Daily Archives: September 26, 2020

Twitch, They continuously miss the mark.. Time and time again.

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I think its safe to say that people who know of the streaming community can agree that twitch is dropping the ball in terms of their many misses in recent months. From their emote add ones to running ads in the most absolutely wrong way, here is some specific things as well as suggestions from the community. Just because Twitch is the biggest streaming platform whose rival appears to be YouTube gaming OR Facebook who recently worked to get their Partners free from some DMCA claims, the way Twitch is NOT handling situations is really making them stand out for all the wrong reasons.

First let’s begin with their ever so invasive ads that would essentially force the streamer to either run them on their own or be forced for a picture in picture experience for the viewer. Why is this bad because they happen at the most inopportune times for the streamer, From beating a boss or an epic kill in a battle royale game, it really is not helping the viewer experience in any way, shape, or form.

A particular streamer is also not happy with these ads and rightfully so. Quiltoni is a quilter and educator on the platform. While streaming and running a family friendly PG stream twitch decided (Or whatever the algorithm is) to run a Trojan (Condom) Ad during this time. This is a detrimental part of their stream due to the fact that it can and is broadcast in quilting supply stores as quoted by;
Quiltoni:
“They also may have just killed my relationship with a store that has me live.”
Quiltoni also mentioned that their channel does not have the 18+ (Mature Audience) Filter on either. However by having that type of system in place Twitch can use that to help filter ads that can be damaging to a streamers channel. And I couldn’t agree more. If Twitch is going to force ads on the streamers we should at least have a say in what type of ads are shown on their also. An 18+ channel would be better suited for the beer and condom ads instead of a family friendly stream for other types of things.
( You can find their twitter here for all links: https://twitter.com/quiltoni )

Then there was the emote add-ons by twitch to celebrate the Hispanic Community on the platform which was met with IMMEDIATE backlash due to their extremely stereotypical designs. Now, I myself am a White Female and have never been met with racism before therefore I obviously am not going to speak on that. However I will say this, Why is it that it took a community backlash to prevent/remove these from being released? How many people did this particular change have to go through in order to have them approved? I feel like as a company as large as Twitch or even Amazon that there are some obvious marks about cultural appropriation that have been missed here. Why are people not informed on these particular issues OR better yet, why was the community not all asked on what they think could be a great way to start in terms of adding content to the platform that showcases this.

I also would like to mention that after year and year and year on the platform why has the support system not been updated? The ticket system is flawed at best and there is 0 live support for something that might be needed such as the hate raids that have been popping up in streams more and more frequently. This is where particular streams are targeted with bots or actual people and spamming hate speech where the mods are banning and constantly trying to rectify the situation and making chat safe again. There still are MANY MANY user names that are coming out and “beating the system” so to speak with their way of being written so that they are still allowed in chat. I feel like as a company there should be better ways to make this change happen to prevent so many names from being allowed on the platform. This would go along the lines of why are people who are banned from the channel still able to search and view the channel? (This was mentioned by a tweeter saying that Mixer when it was live actually had a feature that you could not see a channel had you been banned from it). Let along do we need to talk about view bots and how they are still around the platform CONTINUOUSLY!

I think the most frustrating thing from a streamer perspective is that Twitch as a company appears to be a) all about money (as most large company’s do), b) They appear to be more and more about “Smoke and Mirrors” in terms of trying to make it seem like they want the community involved when they really arent involved at all. Case and point would be when they wanted to bring a diverse group together as part of this Safety Counsel however all it was doing was to protect the company by creating policies, Oh and did I forget to mention how one prominent member thought they would go on a bit of a rant about how they were protected from anything and were near “God-Like” due to being on this counsel.

As for streaming asking for things something as seemingly simple as discoverability for the content creators on the platform Twitch doesn’t really do a whole lot their. They took away the “Communities” feature and decided to go with tags which is still again, extremely challenging to find up and coming creators. Why is something that could greatly benefit the streamer community as a whole something on the back burner or not even thought of?

Should we even mention the Sub-tember that focuses on new subscribers and not old ones. I get it, From a marketing perspective you want to bring new viewers in to subscribe for you to make money, And the people who continually sub already will keep doing so, But why not please both? Is that a difficult task to do? Or is it still about money here?

Not to mention, Kudos to Twitch for doing SOMETHING among the sexual abuse accusations that are happening. My only thing is I believe they should be more transparent with what is happening here. They are banning permanently people who have a lot of evidence for them and the crimes that they have committed. They have taken the accusations towards people seriously. I do believe that people are slipping under the radar because they are “bigger” streamers and pulling in viewers. Not to mention their viewers are also harassing the people who have proof and accusing them. The fact they are doing things I will say is progress for sure. Especially for such a delicate issue.

I guess as you can tell there really is some major flaws with Twitch and the direction that they are going. When it comes to listening to the streamers across the platform they really aren’t doing a whole lot to keep them around or offering anything more that other platforms are now. I hope that they do see this and the suggestions and work towards trying to make Twitch a safer place. Also Twitch, Remember, Just because you may be the leading platform in streaming currently, Doesn’t mean that you are going to stay there OR that you can and should slack on what the greater community would like to see.

-StaySeeJ08



Things no one tells you after giving birth

Life, Parenting, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Having a baby can be a super stressful time, Believe me, I was there. Not that long ago. In fact, the goal is to even go back there once my boyfriend and I find out we are moving back home to Nova Scotia (And a third time too!). However, There is a lot of things that no one talks about when giving birth and had it not been for a few friends who have been having kids a lot longer than myself or a friend who has a son who is 2 months older than my own telling me these things I would have had no idea some of these things. Sure you get the books and read them but do you REALLY read them? I know I skipped through pages near the end so you aren’t alone. Here is some things that stuck out to me.

Stairs Suck! When I was in the hospital I was on like the 2nd or 3rd floor. I never once took the stairs until I arrived home. We took the elevator and that was basically all. Well let me tell you, It was CRAZY the amount of pain you have when you have to walk up the stairs. I had about 5 or so stairs going into my house and our bedrooms were on the top floor which was another 10. No one ever said that your whole legs and butt we’re going to have this weird pain for a while as you walked up them. Thinking back I guess I could have said that would be the case since you know, You did just have a baby come out of down there but it was something I never read about or even thought about at all until I had to go home and walk up the stairs myself.

This next part might have been my own oversight, But DAMN do you ever bleed. Think basically a super period that lasts for an ACTUAL month straight. Some people may have known this I suppose but this was actually insane for me. Not to mention you are unable to wear tampons for this journey, you have no choice but to wear pads. And let me stress this enough, You can NEVER have enough pads and make sure they are maxi and the highest absorbance ever. I didn’t even use a pad in the first 2 days I was there per say as I was using the hospital ones that was basically 4 times the size of a normal one. That was mostly as a second layer. Then I used them at home which is extremely large amount. Thankfully with Covid 19, I didn’t really leave the house. Also don’t forget the “Water Bottle” That you need to fill with warm water and have it run over you as you .. ya know go to the bathroom.. so that it doesn’t hurt your down there when you go to pee. Something no one mentions until you actually have to go to the bathroom that’s for sure. Thankfully I never really tore anywhere so that wasn’t really a concern for me. At least with this baby anyways! A friend of mine had recently said that they discovered adult diapers and said they were a life saver and wished that she had them for her other kids. Me, I don’t think I can go that route because mentally I cannot fathom changing the diaper of my new baby and my own diaper. Pad’s or not I just cannot picture myself being in that situation.

Breastfeeding is not easy and is normally pressured to new moms. I started and stopped after a few days and I will probably put that in another blog later about my story for it. They make breastfeeding look so easy on movies and TV shows that it really isn’t easy at all. You have to make sure your baby is latching properly, that they are getting enough to drink, for me it was extremely stressful and when we were in the hospital for 48 hours due to my son having jaundice and a slight heart murmur (That went away thankfully!) it was stressing me out whether or not he was drinking enough. And then when we came home, being up by myself I felt alone and my Boyfriend wanted to be more involved also. It just did not feel right for us. Will we try it again with a second baby? Maybe. But if it doesn’t workout it doesn’t workout. You have people who will be snobby towards you and pressure you into breastfeeding because that is apparently the best way when in reality the mindset should be fed is best. Especially nurses in the hospital can make you feel this way. My friend who had decided with her partner that they wanted to do formula from the beginning. She also felt the pressures of this. I can tell you one thing though, if with baby number 2 we do end up breastfeeding straight through, there is absolutely no way I will be breastfeeding when the baby is over the age of 1.5 MAX or if we are pregnant with baby number 3. Imagine, having a 2 year old drinking your milk while a new born is also there. That is insane to me!

Hospital bag is pretty standard I would say. There is plenty of resources online and lists you can check out. For me I think the biggest things was a phone charger since we live away from my family this was great to keep in touch. Another would be snacks. They don’t provide any really only meals. Mind you, if you are picky like me this was a really big deal and if you end up having an epidural than you cannot have any food. We never had to deal with that as it was so fast with my son. If you have a tablet or even a laptop though with some DVDs (In case the hospital doesn’t have WiFi) then I would bring that too. I used that on my phone to put some shows from Netflix on since the hospital didn’t have WiFi and where I was home for the time before I had my son I had plenty of data so there was no charges thankfully, but it was great when I was overnight in the hospital and my boyfriend was home with the dog.

And lastly, and certainly not least. Formula is FLIPPING expensive. Normally when people talk about babies and what have you they talk about diapers being super expensive and blah blah blah. Wrong, Formula is super expensive! Funny enough we started by using the brand Similac. You would think it would be fine as it was one of the most popular brands or well known at least. We found it was making our son constipated though. Which was not good. I would push and have himself throw up or formula come out of his nose. It was strange. We talked to a few friends and they all were on basically store brand ones. One of them even recommended us to use the Walmart brand, Parents Choice I think. The difference was incredible. He was fine on the store bought brand AND it was 10$ cheaper as well. Needless to say we started using that one. For baby number two if we do go the formula side we for sure will be starting with that one as well too.

As you can see there are some things that people really don’t tell you about having a baby. I’m sure there will be a lot more as the time rolls around for baby number 2. Or even 3 when that happens as well. And hopefully you maybe learned something interested for your own pregnancy or even your spouses!

-StaySeeJ08