|
Rifkin here, and holy shit this is going to be a long post. I tried to include some pictures for those with no attention span and/or are 12 years old.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/q41CvAm.png)
I wanted to write a post about the /Host feature on twitch.tv to share some some information and strategies with it that may benefit you, help grow your channel & overall foster a better environment for SC2 Twitch related content. First I'd like to give a TLDR on what /Hosting another channel does:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JBPoVIg.png)
When you /host someone it places your viewers into ______ person's room (twitch channel) while overlaying your chat on theirs. This can be very beneficial if you want to watch a stream but you know the chat is incredibly toxic, or perhaps on subscriber only mode (WCS, pls).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2T37sUo.png)
Okay, there's a pretty good chance I googled, "Sexy math teacher" just to grab your attention, maybe I should have done that with the water and wet T-shirts... At any rate, it's pretty simple. If you have 50 viewers and you /host someone, they will get a bump of +50 (VIEWBOT ALERT) until those viewers start to leave.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yi9c1Wz.png)
This is pretty self explanatory.
Okay there you have it, pretty complex stuff. Now that you know what hosting is, let's talk about how it's beneficial for everyone (including large organizations such as ESL, Red Bull, WCS etc). To begin with, let's talk about "twitch culture" for a moment, even though it's not embraced by everyone, it is heavily influential on the majority of fans enjoying SC2. I'm not going to lie, a large part of why I'm not more active on TL is because I'm scared that a misplaced "![[image loading]](http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/chansub-global-emoticon-ddc6e3a8732cb50f-25x28.png) " is going to get me in troub-
user has been warned for this post
...Anyways, "Twitch Raids" used to be the only way to send folks from one stream to another (and that is actually a bannable offense nowadays) Some streamers don't like the sudden boost in viewership because it puts a lot of pressure on you to impress a lot of people in a very short time. Make no mistake, hosting is basically this and you can either embrace it or waste it.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JngH7hX.png)
Moving on, let's pretend there's 3 camps for a moment all trying to watch the same WCS stream:- "Avilo subs"
- "TL Elites"
- Everyone else
(I picked the names for fun, feel free to flip out about it)
"Avilo subs" start spewing garbage in chat with a bunch of Kappa's and 'PROTOSS IMBARINOS' that the "TL Elites" can't stand it, so they start bickering in chat (as the internet does). This is usually going to lead to some time outs in most streams. (holla @ great mods policing chats)
Going to be honest here, the second I get timed out or banned, I personally stop giving a single fuck about whatever's on the stream and leave.
Now let's rewrite that situation with hosting. Either each respective party has a popular streamer /hosting in advance, so none of the fighting happens in the first place and they can hang out with people of like interests/tastes, or it even happens after people start getting timed out and banned. Either way the stream being hosted benefits by not bleeding out those viewers and still providing entertainment for everyone.
Alternatively too, some streams require facebook logins (not everyone wants to do this) or forced into /sub only mode 24/7 (not everyone can afford or wants to sub) etc etc. There's a lot of ways you can actually use this feature to foster and grow your own chat community, and if there are people who come to hang out in your chat while you are offline (hosting) that just means more people hanging out in your chat while you are online ($$$). These same awesome dudes will help your grow your channel while you are not even around, just by being active in it.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hlg12ll.png)
(please no winterXrifkin fanfiction)
Okay this part is all social science mumbo jumbo, so I'm basing all of this off of personal experience. Let's take the point of view of somebody that is not popular. You and your 4 other friends only manage to get like 50-100 viewers while streaming, well if you coordinate somewhat like described above, this means if you take turns each of you could go from not even being in the top 8 SC2 streamers, to perhaps being up in the top 8 and getting an even larger chance to be noticed by new fans, while you all share your current ones. Once there you start coordinating with some others who don't stream at the same time as you, that start when you finish or vice versa and continue to grow more.
One of the first times I tried /hosting somebody was WinterSC, since he had requested it, after I had finished casting a tournament with about 3-4k viewers (side note: hilarious! This single event spurred an entire viewbot dedicated reddit post) This boosted Winter up to his "normal" view count right away on his stream, instead of working towards it over the course of a few hours. A few weeks later he hosted my stream after he had finished broadcasting, which actually placed me over the main stream of the IEM qualifier I was casting at the time. Obviously we both benefited from this 'trade' (he with time saved, me with additional viewers I may not have normally had) and since then we have both been hosting smaller viewed SC2 streams since. At this point it helps get folks with quality streams, such as SuperNova, that don't normally get noticed, well, get noticed, even outside of strictly SC2.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rVoygb7.png)
Often times I have found viewers will begin to bleed out after an hour, because tournament fans are very different than First-Person-POV fans, but if the person being hosted even gains as little as one new follower, it is worth it IMO.
I know there's a ton of legitimate reasons about favouritism among others that I don't agree with, but I wish larger organizations such as WCS would coordinate with someone hosting a quality stream (We'll use Minigun as an example) because while they are offline after wrapping up a group stage cast, if Minigun can draw in & convert some new Starcraft 2 fans, those same fans will eventually make their way back to the WCS stream later in time.
There's no downside to hosting unless you're a greedy, selfish son of a bitch that doesn't want to see others succeed. This isn't some happy hippy post where we should do Arms Across The World, but if more people can get into /hosting, everyone will eventually benefit.
***LAST BUT NOT LEAST, NEVER FORGET TO /UHOST WHEN YOU GO LIVE OR NOBODY CAN WATCH YOUR OWN STREAM :D
|
No downside? I think that's still too early to call.
Very well written though, would like to see how it goes.
The concept is pretty cool and thanks for explaining the whole thing 
|
On August 19 2014 14:45 ETisME wrote:No downside? I think that's still too early to call. Very well written though, would like to see how it goes. The concept is pretty cool and thanks for explaining the whole thing
ok, in fairness, twitch auto play is irritating
|
1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
KBB got mad at me for giving blanket warnings for all twitch memes regardless of context so you are free to go
THIS TIME
|
On August 19 2014 14:50 lichter wrote:
KBB got mad at me for giving blanket warnings for all twitch memes regardless of context so you are free to go
THIS TIME
Oh, come on Lichter. I'm like the hardest ass mod on Twitch and even I think that warning Graham for that is a bit of a stretch. 
|
Cool thanks, I never knew about this feature with twitch...this is very interesting, also Tenacious D is awesome.
|
1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
On August 19 2014 14:53 looknohands119 wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2014 14:50 lichter wrote:
KBB got mad at me for giving blanket warnings for all twitch memes regardless of context so you are free to go
THIS TIME Oh, come on Lichter. I'm like the hardest ass mod on Twitch and even I think that warning Graham for that is a bit of a stretch.
giving one's self a fake warning is also a warnable offense >.>
|
On August 19 2014 14:59 lichter wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2014 14:53 looknohands119 wrote:On August 19 2014 14:50 lichter wrote:
KBB got mad at me for giving blanket warnings for all twitch memes regardless of context so you are free to go
THIS TIME Oh, come on Lichter. I'm like the hardest ass mod on Twitch and even I think that warning Graham for that is a bit of a stretch. giving one's self a fake warning is also a warnable offense >.>
KeSPA jail has clearly sapped you of your funny bone Lichter. 
|
I completely agree with Rif. With him hosting I've seen a lot of streamers I wouldn't have realized were streaming at the time, I've followed nearly all of them, but Twitch doesn't give me the same announcement, I'm sure it's an option somewhere, but once BaseTradeTV is done, It's awesome that they are awesome to host anyone else!
|
On August 19 2014 14:59 lichter wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2014 14:53 looknohands119 wrote:On August 19 2014 14:50 lichter wrote:
KBB got mad at me for giving blanket warnings for all twitch memes regardless of context so you are free to go
THIS TIME Oh, come on Lichter. I'm like the hardest ass mod on Twitch and even I think that warning Graham for that is a bit of a stretch. giving one's self a fake warning is also a warnable offense >.>
licther pls - make me wanna use TL more not less
user has used red text in this post
|
1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
On August 19 2014 15:16 BasetradeTV wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2014 14:59 lichter wrote:On August 19 2014 14:53 looknohands119 wrote:On August 19 2014 14:50 lichter wrote:
KBB got mad at me for giving blanket warnings for all twitch memes regardless of context so you are free to go
THIS TIME Oh, come on Lichter. I'm like the hardest ass mod on Twitch and even I think that warning Graham for that is a bit of a stretch. giving one's self a fake warning is also a warnable offense >.> licther pls - make me wanna use TL more not less user has used red text in this post
this is exactly why KBB wants to take away my shiny mod buttons
at least you're on the front page now :p
|
On August 19 2014 15:21 lichter wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2014 15:16 BasetradeTV wrote:On August 19 2014 14:59 lichter wrote:On August 19 2014 14:53 looknohands119 wrote:On August 19 2014 14:50 lichter wrote:
KBB got mad at me for giving blanket warnings for all twitch memes regardless of context so you are free to go
THIS TIME Oh, come on Lichter. I'm like the hardest ass mod on Twitch and even I think that warning Graham for that is a bit of a stretch. giving one's self a fake warning is also a warnable offense >.> licther pls - make me wanna use TL more not less user has used red text in this post this is exactly why KBB wants to take away my shiny mod buttons at least you're on the front page now :p
But how can you be in both KeSPA jail and KBB jail at the same time?
|
Didn't know about this feature, or possibilities of abuse of this feature, before now. Interesting.
And BasetradeTV don't you think
not embraced by everyone
"TL Elites"
user has been warned for this post /fake warning/
is all a bit much for posting an informative writeup on the site itself? Geez ...
|
On August 19 2014 15:21 lichter wrote:this is exactly why KBB wants to take away my shiny mod buttons at least you're on the front page now :p
:O TL rules, culture and modding is one of the most important reason to use it and many find it so appealing as their community site... Hope it will never change.
|
I did not mean... to blow your mind...
|
On August 19 2014 15:51 Danglars wrote:Didn't know about this feature, or possibilities of abuse of this feature, before now. Interesting. And BasetradeTV don't you think not embraced by everyone"TL Elites" user has been warned for this post /fake warning/ is all a bit much for posting an informative writeup on the site itself? Geez ...
100% of my posts here are on Team Liquid, though. I wouldn't make all of my posts here if I hated it. (This is where I would otherwise insert a grey face)
|
On August 19 2014 15:51 Danglars wrote:Didn't know about this feature, or possibilities of abuse of this feature, before now. Interesting. And BasetradeTV don't you think not embraced by everyone"TL Elites" user has been warned for this post /fake warning/ is all a bit much for posting an informative writeup on the site itself? Geez ...
I also hadn't heard of this feature before, but hosting seems pretty cool. Its application to chat is also interesting considering how much of a disaster Twitch chat is from a logistics point of view. The TL jabs were kinda unnecessary, fairly entertaining though they did detract from the main message of the post.
|
gosh, Tenacious D. Pure awesomeness. Your visual marketing caught me, I believe in hosting now.
|
How would you organize a personal streamer to host during the downtime of a major tournament? Wouldn't you be worried about his/her honesty, and maybe they wouldn't bounce the users back to the WCS stream or whatever, so that they could keep more viewers for ads?
|
On August 19 2014 16:19 Pontius Pirate wrote:
How would you organize a personal streamer to host during the downtime of a major tournament? Wouldn't you be worried about his/her honesty, and maybe they wouldn't bounce the users back to the WCS stream or whatever, so that they could keep more viewers for ads?
I think you've confused my point. Here's a proper example:
WCS America stops streaming (ending the stream with 10k viewers)
If, after they are offline and have no more content to show, they /host Minigun (who currently has 1059 viewers) he will suddenly have 11,159 putting him well into the top streamers on twitch (overall not just SC2), which increases the chance that say maybe 50 League of Legends fans see his stream, enjoy it, and become dedicated. Those fans will eventually watch WCS because maybe they want to see Minigun in challenger, or they got into competitive sc2, etc etc
edit: the numbers are made up and anything but accurate representations, just examples
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
