Subscriber-Only Highlights in effect

Decided it was time to start setting videos to subscriber-only on my channel, as it was clear Twitch was not going to make descriptions or titles public on highlights again.  My original plan was to set EVERYTHING on the channel to subscriber-only, but I decided that Past Broadcasts don't need descriptions, so instead, I set every Highlight to subscriber-only individually.  There are a few exceptions to what I just stated:

• Past Broadcasts where personal (sensitive) information was discussed will still be getting marked as Subscriber-Only, normally a Highlight will also be made off of that personal information & only accessible by subscribers.
• Any video where Twitch chat was a large point of the video will be left as public, typically these will be linked to from the detailed descriptions on Google Drive (which started serving as the primary means for descriptions when Twitch started hiding them back in September of 2019) & the YouTube and Steam versions of those videos.
• Any video that is being used in a review on my personal site (usually meaning it's embedded on the page) & does not have a YouTube version for that specific video will remain public.  Videos that are embedded in pages on external sites typically do not need descriptions to be displayed on the video page itself because the video can be viewed from that site rather than having to come to Twitch directly, so the reason for the video on Twitch is only confusing to those that are viewing it on Twitch, it still serves it's purpose on external sites where the video is embedded with a visible description of why the video is there & what's in the video (something I was considering doing previously for every video on my Twitch channel, but decided it would take too much time to set up, so I ended up abandoning that plan after roughly 10 videos).

I have yet to do a subscriber-only stream, however it's intended that PvP streams (ones that could be stream-sniped & manipulated by opponents in the same match to their advantage) will be dedicated as being subscriber-only.  I believe VIPs also have access to subscriber-only streams; gaining a VIP status on my channel can be done in a number of ways:

• I know them personally outside of Twitch, usually in person.
• If a supporting streamer has helped me reach a particular milestone on Twitch
• If a streamer has me marked as a moderator on their channels
• If a viewer has subbed or cheered at least 100 bits in one cheer on my channel
• If a streamer has me marked as a VIP on their channel

People who have VIP status on my channel will start falling off of this list as I run out of VIP slots to put people in, based mostly on how much has been contributed to the channel in subs & cheers).

Despite nearly every highlight on my Twitch channel now being Subscriber-Only, almost everything that is on Twitch is also on my YouTube channel (and then some).  It is advised that due to the poor tagging system & lack of descriptions & titles that now appears to be standard on Twitch that users should stick to searching for videos on YouTube where there is still a proper means to find videos you may be looking for.

Epic Games account locked, Fortnite & Dauntless streams on hold

Attempted to log into the Epic Games launcher today, got this error when I had to log back in (which was unsuccessful; normally I stay logged in, but occasionally I am forced to log back in). My expectation is somebody who knows the registered email address was attempting to brute-force my password, either with a password generator or got stopped short because they hit the 2-step authentication step & repeatedly attempted to log into the account despite the additional authentication step, retaliation was to get the account locked so it couldn't be used by anybody. Whatever happened, the account is locked, I currently can't get into it, any streaming to Twitch will have to be of a game on another platform until I can get back in...

Follower-only chat enabled due to harassment

Follower-only chat is once again enabled due to harassment...  This harassment ended up coming from an individual that was orignally banned for the same type of harassment, that individual has now been banned over 3 different accounts on Twitch & blocked on Epic Games (the last 2 bans happened as a result of attempting to have me add him again when they were already on my block list; considering I keep track of name changes on blocked people on Epic Games, I already knew both why he was blocked & why he was banned & only became aware of the ban-evasion after the last stream).

Full account history & details can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fI1DCNSK2mT39AfqPkCPMiamUTWvhMExHhWgblexMQc


A report was filled to Twitch about the harassment & ban-evasion, but as expected, they chose to fully ignore the reports filed against these 2 new account, which is why I made it a point to make the report public in the detailed description on Google Docs, which I am also going to duplicate that report here (I may eventually just publish a new pages regarding this individual to my personal site:

Individual has been banned from my channel in the past for harassment after I stated I was not going to build their StormShield for them & leaving the StormShield until he had it ready to go (originally helping him with a defense earlier), this was back on 7/13/2019. The individual has been following my channel under a secondary account for a while, but didn't realize the account of mrcrazy89 was him until he attempted to get me to add him to my Epic Games friend list tonight while helping another viewer with an endurance defense. When I realized this, I stated that I would not play with that individual, which immediately resulted in retaliation from the individual (over the second account). Directly after banning this secondary account, he came back on the third account of mrbann7637, leading to 2 bans of (out of 3) in less that 2 minutes. Video & chat log evidence have been published online, the offline description for these videos (this became standard when Twitch started hiding descriptions & titles) with full details & profile/video links can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fI1DCNSK2mT39AfqPkCPMiamUTWvhMExHhWgblexMQc

Follower-only chat will remain enabled for (at least) the next 2 streams & be downgraded from a 10-minute minimum in the next stream, to just needing to following in the stream after than, then eventually removed again (this is provided the harassment doesn't continue even with the mode enabled, in which case the minimum will be increased & the time it is fully removed will be prolonged over even more streams).

It would be advised that while follower-only chat is enabled to help mitigate this harassment, that supporting streamers do not raid my channel, as users from their raids will find that they will not be able to chat unless they are already followers (normally I don't allow spamming, but emote-spamming is pretty common when it comes to raids, so it's one of the exceptions I make to the "No Spamming" rule on my channel).

Sub emotes due for a change

Due to lack of interest in the channel (the last subscription being on 9/7/2019), I've decided to start switching around the sub emotes on my channel to something more relevant to recent streams. Currently I only have 3 emotes (1 for each tier), one is expected to be for Fortnite, the other for Dauntless (I haven't decided on the third one yet; I was considering KickBeat, but with the constant audio vandalism on Past Broadcasts due to music in the game's soundtrack, it's more likely it will be from XCOM 2, even through that's been being streamed more on Steam than Twitch). A change on the emotes will be considered any time there is a month with no subs, this can be considered as a standard from this point forward.

Have an emote you would like to see, feel free to voice your opinion either here or on the channel, I will consider other emotes any time I don't have subs & as long as it's from a game a play.

Health update, surgery may be needed, streams will be spotty at best

After looking into the blood loss issue further, it appears that another surgery may be needed (hopefully with better results than the one back around mid-2018).  I'll have to start with some doctor appointments & work up from there, but I at least know where it's going (this will mean more downtime after the surgery).

Regarding the back problem, I'm still having problems with my left shoulder, but may attempt to do a stream here & there when the pain isn't too bad (trying to avoid oral pain killers because it's believed that they are thinning my blood & causing more severe bleeding issues; I have cream for this, but it's difficult to apply it on my back on my own), they just might be short streams until I can get the pain to subside completely (the pain on my right shoulder disappeared after a couple days, so the pain on the left should eventually disappear also, but it's been nearly a week & it's still almost as bad as when it started).  Console system games (or PC games with a gamepad) may be more appropriate until the pain has subsided on my left shoulder, I might consider doing some streams on them until the worst of this issue is over.

UPDATE

 
Patreon got back to me on 10/21/2019 & confirmed that while my personal content may not be adult-oriented, certain terms in certain posts were the expected reason for this creator page getting flagged as such. They gave me the option of deleting those posts & re-appealing to have the page reverted.

Unfortunately the terms they pointed out were a part of the names of those games (in a number of the Free Game updates) & I don't feel like leaving patrons in the dark on those giveaways.  Another option would be to move them to another site & restricted by account login (should be simple enough through Blogger, but would require the patron to contact me with a valid Google account to give them access).

For the time being, I've decided I'm going to leave the page in the inaccurate classification until those giveaways have expired, then I'll consider appealing again after the adult-content posts have been cleared.  I will allow patrons to voice their opinions on this (contact me privately if you wish to remain anonymous, as some have already voiced that concern before becoming a patron).

One other thing of note is that it appears they are going to take into consideration my suggestion of allowing singular age-restricted posts on creator pages that are not age-restricted; if this happens, this will mean less time that this page gets stuck in an inaccurate classification due to giveaways with terms in the game names that are going to trigger what happened on the 19th (and still remains).

Inaccurate Adult Content classification (Patreon creator page)

As of 10/19/2019, I received an email from Patreon stating that they were classifying my creator page as adult-only:

Hi WonderGamer,

This is from the Trust and Safety team at Patreon. We are contacting you because we noticed content on your page that looks like it should be marked as Adult Content. It’s critical that any Adult Content on our site is marked as such to keep the browsing experience safe and considerate for everyone. Please see our Community Guidelines.

We have selected the Adult Content setting for your page as a precaution. If you did not and do not intend to post any Adult Content, you can appeal this decision. You can find more detail and instructions here: read about it here

If you have other questions or concerns, please contact us at guidelines@patreon.com.

Patreon Trust and Safety

Note that I do NOT provide, nor stream adult-only content (not like Twitch or YouTube would allow this anyways; I do however age-restrict some of my own content as they are published on YouTube when language might be an issue), however this classification is expected to come from the fact that some of the game freebies I have been locating online by reputable sources for game giveaways (gave giveaway listings being a perk for subscribers of $5 or more, or in the case on Patreon, "patrons") were being listed against my better judgment.  The option to avoid this would have been to not list these freebies (which was my original gut response to listing these freebies), but I made the mistake of not listening to it & listed them anyways, which appears to be why Patreon has decided to incorrectly classify this creator page as being an Adult Content creator page.

I am intending on appealing the decision, but at the same time, I'm not expecting the decision to be reverted & in some cases, it might be best to just leave it at that classification (I never expected to run into freebies of an adult-only nature, but ultimately, it ended up happening regardless; I either have the option of keeping patrons in the dark on those giveaways & not listing them to prevent the page from being misclassified as adult-only, taking the listings elsewhere & restricting access to it by login name of that network & subscriber status on Twitch/Patreon or listing them as I have done & facing the full penalization of the creator page over a few posts that probably should have been age-restricted...not like a kid is going to have a card to gain access to them anyways). The game giveaways that were listed by these sites will eventually disappear when they expire, but this page (if not reverted after the appeal) will always be misclassified as adult content & there's not a lot I'll be able to do about that unless I decide to remove the listings for those giveaways to stay in accordance with what got the page misclassified to begin with (although I do have options to list those freebies for Twitch subscribers through alternative methods, but it would require a Twitch subscription to access them even if they were to be listed over Discord & ultimately a higher minimum on Patreon to be able to request a gift sub on Twitch, unless the patron just decided to sub on Twitch instead of Patreon).

I will be posting another update on this later when I have a decision from Patreon.

Brief hiatis (health & personal matters)

I'm currently dealing with some issues that is preventing me from spending long periods of gaming, therefore there hasn't been any streams over the last few days & it might be a couple more before I'll be able to get back to streaming as I would like. 2 of these issues are health related, the first related to back issues (having heat on my back to try & deal with this). The second is a semi-severe case of anemia (if it gets much worse, I may find myself in the hospital to replenish lost blood), which has resulted in a lack of energy to even stay awake for very long spending much of the last 3 or 4 days resting (focusing on high-iron foods to replenish lost red blood cells, already taking iron supplements for this specific reason).

Additionally, there's been some personal matters I've had to deal with (billing errors, insurance-related & family issues mostly), which wouldn't normally take all day to take care of, but with the health issues on top of the personal matters, I haven't had the energy when I get finished & instead find myself resting in between dealing with those issues.

I'm hoping I'll be back to normal streaming in a couple days, no guarantee on that & especially if I find myself hospitalized due to excessive blood loss, so fingers crossed that I'm able to get through this without a hospital bill to deal with in addition to what I've already been dealing with over the past few days...

Archived videos on Twitch set to be subscriber-only in 2020

It's been determined that with the degradation of highlights on Twitch due to hidden titles & descriptions making them pointless to really keep on Twitch at all (outside of being backups to the YouTube versions in case they get deleted for some reason, YouTube now being the primary means for viewing highlights on my channel due to lack of descriptions on Twitch), that I will be setting all archived videos on the channel to subscriber-only in the near future. I'm going to give it until the beginning of 2020 before this is done to see if descriptions/titles happen to come back before that point (also to give Epic Games some time to view the videos that were previously linked to them in violation reports; even if the descriptions are missing, the videos alone might still serve some purpose for those that were already informed of the reason for those videos being highlighted); if not, all archived videos on the channel will be getting the subscriber-only restriction due to lack of purpose caused by negated descriptions.

EDIT:  One thing I forgot about this is that there is still a 24-hour period of exclusivity I have to give to Twitch if during that session, a recorded video being uploaded to YouTube was at the same time being streamed to Twitch.  For this reason, there will be 24-hour windows when videos on Twitch need to be used in violation reports (of course since descriptions are no longer available on Twitch, the reports are instead pointing to pre-written Google Docs that have links to the video evidence on 3 different sites, rather than directly to the Twitch version of the video & stating that specific details are in the description as I have been doing in the past).

The PlayStation 3 Twitch app is finally fixed!

As of 10/13/2019, it appears the Twitch app on PlayStation 3 has finally been fixed. I contacted Twitch roughly a year & a half ago to find out if they were ever going to fix it & they stated they had no intention in it, so I started a petition on iPetitions.com to get that issue fixed. It took over a year to get 101 signatures & another signature was added after I submitted the petition to the suggestions boards for Twitch (the petition sat at 102 signatures by the time the app was fully fixed). I've noticed for roughly a week & a half that it appeared that they were attempting to fix it, but the primary function of being able to play videos & streams was still not working. Now it appears to be functioning properly & I have to thank everybody who took the time to sign that petition, we wouldn't have gotten this far without your voices to show that this app still serves a purpose & it would have continued to be used over the (roughly) 2 years that it remained broken if it had been given the same importance as the PlayStation 4 app when it got updated. The app is finally functional again, take a bow for making it possible.

Live streams on Twitch, highlights on YouTube

At this point I have gotten tired of fighting the decision by Twitch to hide descriptions & titles, later pulling the ability to search from those hidden descriptions as well.  I will be directing viewers to my YouTube channel rather than trying to hold onto Twitch highlights as a reputable function of the site, which is now degraded to a near useless state if any video requires a description to explain what is going on in the video or in finding them through searches.  YouTube so far is the only service I'm registered with that still has not restricted descriptions/titles (first Steam did by freezing them so they couldn't be changed, now Twitch has just dumped the function for anything other than viewing the video itself), so YouTube will remain the primary method of viewing videos saved on Twitch until something is done about the current condition regarding highlights.  Should YouTube also take this route, I expect I will be opening a DailyMotion account to start uploading to.  Eventually it may come down to the point where all descriptions may need to be published & those videos embedded on my personal site as a last resort...

Missing descriptions & titles on videos

It's come to my attention that Twitch has now negated titles & descriptions from videos on Twitch (this includes any form of vides on their servers, not limited to just Past Broadcasts, Highlights, Clips or otherwise). For this reason, this means I am going to need to get that information published elsewhere & makes it more important than ever to have those descriptions on external sites (something I started doing within the last month due to various problems or lack of functionality between Twitch, YouTube & Steam). For Highlights, I may need to republish descriptions & titles to my personal site on individual pages to get that information public. For Past Broadcasts, I had started adding viewing statistics to those videos to show how the channel was doing (or not doing due to lack of viewers); these statistics will start getting added to a spreadsheet on Google Sheets & will be held indefinitely as apposed to disappearing when the Past Broadcast expires on Twitch. Ultimately, it's going to be easier to find videos listed on Twitch through external sites, rather than on Twitch itself with what they have done. Checking a few other channels, it seems this wasn't just done to my channel or my account, but done globally. This also causes a major problem with the reports I have been filing against players for violation sin games (seeing as the reports would indicate "specifics can be found in the description", I will need to start providing links to the written descriptions on Google Docs rather than to the videos until I see that this missing descriptions & titles issue has been resolved on Twitch (this isn't far off from the frozen descriptions & titles issue I started having on Steam in August of 2019 & am continuing to have to deal with).

Live view statistics on Past Broadcasts

I've decided to start adding channel & stream stats to the descriptions of archived videos (Past Broadcasts) to show progress (or rather, lack thereof) to the public, this gives details to supporters of the channel on how well (or poorly) the channel may currently be running. Unfortunately the formatting in descriptions on videos on Twitch look like utter crap when attempting to use hard returns or bullets, but not much I can do about that, Twitch is in control of what formatting they allow & unfortunately it's limited at best...

Auto-hosting disabled & changes coming during/after Fortnite streams

Auto-hosting was disabled on my channel as of yesterday, this means channels will only be manually hosted to avoid the technical issues I've been having for the past month (roughly).

Additionally, I've run into another issue while streaming Fortnite, this has to do with the new song that is forced since the start of the Fall 2019 event that added music (as well as emotes & now pickaxes) from Battle Royal, which ends up being the Sparkles music if you haven't purchased anything else to replace it (where anything else played would probably get flagged anyways).  At this point, Twitch is audio vandalizing my streams as a result of this music & I don't currently have the option to disable it (outside of disabling music entirely, however I lose my edge of knowing mist monsters are in the vicinity if I do).

In any case, the audio vandalism is going to result in some changes that viewers may not be happy with, as well as I know Twitch won't be happy with (this has been clear since the removal of custom tags, which is expected to have happened as I was using a tag called audio vandalism) whenever audio was muted due to the game's soundtrack).  I've come to know what games are going to have mutes in them based on the soundtrack of the game, it appears that Fortnite is now being added to that list.  Games where I knew there was going to be mutes, I would only respond to viewers over text in chat (rather than voice), however these videos are used in violation reports to Epic Games, so I'll either need to consider going with disabling music entirely or linking the YouTube versions of those videos in the descriptions of the highlights on Twitch (hopefully they won't get muted on YouTube as well, otherwise I'll have to re-consider using another host to host those videos, possibly even going as far as hosting them on my personal site instead of using a standard video sharing site), as I already know that appeals on Twitch do no good (they never have in the past).

Additionally, I'm going to start pointing out how often a video gets audio vandalized (via the description & titles of past broadcasts) by taking note of how many times the video gets flagged for whatever music (not only in Fortnite, but also other games where this has been an issue).  Aside from descriptions & titles on Twitch, there's also a review I started years ago on my personal site titled Copyright Confusion (this review in particular is the expected reason why Twitch keeps lowering the value of gained revenue on paid subscriptions towards my channel on Twitch, which is why subscribers only get what is calculated as revenue based on Twitch's calculations at this point, but they do gain a viewing multiplier on points), which details that the rights to use music should be transferred by the games that are using them when being streamed, however despite being a part of the game's soundtrack, sites like Twitch & YouTube obviously don't feel this is accurate & as a result, you see penalizations being put in place like mutes on Twitch & account strikes (video deletions, mutes, region restrictions or forced monetization by the owner) on YouTube (which is why I might re-open my DailyMotion account & see if I have any better luck over there).

More auto-hosting bugs...

I noticed another problem today with auto-hosting on Twitch & that's that it is changing hosts when a new stream starts where that channel is listed on the auto-host list, regardless of whether another host is already running.  I've heard from others that were having a problem with hosts taking priority over their own streams & having to disable auto-hosting altogether, it's looking like I may have to do the same...  I'm giving this issue one more day & I'll keep tabs on whether the host is continuing to change when it shouldn't be, at which point I will be disabling auto-hosting & making a note on the Twitch hosting section of my channel, at which point the only channels that are going to be getting hosted are when I do it manually (that'll mean no hosting while I'm not at the computer, which for the most part is any time I am out or asleep)...

Mixing things up on Twitch

A couple things that have been noticed tonight (after going over some stats on Discord) was that some subscribers that had previously been granted a VIP status on the server, had left (meaning they have to go through the authorization process again to gain access to speak or chat, due to the high security on the server to prevent abuse). In addition to the loss of high-profile individuals on the Discord server, I also noticed the loss of 2 followers after the stream had already ended (their follower bonuses have already been removed to prevent duplication of that bonus).

The current status with Fortnite streams on my channel is that interest has dropped in the game due to lack of specific rewards from mission completions (V-Bucks specifically), which is what got me playing the game nearly every day. Since the start of this new event, that reward has pretty much disappeared & the only thing that makes running the game a priority is when Dailies get capped at 3, which is the expectation of why there is becoming a loss of viewers & followers (not to mention short streams rather than helping out other players with their missions due to not want to have to deal with degraded performance when the game is using EasyAntiCheat, this is because this client is locked at Normal Priority & I'm unable to increase it to Above Normal as I am with the BattlEye client).

It's been noticed that I almost always lose followers when streaming other games on Twitch, so I've been streaming those other games on Steam instead (unsurprisingly with no viewers most of the time). Considering there's been a drop in 2 followers between the time that I ended the stream yesterday & the time that I noticed these drops (not even launching another game due to not feeling up to it), it's been decided that I can't restrict my Twitch channel to just games of interest to those viewers to please them (most following recently for Fortnite), something needs to be streamed regardless of whether it's what followers are expecting to see or not (this at least allows subscribers to make use of the point multiplayer gain for viewing).

There's been a few games of interest that I'm expecting to start streaming on Twitch again, a couple that has been of interest recently including Shadow Warrior 2 & XCOM 2. Aside from that, I've been wanting to see how the viewer interaction element works in Hand of Fate 2 (this allows viewers to vote for actions in the game, even name the bosses after viewers in the stream). Additionally, I've been wanting to get Bayonetta in since I got the game with a coupon from Sega's Make War Not Love event 2 years ago. I may even start streaming some PlayStation 3 games again (recently spending time in Dragon's Crown & Anarchy Reigns). I might even fire up Double Dragon Neon again. Whatever it is that I decided to start streaming, I'm sure it will result in more unfollows, but I don't intend on spending time in Fortnite unless there's something I'm attempting to achieve & the lack of V-Buck missions (as well as the long forgotten Twitch Daily missions) is why it's currently only getting streamed roughly every 3 days (not too much that can be done about the game using EasyAntiCheat, these will still result in short streams where I only focus on getting dailies done).

With more streaming myself, this coincidentally is going to mean less hosting of Fortnite from other channels. Apparently something needs to change either way (at least until V-Buck missions become a thing in Fortnite again, I've already given up on Twitch Dailies ever coming back to Save the World), so if I have to gain the interest of a new crowd by streaming other games to make up for the loss of viewers that prefer Fortnite, this will be the change I will attempt (we'll see if Epic Games ever puts back into the game what kept my interest in the first place, there is still the possibility that I might go back to nearly every day streaming of it, but not likely while this event is still running).  Another thing I am waiting for are new weapons & heros to be added to the game (not a fan of this new event), I may start spending more time in Fortnite once new content has been added (not new missions types that rely heavily on Battle Royale mechanics).

Auto-hosting & reruns

Normally I don't allow reruns to be auto-hosted by streamers in my auto-host list, but there has been a recent change on Twitch that has removed my ability to filter reruns from being streamed on my auto-host list & may eventually lead to my auto-host function being disabled (or removing those from the auto-host list that keep getting reruns auto-hosted because Twitch no longer offers the option to filter them from being auto-hosted).  This isn't a step I want to take, but lengthy auto-hosts of reruns prevents live streamers from getting the time they deserve & if I have to cut out channels running reruns that are negating live channels from being auto-hosted, this is a step I will regrettably have to take...

UPDATE:  It appears that the option to filter out reruns is still on the site, but this option currently is not functioning correctly & reruns are still getting auto-hosted, so those channels have been removed from my auto-host list for the time being.  I may add them back after some time to see if it's been fixed yet, but until it is functioning properly & negating reruns from auto-hosting again, they'll just keep getting removed & only manual hosts will be will be getting hosted on my channel...

Technical issues (followers & hosting)

Twitch has made a number of changes with their site that is screwing with how rewards are done on my channel, as well as how I support other streamers.  As a heads up for those that aren't aware of what I'm talking about, this means that notifications through StreamElements are for the most part broken & I'm having to add point bonuses manually, as well as check for when a new follower has followed (this means that bonuses may not get issued until after the stream has ended, but I still go through the logs/stats to make sure everybody gets what is coming to them).  Additionally, I'm also not getting all the follower email notifications, so I'm have to cross-reference stats between 3 or 4 different pages to make sure followers, hosts & subscribers are getting the point bonuses that are due to them.

The other thing that is broken here has to do with auto-hosts, one of the primary functions I have set in place to support other streamers & I noticed today that these don't appear to be working either (not to mention the permissions keep getting changed; I don't allow reruns to be auto-hosted, but somehow this got switched to on when I was going through the permissions on my account to try & fix it).  Until these issues get resolved, the only way I can support other streamers will be when I am actually online, which is going to be a HUGE drop in the support I was showing them in the past, but I'm still doing what I can despite the circumstances...

Aside from that, I've noticed that the calculated revenue by Twitch keeps dropping (started at around $2.32 for my first paid subscription, I'm now down to $2.07 per paid subscription), this is why flat-rate point bonuses on paid Twitch subscriptions are no longer 1 point per cent spent on those subscriptions & instead award a point bonus based on what Twitch counts as revenue towards the channel (not including their cut), but I did add a 5x multiplier (1 points per minute in the channel, as apposed to 1 point every 5 minutes for non-subscribers) to compensate for the loss in points based on Twitch's continuing drop in what portion they are stating is my cut in paid subscriptions (still not reaching the $100 minimum to cash out after close to a year).

I'll keep looking for ways to get these technical issues resolved, but for the time being, there's not a lot I can do about it on my side, I'll just have to spend more time going over logs & stats to make sure people & streamers are getting what is due to them (whether it be points, follows, hosts and/or lurks).

Subscriber-only video permissions not working, moving sensitive videos to another site

Supposedly Twitch allows for you to set individual videos as subscriber-only, however I've attempted this in the past & it's never worked if the original stream was set to public.  For this reason, it doesn't appear that highlighting videos on Twitch to be available only to Twitch subscribers is going to be an option, therefore highlights may be made, but they will be exported to YouTube, then immediately removed from Twitch afterwards.

To give access to those videos, I'm considering either Discord (will need to determine how to set up subscriber access through associated Twitch account first however) or the subscriber-only extension on the channel.

Subscriber-only videos were intended to only be used with discussions including sensitive information that probably shouldn't be public, only finding out the one I made a few days ago was still public regardless of how many times I attempted to set it to subscriber-only, so until this is resolved, I can't trust that that function is going to work properly & I'll have to keep those discussions on other sites...

Subscriber bonus point changes (take 2)

Twitch subscriber bonus point changes

Within the 2 days that the last entry was made to this blog, I checked the revenue report again & found that paid subscriptions had dropped yet again (from $2.18 to $2.12).  At this point it's been determined that ALL subscriptions from 6/26/2019 forward will award bonus points based on calculated revenue by Twitch, awarded after the stream has ended and been verified & awarded point bonuses will continue to be adjusted as Twitch makes adjustments to the revenue value in my analytic reports.  Basically this means that Twitch Prime subscriptions will gain a full half of a Tier 1 subscription (250 points), everything else is dependent on what Twitch is calculating in revenue.  Subscribers will continue to gain 1 point per minute while watching at all times while the subscription is still active (and hasn't been reversed; reversed subscriptions will result in a ban & block), but the bonus points award not based on watch time will be calculated based on revenue calculated by Twitch from this point forward & adjusted as necessary.

Patreon subscriber bonus point changes
and gift subscription requests

Patreon subscriber benefits will remain the same as stated in the last blog entry, these are not changing, however the revenue gain from a gift sub when requested could potentially give you back some of the points from a requested gift sub after I have a value of calculated revenue from Twitch on that gift sub.

Subscription bonus changes

Twitch subscription point bonuses

In the month of May, there was an individual that chose to subscribe to the channel, then apparently reversed the charge after the sub was already made, resulting in the removal of that revenue.  Twitch was contacted regarding this, however they chose not to respond to the ticket that was opened regarding it.  The individual was banned after that, not for reversing the charge, but for having temporary access to the subscriber-only section, which couldn't technically be revoked after they already had access to it (this section has a bunch of game freebies listed, something they shouldn't have had access to if they weren't intending on actually subscribing).

Over a month later I was re-watching the Ring_of_Favor mockery stream & realizing that with the follow-up situation with iBreezyy (now Breezops), which are the main individuals that ultimately got that list from being pulled as being public, that Twitch probably wasn't responding due to the continuous reports being filed against my account & the publications that have been continued to be published & updated over continuous ignored violations committed by these individuals, I decided to respond to the auto-reply that I got from Twitch when I initially opened the ticket regarding the subscription "not fully registering" with the following response on 6/17/2019:

I no longer need a response to this support ticket.  I was giving it a chance to be looked at before I decided to take matters into my own hands, but seeing as I received no response to the ticket, the individual was banned & blocked for the reason of "subscription reversal", not because of the fact that it was reversed, but because he had temporary access to a subscriber-only perk (Free Games list via the subscriber-only section of the channel) that could not be revoked once he already had access to it.  If he had enough points to deduct the reversed subscription, I would have deducted the points to cover the reversal, however seeing as he was new to the channel & didn't even get the point bonus from the subscription itself, he was banned instead due to it being apparent that I wasn't going to get a response to this ticket within the time period that they had access to those perks.

This response didn't receive a reply either, however I noticed after my stream running through June 23rd-24th that even after getting a new sub to the channel, my calculated Revenue with Twitch actually dropped (dropping from $53.30 over several months to $51.76 AFTER the new subscription should have been calculated into the total (this means that $3.66 got lost somewhere & I noticed a drop in the rate of funds that I gain from paid subscripitions.

Because it appears I'm getting docked for some reason on Twitch's side, it's been decided that giving a flat rate bonus is no longer going to be a 500 points bonus on tier 1 subscriptions, how I am going to be implying a x5 multiplayer on points for subscribers (this means that you gain 1 point every minute watching, as apposed to 1 point every 5 minutes for non-subscribers). Tier 2 & 3 subscribers will still get increased bonuses above tier 1, but seeing as I can't increase the point multiplayer based on tier, this will be additional points depending on the tier (similar to what was there before, just without the multiplier).

Patreon subscriptions + gift sub requests

I've been tossing around the idea of giving gift subscriptions on Twitch to subscribers over Patreon & as of yet, have not done anything official, however I believe I may have come up with an idea.  Nothing will be changing with the existing benefits, but sooner or later I'm going to be putting some additional tiers on Patreon that allow gift subscriptions on request, but for right now, those this is what the plan is:

• Patreon subs of $10 or more per month can request a tier 1 gift sub in exchange for 500 points off of their point total on the channel (a $10 sub would get you 1000 points for the month).
• Patreon subs of $15 or more per month can request a tier 2 gift sub in exchange for 1000 points off of their point total on the channel (a $15 sub would get you 1500 points for the month).
• Patreon subs of $30 or more per month can request a tier 3 gift sub in exchange for 2500 points off of their point total on the channel (a $30 sub would get you 3000 points for the month).

For those who have been subscribers of the channel since I started using the subscriber-only plugin, you'll already know there are Free Game updates being pushed regularly in that list; the Patreon side of that list is much better formatted & you can opt in for email updates when new games are added as well (occasionally you may get notes about this with email notification on when the stream goes live, however due to character restrictions, how many bonuses I can put in that field is extremely limited & also limited to when I go online, so giveaways may have already ended by the time you get that notification if it's been a few days since I've gone live & you aren't checking the channel daily).

Despite the fact that these tiers are not official yet, I am still going to honor these terms, you just need to request it within the month that you paid into Patreon.  Note however that if the charge is reversed after a gift sub is issued, this is terms for an immediate ban from the channel & block on Twitch, no questions asked & no chance of it being removed; gift sub requests will be removed in the future if there are continuous problems with this & the additional tiers will be removed.

Streamers & viewer acknowledgement, how important is it?

When it comes to streaming, acknowledgement of your viewers in chat is important to keep those viewers, gain followers & eventually income through tips, subscriptions or cheers (otherwise known as bits); if you aren't willing to acknowledge your viewers, then there's really no reason in being in your own chat.  I for one have a habit of throwing hosts to the channels I am viewing, but that doesn't last long when it's pretty clear that everything you are saying in chat is being ignored & there's literally no acknowledgement you're even there, so these aren't channels I tend to stick around in & will eventually unfollow & never go back to them with enough repetition.

Am I saying that everything you say needs to responded to?  No.  I personally am too talkative & don't expect everything to be responded to, but I don't appreciate being fully ignored either, it's one of the things that drives me off from being a viewer, if not a supporter of a channel in one way or another.  Yesterday I threw a host to somebody & noticed they weren't even acknowledging the host or any of the comments in chat, I eventually decided to throw a host on somebody else (later just turning off auto-hosting until after my own stream).  Today it was the same situation with that chat, however I waited to see if I would get a response to what was being said in chat before throwing the host, I didn't start getting responses until I stated something to see if anybody could actually see what I was saying.  Of course things got tense after that, not only from the streamer, but also from the other viewers; I debated whether I would just leave & come back at another time to see if anything had changed, ultimately it was decided that because another viewer decided to jump in on the hostility, that I wasn't going to be going back to that channel & removed my follow of over 8 months.

The particular streamer has been AFK-streaming Stream Raiders anyways (something I'm pretty certain he's going to get his Twitch channel penalized over sooner or later), one of the reasons I removed him from my auto-host list some time ago, but I still kept going back if only to support by giving them viewers & the occasional host when they actually were on, but I didn't particularly feel like giving that support when it turned into a full deadzone on replies (not even acknowledgement of promotion of their channels through hosts), so I eventually just decided I was done with it & I'm not currently intending on going back to their channel.

As far as I'm concerned, I will continue following channels for the individual streaming, not specifically what they are streaming (however I will restrict hosts if they are playing games from companies that I am boycotting for various reasons) & a lot of the channels I've been following have changed games & don't have the viewers or revenue coming in that they used to have, so loyalty to a channel based on the streamer (not the game) is a rarity that a lot of streamers don't have.  In my particular situation, I've been streaming primarily Fortnite (Save the World) lately, but I always notice follower drops when I choose to stream another game, that's a pretty clear indication of people that only follow for the game, not the streamer (which is one of the reasons I don't cry about the loss of those viewers/followers).  One of the main things that gets me to follow a channel & eventually host or auto-host them is based on how I am treated when I start viewing a channel (of course past situations have made me more cautious in how quickly I will do so, so it may take a few visits before I'll take that additional step), so it shouldn't be any surprise I'll unfollow a channel if things are getting ugly while I'm in there.

Long story short, a streamer may be still be able to be successful if not replying to their viewers, but those that choose not to are cutting out a good portion of supporters (by hosting, auto-hosting, following, tipping, cheering, subscribing or simply viewing while not being in invisible mode) that would at least like some acknowledgement that they are there, rather than being completely ignored when they may have something that is relevant to a question the streamer may have asked their viewers.

Funeral for the next couple days, streams delayed

Today I spent most of my day at a viewing for my uncle, a Navy Veteran who served in the Vietnam War & was exposed to agent orange when used in chemical warfare during this war.  He passed away one week ago, only moments after being removed from life-support (stating he had had enough of the pain & was ready to go), after becoming paralyzed when he broke his spine in a fall at his home 3.5 months ago.

He will be buried at Camp Williams cemetery tomorrow & I will be going there to attend as well.  Needless to say this is going to put a hold on streams until everything is finalized, however I am expecting to do another stream either Tuesday night or Wednesday before the Fortnite daily reset.  Family comes first, not like I'm actually making any income off of my channel anyways (outside of one very supportive individual who has been contributing over Patreon for the last year), so there's no reason I should miss his burial for something that doesn't even get me closer to paying my bills, I will be honoring his death not only as family, but also as a Veteran that served our country in the Vietnam War & putting my Twitch channel out of mind until after I get back home later in the day.  If I should need more time to mourn this death in the family before doing another stream, I will post an update here; those that are receiving email updates on my channel will always get a notification when a new stream starts, it's the best way to tell when a stream is starting seeing as I have no set schedule on when streams will be done.

4/7/2019 DDoS attack

Yet another DDoS attack, again expected to be organized by Twitch user iBreezyy.  Details as to what started this vendetta is listed in the provided link, it's retaliation to the publication of his poor behaviour in Fortnite (Save the World) back on 2/19/2018.  Tonight's DDoS attack was fairly minor until I shut down Fortnite, however it became a full disconnect by the end of the stream afterwards (forgetting to actually kill the stream after shutting down the game):

9:01:21 PM screenshot

3797 (0.52%) dropped frames at 3:21:17

9:05:45 PM screenshot

9745 (1.32%) dropped frames at 3:25:40

9:12:27 PM screenshot

 

 10616 dropped frames at 3:32:22
does not include dropped frames beyond the full disconnect

4/3/2019 DDoS attack

Yet another stream ended prematurely due to DDoS attacks, the only good thing about this one is it didn't start effecting the stream in a mission, but rather when I was about to start a new one.  Considering I'm expecting a home visit from my disability case manager in the afternoon anyways, I just decided to call it quits for the night & go to bed to hopefully be able to catch up on sleep before she gets here.

I am currently monitoring my router's incoming IP logs to see if I spot an IP address from the state that Twitch user iBreezyy lives in, considering it's expected he's behind the organization of these attacks, continuing attacks since the original Fortnite griefing situation on 2/19/2018, then the follow-up Twitch attack on 3/19/2018 that made it apparent he had a vendetta over his bad behavior being made public (he's already received 2 temp bans out of my reports on this channel, none of his bogus reports have had any effect against mine, however it is know that it's happening based on the recorded evidence from his channel on 3/22/2018).

3/20/2019 DDoS attacks

More DDoS attacks again tonight, again expected that Twitch user iBreezyy is behind them (specifically because I recently spotted another Comcast IP from the city & state that he lives in on the page written about his organized abuse, that new IP address getting blocked from the site earlier, along with the first one a few months ago).  When I checked my incoming IP logs after rebooting the modem when I got disconnected from the first attempt to stream, there was literally close to 70 connecting coming into it (those logs have been logged & will be listed on my personal site's DDoS IP blacklist later).  Videos of tonight's attacks will also be listed as they become available (Twitch versions will become available much quicker than YouTube version, YouTube versions are only provided to show how I see it on my side without upload interference as you will see in Twitch's versions & to serve as permanent reminders of what continues to happen as Twitch continues to ignore the reports filed about this malicious activity, it will only be a matter of time before subpoenas are issued).

YouTube version

Current status on frequency of streams

Current update on when I'll be able to get back to normal on Twitch streams:

• For a while, getting notices from Medicaid roughly every 3 days kept me busy for roughly 4 months straight (having to do roughly 5 reviews during that time & getting 34 notices over a 4 month period) while they searched for a reason to be able to strip that medical coverage from me.  I got somewhat of a break from that during the first couple months of 2019, however they've lowered the Medicaid spendown in March of 2019 (at $220 per month at the end of 2018, raised to $255 the first 2 months of 2019, now lowered to $226 in March of 2019).  This spendown is why I have to go without a number of things to be able to even afford my living expenses alone (nothing extra), meaning I have to lower my living expenses by going without just to make them affordable & can't have anything nice as a result of it, gaining additional debt each month...
  
  With the lowered spendown, this will mean a lower monthly amount in Food Stamps as well & likely another Medicaid review that will need to be completed (how long this will take before it finally winds down is still to be seen, could drag on for several months like it did in 2018 after I started receiving as a dependent off of my father's retirement, something Medicaid apparently didn't feel I was entitled to & decided to get that back by increasing my Medicaid spendowns & lowering Food Stamps, taking the last 4 months of 2018 to even get it partially resolved & out of the threat of losing those benefits entirely)...


• The second thing that has been preventing me from doing normal streams has been the friend that has been staying with me.  Originally this was only supposed to be for "a few days", it looks like it's going to be at least a few months before he's finally out...  He's been given a deadline that he needs to be out by the end of the month, it appears he should be out by the 25th (supposedly he has a place lined up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it fell through like the last place he attempted to get in January, but he still needs to be out by the set deadline, even if he doesn't have a place to go to; the first night he spent here was roughly Dec. 23rd, 2018).  A lot of my time has been spent cleaning up after his due to his lacking of doing what he's been asked to do while he's here, not to mention he comes back at late hours & isn't allowed to have a key to the house, so I haven't been getting much sleep because I have to let him in (it's been discussed with my landlord that I should set a curfew with him, meaning he needs to be back by a certain hour, but he hasn't been obeying the other rules, I don't expect he would abide by this curfew when he did come back too late to get back in the house & I would go without sleep regardless).


• Around the same time that friend got here, I was getting hit with fairly regular DDoS attacks (expected to be organized by Twitch user iBreezyy), which resulted in a number of videos being uploaded (using the embedded local time display & OBS upload stats to keep records & provide evidence of each of those attacks), this caused technical issues with being able to continue doing regular streams, being able to view those streams without it turning into a slideshow with audio (or full-out disconnecting while in the stream, one of the reasons why YouTube versions of those disrupted streams were uploaded & embedded into the updates regarding those DDoS attacks, keeping backups of those videos on my PC for republication if necessary) & regular resets.
  
  While the report to Twitch seems to have gotten those attacks to somewhat) stop from iBreezyy, the situation continues after that friend decided to try & get another torrent past me.  One of the main rules I gave him when he got here was absolutely no torrents (knowing what he liked to spend his time doing on the internet) & he kept breaking that rule, resulting in my blocking his computer from the internet multiple times.  The last time I blocked his computer, I stated the only way I was going to unblock it was going to be if he installed a software firewall to block the program from the internet, he agreed, however I received an email of a DMCA complaint filed against my ISP the day after I got him to agree to the firewall, his primary computer is now permanently blocked from being able to access the internet.
  
  Aside from the fact I've already taken care of the torrent situation by permanently blocking his main computer from the internet, my modem is continuing to get hit by DDoS attacks & stalking from companies looking to file further DMCA complaints against my account with my ISP (incoming connections have continued for about a week now even after I cut off his computer from the internet, it's possible my IP address is still being held by the trackers for the torrents he was attempting to get past me) & this has lead me to pulling those incoming connections from my router to add them to my DDoS IP blacklist on my personal site (all the ones without linked logs are new from this situation alone), causing that list to triple in a matter of hours from when I started to do it.  Originally I was attempting to get comments about this on WhatIsMyIPAddress.com (a site I use regulardly for IP tracking purposes, especially when it comes to hacking attempts on my personal site), but seeing as they weren't allowing those comments to go public, I started publishing those IP addresses to my personal site instead.  These attacks are effecting my download rate, which also effect my streams on Twitch, my uploads to YouTube (one of the reasons I've take a break from uploading the KickBeat cutscene series I was intending on uploading 1 video per day, along with all the other life issues that I started getting hit with after only a few videos), ability to publish updates to my personal site, as well as confirming validity of game giveaways (currently only available to subscribers on Patreon at $5 or more per month).


• The new issue at this point is related to Case Managers through the Independent Living Program run through Valley Behavioral Health (previously Valley Mental Health).  At this point I'm having to spend business hours of each day trying to sort out the mess with my previous (soon to be former) Case Manager not keeping the appointments he's been making with me for home visits.  I've gotten this partially resolved, but am still having to jump through hoops to get things done & I'll have to wait until after business hours (or weekends) to be able to do any streaming on Twitch (it might come down to me having to file another public complaint against the Independent Living Program just to get it resolved, the only other alternative being I drop them completely because there is no follow-through on scheduled appointments).

So this currently details what is going on & why streams haven't been regular over the past several months.  I'm hoping I can get these issues resolved & I can go back to becoming a normal streamer again, however in the mean time, the only regular streaming frequency I can give is roughly every 1 to 3 days (when my Fortnite dailies fill up); sometimes I may have a more severe issue (like a funeral or family in the hospital, possibly even a surgery I have to personally be in the hospital for) that may prevent me from even streaming that often...  For those who have stuck around & continued to follow (especially those who have contributed to the channel through subs, cheers, raids & hosts), it is appreciated & I wish there was more that could be done to get back to having a normal presence among gamers & streamers alike, however life issues comes first, I can't really ignore them & expect them to just go away, I have to deal with the important stuff before I worry about something that really isn't gaining me any income to begin with (there are some subs & cheers that are currently being held in Twitch's affiliate program, however they aren't obligated to pay anything until that value reaches at least $100; it's currently only got a total of roughly $16.59 on it, according to my records in a local spreadsheet on my PC, started when 3 larger Fortnite streamers helped me get affiliate status through their raids on my channel).

I'm hoping that sooner or later, Twitch streaming will become profitable enough that I will be able to make a living from it & be able to get away from having to live off of Disability benefits, allowing me to get away from the ludicrously-high spendowns to be able to continue receiving Medicaid & Medicare.  Disability discrimination unfortunately nets those with disabilities about the same treatment as those with criminal histories, one of the reasons why I usually fail in being able to keep a job with a company, if I'm even lucky enough to be able to gain one in the first place (I know from experience that hiding this from a company you are applying for doesn't help you after you get the job, you're better off making it known up front so the company can work with you on them if they are equal-opportunity, however that's usually the nail in the coffin that prevents you from getting it)...  Until I have a means to be able to support myself, I have to continue playing this game by their rules to be able to continuing living (even if that means going without certain necessities that I can't afford because Medicaid believes I need to pay overpriced expenses with money I don't have)...

Follower-only chat enabled due to organized trolling

Got hit by a number of trolls in my stream a few days ago, 2 users banned as a result of their actions.  In order to stop the attacks on the channel, I ended up having to enable follower-only chat again; I don't like making users feel obligated to follow to be able to chat, but in cases where it's obvious the privilege to be able to chat in the channel is going to be abused, I have to put measures in place to stop it from happening...  Follower-only chat will eventually fall off provided the attacks have stopped.  There were 2 bans in the last stream due to trolling, so I set the follow minimum at 30 minutes.  It will drop to 10 minutes in the next stream (later today), then down to nothing provided there isn't any more situations during today's stream, being fully removed by the 3rd stream if no more situations present themselves by individuals looking to cause problems.

Article 13 has passed, what you can do now

Article 13 has passed in the EU & at this point a lot of us have questions regarding what is going to happen to media sites such as YouTube, Twitch, Daily Motion & so on.  I spent a little time tracking down some information regarding the matter, this is currently the largest collective of information I can find regarding the matter, however I'm still attempting to locate the actual documentation that EU officials voted on.  Currently the result of what's going to happen with the passing of this new directive is unclear, but the indications where media sites have reached out to their users & content creators make it clear it won't be anything good to those that keep those sites running.  It may be a while before Article 13 goes into full swing, but it's certain it won't take long to start destroying the media sites we know & enjoy visiting, we need to take a stance & get our voices heard, there may still be time to get this matter appealed (or at least toned down to not be as destructive as said media sites are expecting).

The official site apposing this directive can be found at https://saveyourinternet.eu, click on the ACT NOW button to get your voice heard, we need everybody in on this (creators, streamers, uploaders & viewers alike)...

Past posts on this:

• Article 13 is about to make a (negative) difference for streamers...

2/27/2019 DDoS attacks

As is apparently to be expected, I can't even go a few days without getting hit by another DDoS attack.  The last one was on 2/23/2019, but didn't last long enough to write a blog post about it or have videos processed, it was resolved after I restarted by modem.

I've been hit by 2 DDoS attacks back-to-back tonight, both which ended streams early so I could reboot not only my modem, but also by router; the second time I went to reboot my modem, I didn't even get to rebooting it, it rebooted itself as a security protocol in response to the DDoS attack it was currently getting hit with.  As with every DDoS attack I get hit with, the details of them go public & backups of what those attacks cause are processed, re-uploaded & stored for permanent publication.

Again I'll throw out the details of the expected deviant being Twitch user iBreezyy, retaliatory organized attacks from the original situation on 2/19/2018 in Fortnite.  Full details regarding this ongoing vendetta can be found at http://www.wondergamer.net/Twitch/abuse/ibreezyy.htm.  Taking this a step further, I will be filing another complaint against his Twitch channel, first without the new police report case number, then again after I have one that Twitch can reference with the law enforcement looking into the matter.

1st DDoS attack
YouTube version


25202 dropped frames at 21:09 (33.26%)

2nd DDoS attack
YouTube version


47979 dropped frames at 2:01:32 (10.97%)

The following complaint was filed against iBreezyy's channel before I embedded the first 2 videos above:

I have had DDoS interference with my streams twice in a row tonight, the last one actually causing my modem to force reboot (triggering the anti-DDoS security measure, this disconnected a phone call I was on due to being an Xfinity VOIP line).  iBreezyy is the individual that is expected to be behind these attacks, the original situation starting back during a griefing situation on 2/19/2018, followed up by an attack on my channel (including at least 4 different individuals, 3 he brought with him & I have a video of him organizing these attacks over his channel recorded on 3/22/2018, 2 days before he tried a second attack on my channel like the one only 5 days before, which failed due my enabling follower-only chat for a minimum of a month when I saw them coming for a repeat attack; that follower-only restriction stayed for over 2 months, until I decided to remove the Free Games list for abuse, that's currently a subscriber-only benefit on Patreon).  I will be filing another police report against this individual (either with my local police or with the Internet Crimes division of the FBI at ic3.gov), I will be filing a second report against this individual once I have a case number to go with it.  At this point, I'm lucky if I can go 1 day without having my streams on Twitch interfered with using this type of malicious behavior & that information gets published every day it happens with backups of what I am seeing on my end (not only do I stream to Twitch, I also record & keep backups of such situations, these nearly daily attacks giving good reason as to why I still have over a TB of data still backed up for over a decade), that's permanent publications that will not expire & will continue to increase until this internet criminal behavior is put to an end...

I am going to continue attempting to stream tonight despite the DDoS attacks, if only to get the dailies completed.  I have put my modem back into bridge mode hoping I'll be able to get the logs from my router & an IP address for which I can pair the attacks to (this should give the details necessary for an arrest).

2/22/2019 DDoS attack

I originally had a problem before I started this stream, which caused me to have to call my ISP prior to getting an actual stream going (the previous one being ended directly after it started due to immediate transfer rate issues).  Things were going well for the first mission, however part way through the second mission, I again started having transfer rate issues.

Twitch user iBreezyy has been at my throat ever since the original griefing incident on 2/19/2018, where he decided to start griefing under the name of Aluuurt because I wouldn't give him guns when he started begging for him during this mission.  The video evidence of that griefing was originally highlighted on Twitch, but later fell victim to a bug that caused highlights to expire at the same time the original video did (along with another griefing video or a user with the display name of Dr. Jew (luckily I had a local backup of the one of iBreezyy, so it was processed & re-uploaded to YouTube, seems the one on Dr. Jew got deleted & I was not able to restore that one).  It has been over a year of continuous attacks organized through his channel & the DDoS attacks started around the time he got his second temporary Twitch ban (when I reported discriminatory accusations targeted at myself over his VOIP while he was streaming; the first temporary ban was also after I reported his channel for slander & organization of attacks during one of his live streams on 3/22/2018) & yet another of his Steam accounts getting hit with a VAC ban (after I reported it when he was aimbotting while streaming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on his channel).  While he seems to be attempting to keep any discussions of organized attacks out of his live streams (can't say the same thing for the racist/discriminatory discussions), it's obvious this internet criminal activity is still happening.  Note that I have reported this to the police in the past & Twitch already had the case number on that report, however this hasn't resulted in any penalties on his account or an arrest yet...

At the end of 1 hour, 27 minute & 25 second stream (ended early due to the attack), dropped frames were a total of 3901 (1.24% of the stream).  I decided it was time to get the video processed & published seeing as these videos getting published tend to get him to back off for a while.  In the mean time I'll be looking for evidence in my modems logs to see if I have anything solid to give to the Internet Crimes Division of the FBI for an arrest.


YouTube version

Streams postponed due to illness (updated)

Streams are going to be put on hold for a while due to illness.  Normally streams are done every 1 to 3 days, but even if the Fortnite dailies are capped at 3, I currently don't have the energy to spend time playing games or the voice to reply to viewers (my voice is almost completely gone at this point), so I'm going to have to take a loss in the rewards from them until I can get over this sickness & at least have a voice to be able to respond to viewers again.  I might stream something else that I don't use voice in to reply to viewers (games that I know are going to be muted by Twitch in the archived streams due to soundtrack, KickBeat being a big one), but I won't say that for certain, right now I'm just going to have to play it day by day until I know what I'm going to have the energy to do & share with those that are following...

UPDATE:  What I ended up deciding was that I could still stream (when I have the energy to do so), but I won't be using voice.  This means that chat will be done over text in the game & responses to viewers will be done over text in the chat (when I get a chance to, this obviously means that responses will be delayed).  Of course the lack of energy is going to restrict how often & how long I can stream regardless, but this won't cut out streams entirely for 2 to 4 weeks at a time as I originally thought I was going to have to do.  It's a compromise & will result in a loss of quality & viewers/followers I'm sure, but those that have understanding of the situation, I think they'll be the ones that stick around.

Note that this also means I won't be on Discord (or at least won't be speaking if I do happen to be on it, responses can still be given over text).  Until I at least have a voice to be able to speak without having to strain my vocal cords to get a voice to come out, I'll have to limit what I'm attempting to do, even if it means lowered quality in what I'm able to provide in my streams...

DDoS attacks again... (1/23/2019)

Even after getting a new modem today (having my ISP come out to check the lines & switch out the modem) DDoS attacks continued on the first stream after getting the new modem (again expected to be organized by Twitch user iBreezyy); the new modem should have changed my IP address, this shouldn't be happening...  Currently what is available for viewing is on Twitch, however the local video is being processed & will be available on YouTube once it's completed, at which point I'll be embedding the video into this post.  If this continues to be a problem, I will be filing another police report & giving them his address to search his computer for evidence of the DDoS attacks (even if he's hiring somebody else to do it for him, it's likely that evidence is still on his computer), seeing as I located that information several months back (have yet to do anything with it however, figured it might come in handy in the future, which might be tonight).

YouTube version (how it was on my end, gun not firing half of the time)

Article 13 is about to make a (negative) difference for streamers...

Several months ago, I made a blog entry regarding Article 13 with the European Union Directive & how it was going to affect streamers if it passed, even joining the fight for a short time by setting up a timer to get this information out regarding the matter through my bot & tagging my streams to show I was a part of the movement against it (although I pulled out of it fairly quickly due to increased attacks by iBreezyy & his gang of goons shortly after I set it up & it becoming apparent that Twitch wasn't going to do anything about it regardless of how many reported I filed against his channel).

I received another email today from Twitch pointing out that Article 13 is about to go into effect, decided I needed to get involved in this fight once more...  In this email, Twitch states the following:

Dear Creators,

Back in December, we reached out to make sure you were aware of Article 13, a proposal to a European Union Directive that could restrict the content you and your communities make and share on Twitch. It’s a proposal with global consequences, so we asked you and every other creator worldwide to get the facts, talk with your viewers, and sign a petition.

To everyone who shared our concerns and participated, thank you. We see and appreciate your support. To anyone who hasn’t, or to anyone who’s just now hearing about Article 13, it’s still not too late to add your voice to a large and growing group of streamers who don’t want to see their opportunities and creative freedom hindered.

In only a few days, EU national negotiators will sit down with members of the European Parliament to finish drafting Article 13. Lost among the recent debates and negotiations is one core truth: that all of you make the internet a better and more vibrant place by having the freedom to create what you want to create. You use Twitch to communicate, entertain, educate, and bring people together. The negotiators of Article 13 must be shown the value you and your communities bring to this debate, and must understand this law’s potential impact on you and everyone you stream for.

Your voice on this topic matters. If passed, you—the creator who earns a livelihood on services like Twitch, grows communities, and makes original, engaging content—will see more barriers to creation. Please consider these ways to continue educating your community and lending your voice to this important discussion:

• Speak out. Inform and educate your community during a broadcast of the issues with the European Union’s approach to copyright law and motivate folks to take an interest on this topic. Be sure to title your streams #Article13.
• Share your perspective with your member of the EU Parliament. You can find your representative here: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/home
• Join with other creators objecting to Article 13 at Create Refresh or #SaveYourInternet.
• Sign a petition.

We’ll continue to do our part by talking to members of the EU Parliament, educating creators, supporting creator action groups, and serving as a home for creators who want to share their views, their way.

And we hope you’ll join us.

Sincerely,
Emmett Shear

Once this goes into effect, expect some changes on Twitch (as well as other streaming sites) & not for the better...  Streamers are going to be the primary force in getting this decision reversed, however I expect even viewers can have their voices heard, because they are also a part of Twitch (what's the point of streaming if you don't have viewers).  For streamers & viewers alike, take the time to make your voice heard, Twitch is going to have some major changes that is going to effect the functionality & what games can be streamed if this new standard is not reversed...

Company staying, streams limited

While the situation with Medicaid may temporarily have been resolved (not that I expect it's going to stay that way, I still have my doubts that it's actually resolved, but I won't know that until later this month or midway through next month), the current situation that is keeping me from streaming as much as I would like is related to some company that is currently staying at my house.  This is an old friend (one of the few local friends I still have that aren't family) that needed a place to stay after his ex-wife manipulated legal procedures to punish him every time anything even smelled funny...

Long story short, this manipulation, paired with paranoia & what I would expect to be bipolar disorder resulted in him having to spend some time in jail, as well as having to sell an impressive house (that happened to be too close to someone in her family, not to the point that it broke the restraining order, but enough to keep her on edge & that was used in his sentencing to get out early, causing further damage on his credit he had just managed to build back up while they were still married) he had purchased with a loan from the bank after the divorce.  Because he lost the house, he needed a place to stay after he got out, he called me (I had done this before for a few days when she threw him out of the house after he signed the divorce papers she kept using to manipulate him to get her way, apparently thinking that it would be a show of good faith that he was willing to work with her if he did sign them, she promptly had them processed after he signed them; I explained to him before you don't get a divorce to save your marriage, you get a separation so you don't have to get divorced, none of my advice on the situation really got through his thick skull, so the inevitable happened...), he was supposed to spend a few days here, but it's already been closer to 3 weeks & looks like it's going to be over a month before he'll have a place to move to & I'll be able to get back to steaming more regularly (I may not have an actual streaming schedule, but I was doing it most days regardless)...

I told him a few years ago if she had this type of severe paranoia towards him (and abusive nature manipulating legal procedures to get her own way), he should just leave her & consider it a blessing it was over; my personal statement was that if I was in a (poor excuse of a) relationship like this, I would have had the marriage annulled within the first week.  Also she forbid him to say anything about what was going on about it, yet she felt she was still entitled to tell everybody in her family to get them to cut ties with him & block him on any social platform online (of course he still talked with his own family & myself about it, but it was an unreal expectation that she could talk trash about him to everybody she knew & he was supposed to keep quiet about it).  The reality of it is that poor excuse of a woman will never be able to keep down a steady relationship if this is her personality & sooner or later karma will come back to haunt her (as well as her mother, who abused her position in Deseret Industries to use company funds to make the situation a whole lot worse), she'll eventually realize that not many people would make as many changes or take as many losses as my friend did to attempt to please her & that she will NEVER keep down a marriage if she expects her partner (if there was ever a case where the term "ball & chain" had relative accuracy, this was it) needs to be the only person making the changes...

So until he's gotten his own place & is out of the house, this is going to restrict how often I can stream online or at least restrict the time I have to be doing things on my own & not spending time with him...  It is possible I might be able to talk him into playing a game I can stream online with him (I did get him Double Dragon: Neon during the Steam Winter sale, installed Shadow Warrior 2 on his computer from my secondary/guest GOG account & he has access to my secondary/guess Steam account's game library through Family Sharing should we attempt a Steam game not on his own account; Killing Floor was a game we used to play together, him playing on my secondary/guest computer when he came to visit before getting married, he currently has his own computer set up in my home office where the secondary/guest computer is still sitting, but detached).

There will still be streams at least every 3 days (don't want to lose potential of missing completion of dailies), but outside of that (and when specific llamas are available in the store), streams are going to be back to how it was around the time that Twitch dailies were broken, only playing the game every 1-3 days when necessary to not lose what is available in the game by not bothering to complete those tasks (as far as Battle Royal is concerned in Fortnite, I don't really care for that mode, so loss of what that mode has to offer doesn't contribute to the importance of the original mode that I purchased access to the game for, that being the co-op mode of Save the World, which was available in Early access as early as mid-2017).