operation: save chat

Operation: Save Chat

!! -- there's a "tl;dr" at the bottom, fyi, but hopefully this is a good read below.

▤▤▤ INTRO (optional)

Lately, chat has been bad. Bad is subjective. It's been hype, but that has certainly been alienating.

One of the very first charms of streaming for me was being surprised by how many intelligent individuals I was surrounded by when speedrunning. Impressive people I would've never met otherwise. Like, did you know that in my earliest streams in 2011, I had a MicroBiologist Major going for his PhD watching me when I had 15-25 viewers?

Ends up being that was the great CarlSagan who is now the godfather of Yoshi's Island speedrunning.

I enjoy reading chat and interacting so much more when it isn't the same 10 people doing the same stale-as-fuck memes day-in and day-out. The stagnant activity alienates and doesn't -invite- would-be non-lurkers to initiate with me/chat.

As corny as it may sound, I want to get to know all of you, if possible. The chat dynamic is what keeps me so interested and excited to talk about whatever is on my mind, sometimes to the degree of a full monologue w/ notes (#RealTalk).

▤▤▤ ORIGINAL INTENTION OF WAIFUBOT

I originally desired a Bot to help build a database for recommended manga for everyone to share. I had a comfy stream a few months back fresh after bingeing Boku Wa Mari ch1-42. Everyone had plenty of suggestions of what else to read I couldn't keep up.

Once Quan helped make the bot a reality, I thought that a waifu function would help give newer viewers/lurkers an extention of their identity. Again, waifu was the afterthought to the original function.

The idea was to spark conversation once you saw some unknown setting his waifu to unconventional sources such as Monster Girl works or Light Novels that later became adapted to anime. The dynamic meant a fresher chat.

I saw that working and thought having voting/approval privileges would be fun too.

▤▤▤ THE SITUATION NOW

Fast forward, and now WaifuBot is a big flop. Chat spam clutters with !mywaifu even with any amount of cooldown. Everyone is in a frenzy to be up-voted. Mods abuse the system to get higher rankings. The original purpose isn't even evident. It's a giant fucking mess.

So I've shut it down for a few days to overhaul it back to being much more subtle, and its original purpose -- to help chat, not spam it. I'll detail the changelog once it's back again.

At the same time, I also want to focus on making chat less shit too. I love it when it's chill, 300 viewers or whatever. But during runs, when I can't interact, it becomes fuck-awful and I'm tired of being passive about it.

I cut a lot of fat in mods (from 90+ to 30-something). I understand that mods reflect the behaviour appropriate in chat. So if you lost mod, don't take it personal, I need the offenders to see what I desire and is appropriate. You may be restored in the future once things settle.

So here's some guidelines to help keep the chill in effect until forever:

▤▤▤ NEW CHAT GUIDELINES

- No RESET spam when I make a big mistake (I'm already working to manage emotional attachments to runs, and seeing this type of reaction to an attempt of constructive enviroment is poison. I promise anyone who does this -doesn't- speedrun, or else they'd also view it as rude)
- No nagging about "When's Runs", practice makes the runs worthwhile and progressive, please understand that. I'm not your run puppet (asking =/= nagging; you'll know the difference)
- No pyramids
- No hate against others based purely on internet reception of their interests (i.e. MLP/Bronies/Furries/Hentai, etc.) -- this is bigoted and shows your character, as shallow as it may be.
- Anythng that ruins the chill

I'll be happy to elaborate if you have a question! :)


tl;dr -- Chat sucks, has sucked for a while. Waifubot was meant to get lurkers to speak more, but flopped once I added waifu ranking. I removed mods and kept ones I can instruct and want to help make chat better. I listed some guidelines on what hurts the chill above.