I remember how angry and sad everyone was that the weekly shows were ending. Even though the internet takeover was coming, everyone LOVED the weekly radio shows - I genuinely remember crying towards the end and after the show (especially with Dan's "end of an era" tweet). It was a massive moment for all of us at the time, paticularly because Dan and Phil rarely uploaded back then, it felt as if all content was being stripped away from us tbh.somethingsketchy wrote:anime_is_not_cool wrote:I think it's mostly just the youtube fan / shipping culture changing. When I joined phandom and tumblr a few years ago, the tumblr tags for example were full of people screaming every time (or any other youtubers that were shipped together) accidentally touched in a video etc. Youtubers aren't so hyped anymore, but that doesn't mean they aren't popular or people don't watch them.These observations fit the impression that I have based on my experiences as an avid Tumblr user outside all the YT fan communities. Back in 2013-2014 I regularly saw posts about Youtubers like D&P, Tyler Oakley and Markiplier on my dash without following any Youtuber fan accounts. I have no idea where all the posts came from and at first I didn't even know who all these people were, but nonetheless it was impossible to not be aware of Youtubers because they seemed to be everywhere. For example, I can remember D&P's radio show being a big thing and that seemingly everyone was freaking out the day when their last weekly show aired, which is a weirdly specific memory to have considering I hadn't ever listened to their show or even seen any of their videos at that point.saffarinda wrote:Re. Less Active Fandom: I was in the phandom most actively between 2013-2014 and I'd say it was much more active in comparison to now. I feel as though one of the reasons for that may be the radio show. Whilst the books and tour were large events that the phandom could obsess over, we're now left with no main project occurring, just videos. The radio show was almost a weekly project - something outside of youtube that people could get hyped about. I remember live blogging the radio show on tumblr and everyone talking between every song - it was a collective event that brought us all together. If you're not aware of forums such as IDB, and you're a smaller account, you're basically left reblogging/retweeting gifs, jokes regarding videos etc. When the project they're working on is revealed, I feel as though the phandom will become much more active again.
Now, I've admittedly taken a couple of long breaks from Tumblr during the years, and my memories aren't super clear, but I still think the hype around all Youtubers has definitely gone down after 2014, at least on Tumblr, because I can't remember seeing any of them on my dash that much for the past couple of years. The exception has been certain dramatic instances, like the whole Pewdiepie-gate (or whatever it's called) of 2016-17, that have been big enough to be visible for people who don't follow Youtubers or their fans outside Youtube. I don't think this necessarily means that people watch YT or D&P less than before but it certainly means that the phandom has changed. For example, 3/4 of all the phanfic on AO3 has been published after August 2015, which in my opinion is noteworthy considering that someone here claimed that the amount of new phanfic published on Tumblr is smaller than before.
Almost all phanfic was published on tumblr in early years, no idea why really - I assume it's so people could connect with the authors on a more personal level - we all messaged asks to our fave authors and could have conversations with them, you could see more about what they were doing in the real world, and saw a bit of their personality and likes; they influenced me a lot when I was younger. With ao3 you can't really have that connection.
However, oddly enough, I remember one phanfic authors address got found, and someone sent them pizza and put some things through their letterbox (they - the writer - was either in year 11 or in their first year of college at the time) and she had to contact the police, who really didn't take it seriously despite the fact that she was incredibly horrifed by the fact that someone had found her house. Her parent's were disturbed and uncomfortable as well, so perhaps in some ways despite the fact that we lose that connection when using ao3 - which I feel really kept the phandom active - it can help in keeping people protected. Obviously this is just an isolated incident but it is, nevertheless, unsettling.
