Brotherhood 2.0: the 2007 year of daily video letters

project history · status: completed · last event: outcome (2007-12-31) · last mentioned: 2026-09-30

Brotherhood 2.0 was the brothers' year-long project, begun on 1 January 2007, of trading video blogs every weekday instead of communicating by text, with punishments for breaking the rules. It ended on 31 December 2007, but the brothers kept making videos and have looked back on it ever since.

Parts: Hank: drink a glass of Strawberry Hill wine without hurling (2007) · John: eat five sheets of toilet paper while discussing the political situation in Nepal (2007) · Hank: list with John the ways the brothers differ (2007) · Brotherhood 2.0 Book Club: each brother reads a book the other assigns (2007) · Happy Dance Project: compilation of the brothers' and Nerdfighters' happy dances (2007) · Brotherhood 2.0 video podcast feed (2007) · Carbon-neutralizing Brotherhood 2.0 through carbonfund.org (2007) · Top Secret Project: Nerdfighters' birthday greetings for Hank (2007) · The brothers' accidental instant-message exchange that breaks the no-textual-communication rule (2007) · Brotherhood 2.0 scavenger hunt (2007) · Project for Awesome 2007 edition: the final Brotherhood 2.0 project (2007) · John asks Nerdfighters to suggest punishments for Hank (2007) · Hank: eat a blenderized Christmas meal or give a one-hour public concert, as voted by Nerdfighters (2007) · John: send Peter 'Mummy, How Do I Know If I'm a Nerdfighter?' as a late baby-warming present (2007)

Punishments and asks under this rule: Hank asks John to answer his annual friends-and-family survey (2007) · John: punishment for accidentally CC'ing Hank on an email (2007) · Hank's 2007 punishment voted by viewers (for textual communication) · John asks Nerdfighters to suggest Hank's punishment for his email slip (2007) · Hank: embarrassing moment sock puppet theater (2007 punishment) · Hank asks Nerdfighters for punishment ideas after the brothers' instant-message slip (2007) · John asks Hank to help pick John's punishment on the forum (2007) · Hank: recreate his goth photo as punishment (2007) · John: do a half-naked dance in a golden bow tie as punishment (2007) · Hank asks John to clarify Hank's punishment by Friday (2007) · John asks viewers to suggest a song for his punishment dance (2007) · John: eat a blenderized Happy Meal, wax a leg and lick a cat, for a textual communication (2007) · John asks Nerdfighters to vote between two punishments for Hank (2007)

Told alongside: My Pants: the Brotherhood 2.0 forum (2007) · 'In your pants' suffix game (2007) · The doctor who said 'sneezing is not normal, I never sneeze', nicknamed Dr. NeverSneezer Scrooge by Hank (2021) · Hank's song 'Accio Deathly Hallows' (2007) · Brotherhood 2.0.0.9: the vlogbrothers' 2009 schedule and rules (2009) · Truth or Fail game-show videos (2009) · Song Wednesday: Hank performs a song on Wednesdays (2007) · Hank's Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis and chemotherapy (2023)

About: Brotherhood 2.0, No textual communication, Punishment, YouTube

date	event	what	video
2007-01-01	launched	Hank launches Brotherhood 2.0: no more textual communication, alternating daily video blogs from January 1st for the year, punishments for a missed weekday video.	Brotherhood 2.0: January 1st 00:00:43
2007-01-02	proposed	Besides the agreed punishments, John proposes the brothers periodically set each other challenges and suggests Thursdays and Fridays as challenge days. (hedged)	Brotherhood 2.0: January 2nd 00:01:19
2007-01-03	proposed	Hank floats performing a version of 500 Miles on the show and asks whether it should be a punishment, project or challenge. (hedged)	Brotherhood 2.0: January 3rd 00:01:56
2007-01-04	proposed	John suggests letting a Brotherhood 2.0 viewer who just had a baby pick a project or challenge for the brothers as a baby present. (hedged)	Brotherhood 2.0: Eating Toilet Paper 00:02:05
2007-01-11	proposed	Hank proposes adding punishment options to choose from, letting people suggest punishments, and suggests three of his own besides the existing 500 miles punishment. (hedged)	Brotherhood 2.0: January 11th 00:01:11
2007-01-12	proposed	John proposes punishment options for failing to update, drawn from his living room. (playful)	Brotherhood 2.0: January 12, 2007 00:01:01
2007-01-15	milestone	Hank presents the new Brotherhood 2.0 website at brotherhood2.com and invites suggestions.	Brotherhood 2.0: January 15th 00:00:00
2007-01-25	proposed	Hank proposes that the brother not being punished decides which punishment the other gets.	Brotherhood 2.0: January 25th 00:01:05
2007-02-02	milestone	Hank greets the maker of the first Brotherhood 2.0 reply video on YouTube.	Brotherhood 2.0: February 2nd 00:00:03
2007-02-20	milestone	Brotherhood 2.0 now has a MySpace page, which already has about 69 friends.	Brotherhood 2.0: February 20th: Computer Trouble 00:00:59
2007-04-20	milestone	According to YouTube, Brotherhood 2.0 has received 116,419 views.	Brotherhood 2.0: Carbon Neutralizing Youtube 00:00:09
2007-05-07	milestone	Neil Gaiman posts a link to Brotherhood 2.0 on his blog; John phones Hank with the news.	May 7th: Birthday Extravaganza 00:01:10
2007-05-31	proposed	John thinks Brotherhood 2.0 needs a forum because the comments are too many and too confused to follow, and challenges Hank to make one if viewers favour it. (hedged)	Brotherhood 2.0: May 31: Yogurt eating 00:01:45
2007-07-02	milestone	John marks July 2 as the first day of the second half of Brotherhood 2.0.	Brotherhood 2.0: July 2nd: The Law of Compound Nerdfighting 00:00:03
2007-07-09	proposed	John proposes a punishment rule: the brothers cannot veto their own punishments, but their wives may veto punishments suggested by nerdfighters; he hopes Hank agrees. (hedged)	July 9: The Punishment Fiasco 00:02:47
2007-11-20	rule change	Hank sets the Thanksgiving week schedule: John posts Wednesday, Hank Friday, nobody Thursday.	November 20th: A White Thanksgiving 00:03:29
2007-12-03	milestone	Hank announces Brotherhood 2.0 has reached its 10,000th subscriber (actually 10,022).	December 3rd: 10,000 Subscribers! and secret project 00:00:10
2007-12-13	milestone	In a phone message to Hank, John reports that Vlogbrothers has finally cracked YouTube's all-time most-subscribed directors list.	December 13: Mailing Shopping Thanking. It Must Be Christmas 00:03:33
2007-12-28	looked back	In his last Brotherhood 2.0 video John looks back: he is grateful mainly because he now knows Hank as an adult, and says they would never have finished if people hadn't watched.	Dec. 28th: John's Last Brotherhood 2.0 Video 00:01:34
2007-12-31 (happened 2006)	looked back	The brothers' farewell song looks back on Brotherhood 2.0: how John proposed it after falling for 'Zay' in 2006, the year's YouTube moments and in-jokes, and asks whether they are closer than a year ago. (playful)	Dec 31: Goodbye Brotherhood 2.0 00:00:03
2007-12-31	outcome	The song states that the project is ending, with its rules seemingly in need of amending.	Dec 31: Goodbye Brotherhood 2.0 00:03:00
2008-07-08 (said on 2008-07-07, implied)	looked back	John recalls that Brotherhood 2.0 was his idea and that Hank judged it 'not terrible', so they did it. (playful)	Hank Tried to Kill Me With a Hammer 00:00:25
2009-01-01	looked back	Hank looks back on Brotherhood 2.0, restaging its first video and calling John's news videos one of the coolest things they did; this year's (2009) rules are more complicated than the first year's. (hedged) → refers to Brotherhood 2.0: January 1st	Brotherhood 2.0.0.9 00:01:19
2010-05-17	looked back	Hank recalls that John convinced him to do something ridiculous they thought would be about two people, and it turned out to be about many more.	My YouTube Story is Short 00:01:55
2012-01-02 (happened 2007-01-02)	looked back	John marks the fifth anniversary of his first Vlogbrothers video, uploaded January 2, 2007. → refers to Brotherhood 2.0: January 2nd	Changes to Vlogbrothers 00:00:00
2014-07-18 (happened 2007-01-01)	looked back	Hank recalls that the brothers created the channel on January 1, 2007 with three rules: a video on your day, a four-minute limit (which Hank actually added on March 6, 2007), and no textual communication.	EVERY VLOGBROTHERS PUNISHMENT! 00:00:21
2017-07-14 (happened 2007-12)	looked back	In December 2007, having done the project for its planned year and with 11,000 subscribers, the brothers thought about stopping but decided to keep going, which turned out okay.	YouTube History Lesson: Vlogbrothers Through the Ages 00:03:06
2017-07-18 (happened 2007-07)	looked back	In July 2007 John was doing Brotherhood 2.0, a year-long project of weekday videos with Hank, watched by a few hundred people a day.	Accio Decade Hallows 00:02:12
2020-12-08 (happened 2006)	looked back	John says starting a collaborative video blog back in 2006 was his idea.	A Love Letter to My Brother, Basically 00:00:00
2021-09-14 (happened 2006)	looked back	In late 2006, after An Abundance of Katherines came out, John quit his day job to write full time, found himself still inconsistent and the empty days terrifying, and three months later invented an unpaid job, this channel.	I do this every. single. tuesday. 00:01:34
2024-01-30	looked back	John recalls he used to think completing the project meant finishing Brotherhood 2.0 on December 31, 2007, but he didn't feel finished then.	How Vlogbrothers Will End 00:03:05
2026-03-13	looked back	Hank notes the brothers no longer require themselves never to miss a day, and no longer get punished for missing one.	Pain 00:03:04
2026-09-29	looked back	Hank recalls they decided to upload a video every weekday of 2007 and relive that for two weeks every year in Pizzamas, not near Christmas and loosely based on pizza.	Pretend You Don't Know This 00:01:30
2026-09-30	looked back	John recalls that early on the brothers replaced text with video blogs for no reward but bit commitment: no money, and 200 videos before 200 subscribers.	The Point of Life 00:02:08

Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).

What is said about it

38 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).

2007-01-01 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 1st — announcement: Hank tells John they will no longer communicate by any textual means: no instant messaging or email, only video blogs and possibly phone calls. — 00:00:13 · also in: Week 1 Condensed!
2007-01-01 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 1st — Hank says he sent John the email outlining the plan the night before from a New Year's Eve party in Lake Tahoe. — 00:00:43 · also in: Week 1 Condensed!
2007-01-01 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 1st — announcement: Hank says that if either brother fails to send a video blog on a weekday there will be punishments, to be outlined later. — 00:00:43 · also in: Week 1 Condensed!
2007-01-01 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 1st — announcement: Hank declares that Brotherhood 2.0 commences today and admits the plan probably makes them crazy. (playful) — 00:00:43
2007-01-02 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 2nd — John: Recalling the agreed punishments for missed videos, John proposes the brothers also periodically give each other challenges. (hedged) — 00:01:19 · also in: Week 1 Condensed!
2007-01-02 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 2nd — John suggests two challenges: eating five sheets of toilet paper while discussing the political situation in Nepal, and drinking a glass of Strawberry Hill wine without hurling. (playful) — 00:01:53 · also in: Brotherhood 2.0: February 14th
2007-01-02 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 2nd — John tentatively suggests Thursdays and Fridays as challenge days and leaves the choice to Hank. (hedged) — 00:01:53
2007-01-04 · Brotherhood 2.0: Eating Toilet Paper — John notes Hank ignored his toilet-paper-and-Nepal challenge in his last video and says that if Hank will not do it, he will. (playful) — 00:01:11
2007-01-11 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 11th — Hank proposes suggesting more punishments so the brothers can choose between them, and letting people suggest punishments too. (hedged) — 00:01:11
2007-01-11 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 11th — Hank says the only punishment so far is the 500 miles punishment, which he would be totally okay doing and thinks would be fun. (hedged) — 00:01:11
2007-01-11 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 11th — Hank suggests three punishments: grow facial hair for a week then wax the chin, the 'stick-a-needle-in-my-eye provision', and giving yourself a mohawk, which he has always wanted. (playful) — 00:01:43
2007-01-11 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 11th — Hank sings a line of 500 Miles and says it is not a punishment to him; they need to come up with better punishments. (hedged) — 00:02:54 · also in: Week 2 Condensed Highlight Reel
2007-01-12 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 12, 2007 — John proposes punishments for failing to update, taken from his living room: the 1100-page Continuum History of Apocalypticism, a Christmas card with someone else's baby, knitting a scarf, eating a styrofoam peanut. (playful) — 00:01:01 · also in: Week 2 Condensed Highlight Reel
2007-01-15 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 15th — announcement: Hank presents the new Brotherhood 2.0 website at brotherhood2.com and asks for suggestions or comments. — 00:00:00
2007-01-25 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 25th — Hank says many people have suggested very good punishments: not just difficult but extremely embarrassing on a video blog, which is the kind they want. — 00:01:05
2007-01-25 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 25th — Hank: Expecting he may well be the first punished, Hank proposes that the unpunished brother choose the punishment, so the punished one can't take the one he'd most like; viewers see the other's pick. (hedged) — 00:01:05
2007-02-02 · Brotherhood 2.0: February 2nd — Hank greets the viewer who made the first Brotherhood 2.0 reply video on YouTube: 'Well done'. — 00:00:03
2007-02-20 · Brotherhood 2.0: February 20th: Computer Trouble — Hank: The working computer is helping with Brotherhood 2.0 projects, chiefly their new MySpace page, which already has about 69 friends after John's SparksFlyUp post and Hank's bulletin. — 00:00:59
2007-05-07 · May 7th: Birthday Extravaganza — Hank says John phoned before the film to tell them Neil Gaiman had posted a link to Brotherhood 2.0 on his blog. — 00:01:10
2007-09-28 · September 28th: Nerdfighting!!! — John says Brotherhood 2.0 may be three quarters done, but nerdfighting is just getting started. — 00:02:38
2007-10-02 · Oct. 2nd: Brotherhood 2.0 on the Road (Literally) — John does not recommend vlogging while driving at 72 mph unless you are nine months into a 12-month project and have never missed a day. (playful) — 00:00:36
2007-11-09 · Nov. 9th: Sick Day — John notes that the Brotherhood 2.0 rules require a video every other weekday for all of 2007 but never require a long one. (playful) — 00:00:00
2007-11-20 · November 20th: A White Thanksgiving — announcement: Hank: Because Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, John posts tomorrow, Hank posts Friday and nobody posts Thursday; Hank notes a holiday finally falls on one of his days. — 00:03:29
2007-12-03 · December 3rd: 10,000 Subscribers! and secret project — Hank announces Brotherhood 2.0 has passed its 10,000th subscriber; it actually has 10,022. — 00:00:10
2007-12-20 · December 20th: HANK SHALL BE PUNISHED! — John says the brothers have almost completed Brotherhood 2.0 and he is impressed with them. — 00:00:00
2007-12-21 · December 21: Hank Accepts His Punishment — announcement: Hank says Monday is the last day of Brotherhood 2.0 and that he is kind of sad about it. — 00:03:18
2007-12-27 · December 27th: The Gig! — announcement: Hank signs off saying he will see John's last Brotherhood 2.0 video tomorrow. — 00:03:48
2007-12-28 · Dec. 28th: John's Last Brotherhood 2.0 Video — John says that, much as they enjoyed it, the brothers would never have finished the project if people hadn't watched, because it was hard and because he loves not finishing things. — 00:01:47
2007-12-28 · Dec. 28th: John's Last Brotherhood 2.0 Video — John signs off to Nerdfighters 'in my pants', thanks Hank for all of this and says he'll see him on Monday. — 00:03:30
2007-12-31 · Dec 31: Goodbye Brotherhood 2.0 — both: The chorus says goodbye to Brotherhood 2.0, telling viewers the brothers know they will be sad to see it go. — 00:00:40
2007-12-31 · Dec 31: Goodbye Brotherhood 2.0 — both: The song asks whether the brothers are closer now than they were a year ago. (unsure) — 00:01:24
2007-12-31 · Dec 31: Goodbye Brotherhood 2.0 — both: The song says that while writing it they realised it has been about more than the two of them, which is why it is sad to sing goodbye. — 00:01:59
2007-12-31 · Dec 31: Goodbye Brotherhood 2.0 — announcement: both: The song states that the project is ending and that its rules seem to need some amending. (hedged) — 00:03:00
2008-07-08 (said on 2008-07-07, implied) · Hank Tried to Kill Me With a Hammer — John says Brotherhood 2.0 was initially his idea; he has a crazy idea every 45 minutes and relies on Hank to reject them, but Hank said this one was not terrible. (playful) — 00:00:25
2009-01-01 · Brotherhood 2.0.0.9 — Hank restages his first Brotherhood 2.0 video from two years ago, including the camera glitch and the eye reflection, admitting he then did not know how to make videos. (playful) — 00:00:37
2009-01-01 · Brotherhood 2.0.0.9 — Hank says John's news videos were one of the coolest things they did in Brotherhood 2.0: blissful ignorance is nothing compared to the crushing weight of the truth. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:19
2012-01-02 · Changes to Vlogbrothers — John marks five years since he uploaded his first Vlogbrothers video, on January 2, 2007, with a deliberately terrible jump cut. — 00:00:00
2014-07-18 · EVERY VLOGBROTHERS PUNISHMENT! — Hank says the brothers created the channel on January 1, 2007 with three rules: a video on your day, no video over four minutes, and no textual communication between them. — 00:00:21