The Murverse Mothership

I’ve been messing about on Twitch for a while now, and I’m slowly getting the hang of it. I started by moving my Patreon-only AMA chats there for everyone to attend, and then just kept going with gaming streaming and doing live I Should Be Writing episodes. Keeping to a regular schedule is good for me, it seems, and I’ve been very regular both streaming and podcasting since starting this.

I’m still super new, and Twitch feels like a many tentacled beast I am trying to wrestle. Unfortunately, every advice book/video I have found is like “Oh, Twitch has two, three tentacles, tops. You totally got this!” And I’m being dragged under by at least fourteen tentacles.

Advice I’ve heard:

• Be consistent. (useful)
• Follow general etiquette which is [detailed video or blog post follows]. (SUPER useful)
• Be a woman. ([side-eye] Really? This advice was from a guy who’s convinced that female presenting streamers get more views because … female. While I think the key to views is to be a twenty-something white male who screams a lot when he games and possibly pranks people in a way that thrills teenagers, but, hell, I’m new at this. He also acknowledges harassment was a thing, but suggests just moving past or getting over it. He was a big fucking help.)

While here are problems I have run into and haven’t found a solution for:

• What moderation bots do I need, do I need more than one, and where are the hidden swearing filters? I have turned those filters off everywhere I could find (Swearing is fine, hate speech is not), and still words like “ass” are “vampire” — not kidding — are being flagged for swearing or hostile language.
• Raid etiquette. Should I toss my 20 viewers at a streamer who I admire, and am friendly with in their chat, but they don’t know ME as a streamer at all? I haven’t started raiding yet, but that’s partly cause I don’t know how to approach it.
• Cheers vs Bits vs Coins vs Channel Points vs Glorms vs Flickabeads vs… How many different moneys does Twitch have, and what do they all mean, and how do you get them as a viewer and how do you get/use them as a streamer? And JFC WHY SO MANY?
• Hey, Mac users, SLOBS isn’t necessarily an easy plug n play option for software, and no one tells you this. I just figured it out last night with Streamlabs’ help. OK, I lied, I have found a solution for this one but it’s been bothering me for weeks.

Lessons I’ve learned:

• Some people are making money by charging you for the knowledge of how to make money streaming. They’re like the true capitalists of the gold rush, where they are making their money selling picks and shovels to streamers and promising them gold. One actually said she made a boatload of money on Twitch one month, but that was when her book on streaming came out. [More side eye.] I have learned to take their advice with a grain of salt. And it amuses me to imagine them holding shovels and picks.
• Audiences are understanding. VERY understanding when you’re struggling with things like lighting, green screens, audio, games not showing up where they should, computers dying in the middle of streams, etc. Thank you, audience.
• Sometimes your opinion isn’t needed in someone else’s chat. This is a rule for the whole Internet, actually, but it’s something I deal with because I might want to chime in just to be part of the conversation and meet other people, but if I don’t fit into a convo it’s OK to sit back. It won’t hurt me. And their conversation won’t suffer without my scintillating addition. Take note, folks.
• Kindness and politeness go a long way. (Now I’m just sounding like Life Advice From Mom. )

That’s mostly it for now. I may post again as I learn more. But here’s my schedule as of October 1, 2020. * All times Eastern US time zone.

• M: 12:30pm AMA, general chat
• T: 12:30pm Live I Should be Writing
• Th: 12:30pm Live I Should be Writing, 8pm gaming (currently Hatoful Boyfriend)
• Su: 2pm gaming (currently Stardew Valley or Blaseball** commentary. ***)

*ok, September 28, but starting at the beginning of the month is so much tidier.
**I will have a whole blog post about this soon.
***I may also be adding a news show about Blaseball, color commentary, etc, but I don’t have a time slot chosen yet.