Hello! How was your weekend? Were you caught up in all the rumors from tweets about historic suspensions, or did you touch grass and not care/notice at all? I won't get into the details, but it's been part of my weekend. In watching how this has all played out, I'm left with a sense that I don't think there is a scenario where this works out for anyone. The fervor around the topic and how it is playing out feels like it may end up causing more harm to all involved (the community, journalists and journalism, former and current staffers' sentiment, the intricacies and differences in criminal vs. business law, and so on). Everyone is being drip-fed details in disconnected steps. Rather than being a story that solves a mystery and corrects a possible injustice, from my POV, it looks very, very, very messy. Alas, the story isn't done... we'll see how/if it plays out further.
And with that, let's get into this week's recap!
Twitch News
- You can now see the number of Blocked Terms occurrences.
- Twitch is working on policies to handle channels that don't monetize. Could we see a viewership threshold for ads in the future? Right now, ads start when you hit affiliate.
- This week, a Call button was briefly launched on the sidebar. This suggests another update to Guest Star to introduce the much-talked-about "Drop-In" function, which allows you to Knock on their Door and join their stream at any time. There also remains a menu icon leftover function.
- Pride is the fourth creator guild to launch on Twitch. Twitch was seeking leaders (US/Canada only) but has closed the application. Membership will be opened at a later date.
- Partners can now apply for Front Page slots at the beginning of each month.
- Twitch CEO Dan Clancy explained why there's so much sexual content on his feed: He personally makes sure they are labeling it as sexual themes.
- Anyone traveling to Twitchcon Rotterdam should be aware that Amsterdam Central Station is closed on June 29, 2024.
- Since launch, the new Power-Ups function has seen about 4000 Partners (of ~31,000) change the prices, with about 15% of those setting them to the maximum price point.
- Amazon IVS (tech derived from Twitch) now offers individual participant recordings.
- Twitch is being sued for patent infringement over its 'slide tool.' I believe it means the front page carousel.
- A new global emote, SpiritEel, launched this week for Elden Ring DLC. A badge was also launched, earned by watching 5 minutes of any Elden Ring stream.
Streaming Industry News
- Twitter will soon limit who can stream on the platform to Premium subscribers.
- You can now create and sell your own custom keycaps with Fourthwall in partnership with Infinikey. Sign up for Fourthwall and get a $15 sample credit!*
- YouTube will soon let creators edit videos longer than 6 hours using the Editor tool - a previous pain point for live creators.
- YouTube is testing a Community Notes-like feature.
- Instagram now allows you to limit livestreams to friends only.
- Discord has an active promotion with Minecraft that requires 15 minutes of live streaming.
- Discord posted its monthly changelog.
- The much anticipated Threads API has now launched.
- An ex-Kick staffer has shared why she had to leave the company, citing various deplorable experiences.
- Kick has rewritten a portion of its Community Guidelines. The new rules address content such as IRL streaming and Chat Roulette style content. I break down all the changes here.
- TikTok is launching an Instagram competitor called Whee.
- Tencent is slated to ban AI influencers from livestreaming.
*This is an ad.
