memes

Ive heard this over and over, but it's bullshit.

I watch half a dozen streamers on twitch. 4 apex legends streamers and 2 developers(all dudes because that seems somewhat relevant). I don't browse random streams and I don't click on anything.

Occasionally, I'll end up watching other streamers if my guys raid someone as they sign off. But never are they raiding "boobi" streams. It's usually other apex streamers or other devs.

The other day, home page was filled with tits and scantally clad ladies. The recommended feeds were almost all that.

So I'm not clicking on it. I'm not seeking it out. I'm not even hovering over it. But it was pushing that content hard.

Just not true. I don’t have a twitch account and visited to see what it’s all about and it’s all over. Even if you peek inside the just chatting category it’s a huge majority of the top content

Of anything, what you state is the result of content filtering for yourself and not for everyone at large.

This might be a repost of an older meme when it was stíl true

A stream is a very different format for content, but that doesn't necessarily make it worse - only different.

1. As streams are live, anything could happen, so there's the possibility for unexpected excitement and being a part of that as it happens
2. Live chat can make a stream feel social and connected with other viewers
3. Streams give you the ability to speak to the streamer and change the outcome of the stream

I think that the way people consume content has also changed. A lot of people watch streams "in the background" just as noise while they do other things, not in a way where they are giving the stream their 100% focus in the way you would with a short and well-edited video.

15 minutes of good content in several hours? You might not be watching the best streams ngl.

From my view, I enjoy watching Twitch for two main reasons:

1. For the same reason I like watching live sports rather than a 15 minute cut of highlights - the feeling of experiencing events in real time, the payoff of seeing a big play unfold after all the anticipation leading up to it, watching strategies and counter-strategies unfold in real time, that kind of stuff.

2. For the same reason I like watching video essays, stand-up comedy, interview shows, podcasts, or other media where one particular person is the focus - that person is entertaining to me. They have a personality I vibe with, they're funny, they have an interesting perspective, etc.

To a lesser extent, it's also nice background noise. I can throw a stream on at the beginning of my workday and not have to fiddle with it until I'm done with work, because it's a constant, reliable source of background noise.

As a genXer I don't get it either. The model at the moment referenced here makes much more sense to me at least. Not understanding twitch is a real marker of shifts in generational mindsets. I think I understand tech, but I wouldnt invest in tech sectors as I clearly don't have the instinct for it anymore.

What makes sense is two things:

1. You can ask questions about the game and get a direct answer, often including someone showing you exactly the thing in the game you asked about.

2. Some streams are genuinely entertaining, such as GTA RP streams. These people mostly aren't slobbering fat guys (though some are) but are actually working and acting the entire time.

If you click "I want to watch mature content" on any profanity stream such as Soda or Summit your feed magically starts filling up with titty streamers.

The notion that you need to seek them out first is false.

I mean yes, but this is still the Just Chatting section

Yes but the just chatting section as been this for years regardless of what we last unenforced rules twitch makes

For years, Twitch's "Just Chatting" section has basically been podcasts, Reaction content where streamers play a youtube and go take a shit, and (generally female presenting) streamers in various states of undress. You may have heard of "the hot tub meta" which involved putting on a skimpy bikini.

This has resulted in some pretty awkward front pages where it can look like you are looking out the window in a beach town or left a PG-13 movie on. Because, you know, bikinis.

This came to a head semi-recently when "the topless meta" became a thing where (generally) female (presenting) streamers would put on a tube top, position the camera like they are doing a face stream in the early 2010s, and make people think they are actually topless. So obviously a bunch of the most generic white guys with man buns on the planet (and Kai "Trick guests and other streamers into being raped by my violent rapist buddy" Cenat) lost their shit and competed to go viral with their Reaction content to putting something tamer than what TBS shows on daytime television when they play Austin Powers on the screen.

So Twitch/Amazon actually made a good decision for the first time in years by allowing artistic nudity and sexualized content so long as streamers checked a box that would add content warnings and take them off the front page. Which led to a race to promote OF/Fansly content by the streamers interested in that and to show how sexualized content is destroying the white man by the usual suspects. And Twitch, rather than try to moderate this, rolled it back.

Because, as OP demonstrates, there is this completely asinine "theory" that bikini streamers are ruining and taking over twitch. And, while I am not a fan and wish we had the content warning policy, they really aren't. The top 100 streamers by almost any metric are almost universally dudes (many in tanktops because they hit the gym and male nipples aren't scary) with the few female streamers being people like Pokimane or QTCinderella who actively do not do this kind of content.

But just look at people like andrew tate and like half of kick. There is a lot of money in pushing incel content and hate.

As a father who is a linux wizard and knows every single ip our BABIES go to

why are you using a VPN son 😢?????

Not interested is very different from disinterested or disgusted.

You know, I don't get offended or anything. But it's impossible to mute / block streamers, and there are some particularly annoying offenders which I just don't want to see when I open twitch. Just give me the option to filter that out and I won't complain again.