Regardless of any replies from people who are being unnecessarily defensive, and from those oblivious to the workings of YouTube and being a professional video creator, Dave's YouTube - by his own admission - is his full time business. Business of the kind of which Dave has chosen to become part, is highly dependant on viewing figures, which, in turn, are highly dependant on a regular and repetitive schedule and predictable timetable which viewers can factor into their viewing schedule/lives. We humans are creatures of habit - if the 6 o'clock news was 5pm one day, 7:03pm the next day, and absent the third day, how long would the channel broadcasting it, last? Failure to be cogniscent of these simple but crucial rules for having a successful YouTube channel, are a recipe for a viewership decline, ergo, loss of revenue.
If you are commenting on this subject merely to "defend" Dave, then I would say he doesn't need "defending" as I am not attacking him. If you comment with little to no experience of being a broadcaster of sorts (IE: you're not Dave himself) then you are not entirely, or partially qualified to have an educated opinion on the subject. I run my own YouTube channel with well over 1M hits, and have noticed that because *I* do not upload regular videos (but then, I never said I would), my viewership is not poor (20,000+ a month) but nowhere near the figures I could achieve, were I to one day decide that I want to commit my life to creating and uploading videos (I don't want to, ergo my humble figures).
I am in no way attacking Dave, and I am not questioning his intellectual prowess nor his immense and valuable engineering knowledge, I am - however - a little confused as to why - for the last 2 months - episodes seem to be late, or more commonly, many weeks miss the regular episodes entirely, with no explanation (no, he doesn't HAVE to explain, but it's good practice and courteous to do so, to viewers caught in the habit of enjoying your content at set times and/or days).. and yet - arbitrary videos which seem not to be described as any of the usual "Teardown Tuesday" or "Mailbag Monday" episodes, pop up randomly out of the blue, and then silence again for a week (or two).
It's just unpredictable and confusing. Dave - mate - I am not having a go at you, I am just concerned that your viewership could decline because of this, if it becomes a regular thing of your episodes being conspicuous by their absence. If you need a few months off, wouldn't it be wiser to make a formal channel announcement... a "Gone Fishing" notice, so to speak?
Thanks you.