philyuri

nour - 24 - any - gave in to the side blog urge

[philyuri]

BABY CUT ME OPEN! um, jennifer? - cut me open // danandphilCRAFTS - slime

[philyuri]

one day jacksfilms will make a video calling out dan and phil for barely reacting to the videos they show and not linking half of them in the description and it will be the most embarrassing day of my life because he'll be 100% right

[not-a-choice]

the patreon auto captions really are uniquely bad huh

they uh. did not say that.

[philyuri]

it's me again ❤️ i'm back to bitch about captions. for a change. they're egregiously bad on the newest video and it's pissing me off so bad it's not even funny

[atlanticsea]

this is a long shot and i'm also vaguely doxxing myself, but this is important to me: the queer film festival i help organize is struggling financially. after our 25th edition, between the increase in operation costs and cutbacks on cultural funding, we're currently unable to start organizing the 26th edition.

we're entirely volunteer-run, this is a passion project that has managed to exist for over two decades while supporting international cinema and emerging artists, it is a big part of the local queer cultural life where i live, being part of it is very important to me, and if you can afford to donate some money to it i'd really, really appreciate it.

i very much realize that times are tough for everyone, that it's christmas, that this is for a festival in south-eastern france that you, the person reading this post, probably cannot go to at all, that culture is important but not an immediate concern for survival. i am aware of all this. but as i said, it's important to me! sharing this post is also much appreciated.

[philyuri]

just learned that jon-paul wheatley, the person who designs cool interesting footballs, is also THE PERSON WHO CREATED DAILYBOOTH? i have rarely gasped looking at someone's website but oh my god man. what the fuck. jon-paul are you aware of your contributions to phistory

[philyuri]

dan and phil trying to come for ben doyle's jet lag: the game season 7 nachos i see

[philyuri]

me again, sorry! thank you for answering my messages and for responding so thoughtfully and with real understanding. my brushes with the fandom when it comes to talking about accessibility have been wholly negative up to this point so I really appreciate it!

and I am going to rant again now (sorry!!)

I'm gonna be honest here. dan's politics--as he publicly presents them-- are very surface-level, white cis middle (to upper-middle or whatever they are now) class british gay guy politics. there's no real class consciousness to be found anywhere. there's no real fight and passion to see justice for marginalised groups. it's great that they occasionally speak up, and the charity drives they've done are obviously very welcome, but dan's comments often feel more like a punchline or an easy goal than any serious attempt to engage with the audience about political developments in his country which are having a real and devastating effect on a sizeable portion of their audience. queer people (especially trans folks), people of colour, muslims, anybody capable of getting pregnant, and anybody visibly disabled and/or in receipt of disability benefits are in tangible danger right now in the UK. he talks about mental health when it's something he can relate to, but where are the comments about the DWP? about the government slashing financial help which is driving people to suicide? most of there audience are female and there's been a huge rise in mvawg recently but you'd never hear them mention it. and I'm pretty sure the majority of their audience is american, right? probably don't need to explain everything that's happening over there right now. as a deaf, visibly disabled working class trans person with a bengali muslim partner it's like… these guys are not for us. they're just not. yes, we can relate to them in terms of being millennials who were closeted for a long time, we can relate to aspects of religious trauma and of shame and shared experiences of 2000s homophobic bullying in british schoolyards, we can *really* relate to having to keep oour relationship a secret. but these are wealthy men with a platform who actively choose not to talk about the things which are causing real harm for their audience. which would be fine if dan didn't consciously publicly identify himself as somebody who is politically-engaged and who holds left-wing beliefs, to the point of it being a core part of his public image. if they both didn't keep bringing up this alleged safe space they've created for marginalised folks I wouldn't have an issue with it. they could just be a fun, "apolitical" distraction. but you can't claim to seriously care and simultaneously continue to be so dismissive and/or silent when fascism is rapidly taking hold.

I understand that they've been through a lot and have experienced tremendous struggles in their personal life. but that doesn't somehow exempt them from criticism or from expecting better and expressing disappointment when it doesn't come. I really do like them (hence why I stuck around so long) and I'm so relieved that they get to be open now but there's a limit.

again, sorry for ranting in your asks. the captioning issue has kind of poked this sore spot I've had about dan's politics for a long time now and it's very difficult to talk about in the open without phannies unleashing hell upon you.

and thank you for asking people to leave comments about the captions! one of the problems I have with their main vids is that I *think* they're being captioned by an actual person--though AI captions are getting less detectable--but they still have major issues with words being transcribed incorrectly, especially when it comes to in-jokes, memes, names, sometimes even words which are displayed on screen in the video itself(?). they're clearly not going over the captions themselves to check whether they're correct before publishing which still shows a lack of respect and a lack of understanding of just how important it is for them to be accurate.

okay this was absurdly long, I'll leave you alone now 😅

no apology necessary!! i'm once again so sorry you've had such a horrible experience bringing up your concerns and issues about dnp, and i'm glad that at least my inbox lets you express your frustrations without fearing harassment! i actually feel like you're echoing exactly what i've been thinking for months haha. i made a post in april about how frustrated i was at one of their video titles vaguely referencing the anti trans laws in the UK when all dan had done was retweet something about it — one retweet. not even his OWN tweet! and it was a tweet with a dan and phil meme!!! and i was frustrated for EXACTLY the same reasons as you (the fact that being political is a big part of how he portrays himself and yet his biggest political take is that things will magically solve themselves when older people die, as though there isn't a massive surge of alt right sentiment in younger gen z? also crazy as a queer person to say all old people suck when like. so much of the foundations of queer liberation were fought for by people born in the 40s & 50s. BUT HEY. WHATEVER LOL)

it genuinely pisses me off so much that i lack the words to fully express it haha. i fully stopped using my blog after that post because i got into very frustrating conversations about my tags noting i was still irritated at dan for saying "the money is for children so there's nothing you could be angry at" during the palestine fundraisers, as though raising money for palestinian adults would be more morally questionnable. i actually have an anon from that day that i didn't see until tonight LOL, telling me to channel my anger into more productive things (loooove when people assume that my idea of activism is blogging about dan and phil <3 like no i do things in real life! that matter so much more than dan howell's retweets that i stopped coming on here for months, in fact!)

i've been vaguely pissed since WAD (started when i noticed the paywalled livestream had auto generated captions, grew when i saw the politics on display in the show, grew more with each passing day) and it's truly killing my love for what they do. like, why would i give you any of my time! you can say you love your audience all you want but you're incapable of doing the bare minimum to accomodate people! much smaller scale but i'm also pissed off at them doing reactions to phandom stuff without taking the time to properly credit people 💀 i have many hot takes about dan using phil as a shield to do very lazy stuff (eg: react to tiktoks without even making sure to credit people) but that's a conversation for another day. i've also been stewing on a post about how dragon city has egregiously racist dragon designs and how the game is insanely predatory in how much it pushes purchases. i'm just annoyed at them for a LOT of things lol.

going along with what you said, it's hard to treat something as entertainment when it goes against what you consider the minimum of respect and dignity. there are so, SO many things in this vast world we live in. my time is precious. why would i want to stick around stuff that leaves a bad taste in my mouth? why should i have to negociate with my morals? there are plenty of creators who don't make me raise an eyebrow at their (in my opinion) blatant hypocrisy. there are plenty of creators who respect their audience in terms of ensuring that what they make is accessible and good and understandable. and there are PLENTY of creators who are either purposefully not very political or purposefully very political and are able to pick a damn lane in that regard, instead of talking about being progressive and political but managing a couple tweets a year at the most. and then there's also my real life in which great beautiful queer transgender poc solidarity is happening. my affection and nostalgia is not enough of a factor for me to disrespect my own time lmao! anyways. we clearly both needed to rant haha.

also re: the comments i left, i also emailed the podcast at [email protected] which dan shared as the way to send hot takes to the podcast. i figured that email would have the best chance of being seen by the team, plus it always comes off more professional/serious than comments. if anyone wants to do the same thing, please do!

[philyuri]

I just left a comment on their patreon highlighting the issue with captions, because you are absolutely correct that this isn't something that should still be an issue after it's been brought up so many times. Also there are captions on Patreon, but I am not familiar enough with the platform to know if they are auto generated or not.

I can't check the podcast itself, but the BTS tour of the set is professionally captioned (though it's uploaded via Vimeo, not Patreon, which is the norm. I actually don't know if Patreon has video support). You can tell the captions are human-made because they punctuate dialogue correctly, include accurate audio description, don't cut off sentences in strange ways, include the name of off-screen speakers... Just a lot of really vital information for comprehension if you cannot hear. Really don't know why the 5 minute BTS video has pro captions but not the actual podcast (and no, it's not normal either if they add captions hours after uploading, they should be there already for a planned project with a schedule like this!) but it shows they at least are familiar with the concept, lol.

I sent them an email on the podcast address also, hoping it will at least get someone on the team to pay attention.

[philyuri]

follow up to my last message:

holy shit they removed my comment! it was one of the first ones. I also saw another early comment about subtitles that was quite angry has been removed too (theirs was swearier than mine)

I just told them I was fed up, that it's extremely disrespectful and ableist towards deaf fans and fans with audio processing disorders who have been very patient over the years, that captions should not be treated as optional because some of us literally cannot watch their videos without them, and asking if they could spend some of that set money on professional subtitles (hilariously, the other comment I saw mentioned phil's jacket money so we're on the same wavelength lol)

I know my comment's been deleted by the owner of the channel because it only shows up for me on my account, not on my friend's account or on the account I use for posting videos.

that's honestly the final straw for me. fuck the both of them. they have chosen to show they do not care about accessibility or their fans with hearing issues. it's not a priority for them, or even an afterthought.

if one of them had made a vaguely transphobic comment or something in a video and people had objected, d&p would've immediately addressed it and vowed to make amends (I'm saying this as a trans person btw). but ableism is never taken seriously. it's rife in otherwise "queer-friendly" and progressive spaces so I should've known.

fuck, i'm so sorry! i left a comment too. frankly i'm urging anyone who reads this to do the same (and also on their instagram posts etc), even if it won't change my thoughts on their repeated disregard for D/deaf fans it would be Something to have them actually acknowledge it. but also clearly they've been ignoring people about this for years so 💀

i'm truly so sorry it just sucks so bad to see how many people put accessibility at the very bottom of their priority list, if they even think of it. so fucking sorry.

[philyuri]

THANK YOU for your post about the captions. I can't even pretend I didn't leave an angry comment on the podcast vid and then immediately unsubscribe.

we've been asking politely for years and I'm fed up of it. I'm not going to stick around and keep pleading and trying to be nice about it when some of us literally cannot enjoy or understand any of their content without accurate subtitles. it should not be treated as something optional or an afterthought. I've already been yelled at for being "ungrateful" by phannies for "demanding they do something extra when they already do so much for us" (lol what?) it's especially disappointing from a fandom that likes to pretend to be so accepting, but apparently not when it comes to disability. I'd love to just remove the audio from all of their vids and tell people to deal with it, because that's exactly what it's like for me.

I've supported dan and phil for over a decade now--buying tickets to their shows, merch, making gifsets and fan art etc--and they clearly do not give a single fuck about accessibility. dan likes to present himself as socially-conscious (and he is, in many ways) but to continue to have those absolutely appalling official captions on the main vids which are riddled with errors, and then just auto-generated b.s. for the podcast after deaf/h.o.h fans and fans with audio processing disorders have waited all day? it's a slap in the face.

I've literally emailed them multiple times, I've commented on every vid, I've tweeted them for *years* begging them to just check the captions or correct mistakes because even though I can't hear anything (due to being completely deaf as of 3 years ago) I can still tell they're wrong. it literally stops me from being able to "consume their content"

I'm just sick of it and, personally, I won't be supporting them anymore. but I hope they finally listen for the rest of you guys.

(sorry for anon, I don't want to deal with angry phannies in my askbox again)

you're 1000% right!!! i'd like to start by saying i'm SO sorry that people have been nasty to you for requesting the literal bare minimum of broadcast standards. something that there are LITERAL BROADCASTING LAWS ABOUT, because, once again, it's THE BARE MINIMUM. there are still way too many people who consider captioning as a nice bonus or as an opportunity for jokes when it's inaccurate, as if it's not the BARE MINIMUM for part of the population to access information.

it's just... if you're to the point of launching a show with a producer and social media team and a professional set and you STILL don't think about getting professional captions, that's just plain disrespect. it is a blatant lack of care - not in the parasocial "we love you guys" sense, in the professional "you are making video entertainment and should meet certain standards" sense. the fact that TIT also still doesn't have professional captions is egregious. it's """easier""" to """let it slide""" for gaming videos that are much more casual but also like, fuck, this is your job! i'm tired of how infantilized they are about their inability to do their GODDAMN JOB. i don't find it funny that youtubers with 16 years of experience are this bad at their jobs, actually!!! it's ridiculous!!! they should have fucking captions that are GOOD and ACCURATE! and they should PAY SOMEONE FOR THEM!

and yeah the emphasis they put on having such an inclusive community means fuck all when there is such an obvious gap in who they even take into account. it's all well and good to be glad you have a widely neurodivergent audience but what does it mean to say "fuck yeah autism" when auditory processing disorders aren't on your radar at all? what does it mean to preach inclusivity when you can't clear one of the most obvious barriers to accessing what you make? what does it mean to say young people will make the world better when you are young and aren't making an effort to make it better yourself? it's just such bullshit and, though i am able to view their stuff without captions, i am incredibly tired of how blatant their disregard is when it comes to this issue that is 1000% something they can do something about.

[philyuri]

just as a warning to people who follow me that i might start getting really mean about dan and phil's business decisions and choices regarding the podcast and how the lack of captions just really exemplifies my main issue with them as creators. so if you don't want to see that you should unfollow/block me. they are, i'm afraid, severely pissing me off.

[philyuri]

no transcript linked in the podcast description. will there be professional captions on the youtube upload or have dan and phil spent all their production budget on the set instead???? let's all find out at 6pm uk time!!!!!!!

[philyuri]

the verdict is in: no captions 😍😍 getting a custom neon sign was the priority here, surely anyone who needs captions to be able to enjoy the podcast will understand that aesthetics were more important

[philyuri]

AND THEY'RE STARTING A PATREON TOO? yeah no okay fuck them lmao. GET CAPTIONS LOSERS

[philyuri]

no transcript linked in the podcast description. will there be professional captions on the youtube upload or have dan and phil spent all their production budget on the set instead???? let's all find out at 6pm uk time!!!!!!!

[philyuri]

the verdict is in: no captions 😍😍 getting a custom neon sign was the priority here, surely anyone who needs captions to be able to enjoy the podcast will understand that aesthetics were more important

[pseudophan]

"my parents never taught me how to use a washing machine" you are 34 years old

[philyuri]

no transcript linked in the podcast description. will there be professional captions on the youtube upload or have dan and phil spent all their production budget on the set instead???? let's all find out at 6pm uk time!!!!!!!

[philyuri]

okay the phanniversary tweet has been the first thing since the video dropped to make me realize that things are Different different now. okay. yeah this is scary