how apparently the Wikipocalypse seemed like such a noteworthy moment for those who were involved. I feel like most people who are new to the phandom these days have never even heard about it. It definitely didn’t go down in history as one of the phandom’s greatest accomplishments, as some seemed to think it would.)
tymyky wrote:jaej wrote:i was my most involved in the phandom in 2012-2013 and really it didn't feel like some horrible hellhole. tbh it was one of the best times. but the phandom was growing really quickly and was awful and there was always private stuff (like photos of dan aged 15 taken from friends pages) and people still bitter about dan overtaking phil in subs and i didn't blame him at all for trying to stop it. someone had to, and the more he was ignored the angrier he got me the more aggressive the posts were. and if you read the ~homophobic~ posts from the pov of a bi person being told "OMG ITS SO OBVIOUS THAT YOURE GAY OMG WHY ARE YOU LYING WE KNOWWW YOU DONT LIKE GIRLS" then it made sense imo.
I coudn't agree more. I was also an invested fan during that time but I never had that feeling that it was "the dark ages" as some people like to call 2012 now. I was on tumblr but I wasn't looking through the phan tags because I was kinda busy at that time (finishing high school, first uni year) and when some of Dan's post showed up on my dash I read them and was kinda sympathizing and agreeing with them (not all of them) even though they were sometimes rude. That boy had to put up with a lot of shit. Could you imagine what it must be like if you have a group of stalkers who call themselves your fans digging old photos of you and stalking your friends' social media accounts? Oh boy I would have snapped.
That time was golden ages content wise though. We got videos every week, liveshows where they everytime got the other one join in at the end and then the weekly radio shows started, the drama in phandom kinda died down and it's all rainbows and unicorns till now.
Thanks
jaej and
tymyky! I always really appreciate the point of view of those of you who lived through this stuff! You’re right, it was a golden age for content. When people think about quintessential Dan and Phil videos, I think they’re largely thinking of 2012 and 2013.
Catallena wrote:It's funny how the current Phandom is scared of the 'dark times' of 2012!Dan, when fans were just as responsible for the environment back then. The 2012 Phandom was a bit mad. Though also very amusing. Never a dull moment. Seriously though, shitstorms about nothing like with that text post drama. People flipping their shit when someone tagged Phan stuff on the main tags because they would be able to see it and Deppy had to be protected from those evil shippers!!!111one. The witch hunt against people who shipped it, causing people to put 'THIS IS NOT A PHAN IZ REEL BLOG' in big fat letters in their bio. Phan shippers going 'underground' (kids here's a tip: there's no such thing as going underground on Tumblr it's a public website) while anti-Phan shippers guilt tripped everyone into thinking they were the cause of the world being set to end that year. Who needs a Maya calender if you have a crazy invested fanbase? People are more chill now.
Lol
Catallena your whole post is great, thanks! Really interesting insights and recollections!
IckleMissMayhem wrote:Here's to happier futures, not murky angsty pasts!
Agreed!
mintsans wrote:anyway, back to the amazingphil comments section to find myself a bae ayyyy
Same tbh