Harassment efforts renewed by 800notes members

While my Twitch channel still remains on high alert, the restrictions were somewhat lowered a bit a few months ago to allow for certain chat functions on the channel.  The mass-harassment efforts that started with Steam trolls in 2023 is being breathed new life into their online harassment, internet stalking & doxing efforts with the joining of members from the 800notes website.  Because of this, I may need to tighten up the restrictions again on the Twitch channel.

It is advised that if you are not already following the channel & have not spoken in chat on it yet, that you avoid visiting the channel while it remains inactive (meaning, when a stream is not running), otherwise you may be banned from the channel under the expectation you are a part of the harassment efforts coming from 800notes & Steam trolls.  You may be able to bypass getting banned & blocked on my Twitch channel if you are not logged into your Twitch account when accessing it until I've gotten a chance to stream again, using a private browser window can help in that case if you don't want to be logging out & back into your account.

The most recent information regarding this matter can be found in the second review published on 800notes, located here (I may need to start placing IP bans on activity on the site again, since they are utilizing the information on it in their doxing efforts, so limit your usage on this site to only a few pages a day until things have died down).  The latest updates regarding my Twitch & YouTube channels will continue to be posted here, as well as on my Discord server (the Discord server is no longer accepting new members because of this ongoing 2+ years harassment campaign started by Steam, but it's possible you could still receive a private invite if I trust you enough to send you one over a private message).

Another change that was recently made on my Twitch channel was that I started to attempt giving some means of a schedule for when I could stream, but due to the uncertainty of my necessary daily tasks, the best I could do was a reverse-schedule.  The purpose of a reverse-schedule is giving the days that I know I won't be able to stream, but leaving open the possibility of when I can stream when not busy & sharing that information for followers of the channel.  This information is kept mostly up to date on my Discord server in the announcement channels.  Health issues are still playing a large part in inability to do a stream even when not busy with appointments, but this reverse-schedule at least gives indication on when streams may be possible & points out days that are expected there won't be any streams.

MiHoYo now blacklisted

I was going over some of the information on my Twitch channel & ended up noticing the URL to the official Genshin Impact forums, decided to go to it again to see if there had been any development in adding vertical invert mouselook to the game.  What I found was not the original post I made, but instead their claim that the post "violates community rules":

The reality of this is this doesn't make any sense to me; how could requesting a standard mouse function in the game (a normal function that most other games of this type) be considered as a violation?  I suspect I have an old backup of the post somewhere on my Gaming PC, I will republish the backup when the time comes to publish an article about this game & the companies involved in it.

In any case, I decided to follow up on this & found that I wasn't able to log back into my account (the site was not sending authentication emails), even after resetting the password.

There is the possibility that my account may have been compromised (I haven't gone anywhere Genshin Impact or their website in probably over 4 years) & the individual that may have stole the account may have done something that may have resulted in an actual violation of ToS (even if it wasn't my doing), but I wouldn't be surprised if it was more a matter of retaliation to negative publicity (the statement on my Twitch channel stating that streams were discontinued in this game due to lack of inverted vertical alignment), something Bandai/Namco has proven themselves very keen on doing.

Regardless, I have no intentions in restarting the game & given this gives a history with MiHoYo, I find it best to avoid any of their games in the future, so this ultimately results in a full boycott against them (at least until I can get to the bottom of why I am unable to access my account & that's only if it can be recovered).  I will be publishing a boycott against the company to my personal site when I have the time to write it (likely the next time I have to do an update to one of the existing articles on the site).

As for my Twitch channel, this temporary discontinuation of Genshin Impact streams on it has likely become permanent.  This also means that I won't be going to channels while they are streaming this game (adding Genshin Impact & any other game by the company to my Unwanted Twitch browser plugin's blacklist). 

Warframe connection issues...again...

Since last night, I've been having some pretty severe connection issues in Warframe, which is making it near-impossible to get anything done (having to complete the last Sortie mission twice just to get the rewards from it).  I might still attempt a stream if only to document the connection issues (while trying to make use of the 26-hour Affinity Booster I got as a login bonus yesterday), but if I can't stay connected, there isn't going to be much reason in playing the game, much less streaming it...  I might find something else to stream in the mean time, perhaps I'll see about getting Shadow Warrior 2 up & running again.

Warframe stream on hold due to connection issues

I was considering doing a Warframe stream tonight, however it seems the game is unable to stay connected & keeps logging me out, so I may need to find something else to play (and potentially stream) in the meantime.  The biggest problem with this is it's going to prevent me from getting Nightwave tasks done, so it will be a matter of technical issues that is going negate rewards in the game because dailies are already full & have a limited time to complete them.  I might try running it on my Nintendo Switch if I can get a USB keyboard & mouse to work with it (through the docking station, not something I have tried in playing games on the Switch yet, although I do know USB keyboards will at least allow for quick text entry), but I'm not expecting any difference in the connection issues even if use of those peripherals are an option...

I do have another game I'm intending on working on due to rewards for playing it on the Alienware Arena website (Paladins), however it uses the Unreal Engine, so this won't be a game I'm going to be streaming on Twitch because of the changes made in Fortnite that ultimately drove me off from the game (as well as from Epic Games, any exclusives on the Epic Games platform or any game that uses the Unreal Engine).  Paladins is a game I have played in the past, but took a long break from it (and ultimately intended on not going back to it again) because it has a hacker presence in the game, ultimately leading to the publication of this review.  I guess the question at this point would be if Paladins ends up having the same connection issues as Warframe, in which case I may just need to play (and potentially stream) something solo instead...

I might still attempt to stream Warframe even with the disconnect issues, if only to document the issue on Twitch (normally this would be something for YouTube, but given the recent management-supported attack on August 5th, YouTube activity is quite literally blocked through hardware firewalls, parental controls, browser security plugins & removal of YouTube apps in my home until 3 months after the last successful attack, so anything new on YouTube is currently on an indefinite hold; note that this most recent attack on YouTube isn't the latest attack however, another one happening on Steam on the 16th).  This won't be something people are going to want to watch (maybe possible to at least have a discussion over chat I guess), but at the very least I would have something I could export to YouTube later (Twitch also giving an option of direct downloading if I need to preserve a local copy on my old PC until I decide to give YouTube another chance...should I get to the point I want to mess with YouTube again...) to give a more permanent record of the issues.  As is already stated on my Twitch channel, this new computer does not yet have sufficient hard drive space for recording videos, nor does it have a second monitor or webcam yet, so this limits my recording & streaming capabilities until I can acquire the hardware necessary to get it up to normal streaming/recording standards (streaming is still possible, but responses to chat are delayed & limited because I can't actively monitor chat, a webcam feed would be lacking & voice responses only in rare cases)...  I do still have the old Windows 7 PC, however it's been overheating lately & with Steam's changes to their platform, the old version of the PC software still on that computer is doing nothing but corrupting everything installed on it through their client, so I'd either have to download official versions of F2P games or consider playing a version through another platform that isn't giving the proverbial middle finger to older OS users...

In regards to the corruption of games issue on Steam for older OSs, I've been testing some workarounds to this issue, however the 2 possibilities I've found do still have their limitations, so I'll need to do some more testing regarding this issue before I publish the new article about it to my personal site.  A bit of a teaser on the methods to get people started on it (should they want to spend time to see if it works for them), the theories that show promise are by using a shared network drive between computers or by downloading them to a PC where Steam still supports that OS (meaning a Windows 10 or newer OS is still going to be needed, but it may not be necessary to have to pay an extensive amount of money for a newer OS gaming machine) & using the client to transfer the game through your network to your older PC using the client (or just do it manually through shared directories over your network).  I will publish more details about this later once I have finished testing these options & have time to write the new article.  There's still the possibility that if this transfer works, Steam on the older OS could just corrupt those games again the next time steam is started on it, so I don't have a solid answer just yet...

First stream in some time, not great results...

First attempt to stream using the new PC (Windows 10) and the latest version of OBS...and the short version is quality came out pretty bad...  I got a mere 300p out of this stream, so unless it's my unfamiliarity with OBS Studio (using an old beta version on Windows 7, which is capable of at least 720p) & the settings may have been wrong, I'm going to need to get this resolved before I do any more long streams.  The last one can be found here (not going to attempt to embed it, this has been broken for close to a decade) & is over 6 hours, but ultimately it's something I'm going to have to research & see if I can get it resolved.  A possibility could be the screen ratio, which I know can sometimes drop quality when livestreaming (depending on the service streamed to), so I may need to spend some time redoing what I have to make it more compatible with Twitch's streaming expectations (or maybe consider installing the old beta version on this new PC using my backup of the isntaller & using that rather than the newer OBS Studio)...

Limited streaming will be starting again

As has been stated in the last post, my main PC is currently overheating & my newly-built PC (Windows 10) is still not up to my standards for streaming, but I'm noticing continually increasing toxicity in Warframe (the game I've been playing the most of lately) that often times results in solo missions when most of the team has dropped out, so I determined it's going to be necessary to start streaming so that toxicity can at least be made public to some degree (whether they are permanent additions to the internet or just temporary until they expire is still undetermined, however it will at least give the option to save them through one of two different methods if I need a more permanent documentation of something that happened in game).

There are currently 3 different things that are keeping this PC from being a normal streaming machine:

• Insufficient hard drive space:
  This means there is a lack of space to keep games installed, as well as recording of videos.  I should at least be able to stream to Twitch, but will need to find a way to disable consecutive recording while streams are running.  This ultimately means that if a more permanent version of a video is necessary, the video won't be as high quality as if I had uploaded a recorded video.  This PC currently only has about 2.75 TBs of space on it, I will need to purchase at least 2 decent sized hard drives (or 1 really large hard drive) to get it up to par for normal streaming/recording of games or leaving games installed for more variety (as it is now, I'm having to remove & reinstall games every so often when I run out of space).
• Single monitor:
  I currently don't have the preferred monitor set up, meaning at least 2 monitors so I can monitor chat on the same PC (although using my laptop might be an option for this, it doesn't mean it's going to be in my line of view while streaming games).  Without that second monitor & the ability to actively monitor chat while streaming, responses to chat will be limited to between missions.  I will still be embedding chat into streams regardless so I can still document harassment that is to be expected while streaming (especially with new followers that joined when the organized attacks from Steam trolls started in 2023; this seems to have mostly died down, but I don't expect it has fully stopped yet, especially when comments are still being made in that thread on Steam after Steam staff unlocked it & is allowing showing of those comments again).
• No webcam:
  While it might be possible to use the webcams I have on my Windows 7 PC (although I don't know I have a driver that will work with them on Windows 10), use of that webcam still won't be an option until I can get my PC where it should be (in the home office, on a desk; not in the front room using the frontroom TV as a monitor...although I will admit playing games on a 58-inch widescreen TV is a nice change once in a while).  This probably isn't going to be something that will keep me from moving the PC to my home office, but it will affect my ability to have a webcam panel in those streams until I can get one that will work with Windows 10.

Note that while chat won't be actively monitored, it will still be actively documented, still using an IRC client to log chat even when the channel isn't active (this also logs users that enter the channel in most cases, even if they don't chat while they are in it).  Embedded chat may be somewhat blurry in recorded/exported/highlighted videos, but I'll still have the IRC logs to back up what is said, with timestamps down to the millisecond of it being made if needed.

I expected a minimum of 2 more months (possibly longer, seeing as I have a yearly phone bill coming up next month) before I will be able to start streaming & responding to viewers as a normal streamer would, this will be when I have the hard drives & monitors on the new PC as necessary for streaming & recording.  I might consider using the laptop to be able to monitor chat, but I still don't expect that to be a normal standard, just a temporary workaround to not having active viewing of chat while streaming (if it's done at all).  The other option might be going back to the Windows 7 PC for streaming if I can get the overheating issue resolved (I have a new liquid cooling unit already delivered, I just haven't gotten around to installing it yet to see if it resolves the issue).

I may consider adding new information to the channel (possibly through a goal, not that I expect to gain enough to even make a dent towards finishing the PC any sooner) to give a status on where I'm at in regards to getting this Windows 10 PC up to my streaming standards, at which point I'll be able to have active discussions with viewers again (not just limited discussions between missions).

Steam harassment continues...

The harassment on Steam has picked up again after Steam management started allowing comments on the thread where this original situation started (as was to be expected when I first noticed they were allowing comments in that thread again). It looks at this point that the higher restrictions on the Twitch channel and private Discord is likely going to become permanent, seeing as Steam management can't get their shit together in putting a stop to it.

The end of the heightened alert status is now pushed back to February 22nd, 2027 (determined by the date of the last comment considered as being abusive & deceiving in that thread). The reality of it, however, is that I don't believe we will ever get to the end of the heightened alert period with the continued attacks, so just expect that this status will be indefinitely extended and probably never end... There will be no more updates about pushbacks to this date on this blog, but the expiration date will be listed on the Twitch channel itself (and continue to be pushed back as necessary).

2-year high alert period once again reset

As of 1/28/2025, I have noticed that ALL entries for this blog as been purged from the Google search engine.  This is being viewed as another successful attack, likely organized by the Steam troll community & the CutCafe misinformation channel on YouTube (probably other sources I am not currently aware of).  In response to completion of this attack (which affects Google search results for this blog), the 2-year high alert status is once again being reset (meaning higher restrictions in my Twitch channel, disabled contact email on WonderGamer.net & expiring personal-invite to my Discord server to trusted individuals only).  The estimated end period of high-alert status is now 1/28/2027.

EDIT:  In addition to the extension of this high alert status, I've also decided that since this attack affects this blog, I am also going to disable comments on the blog (at least) until the high alert status ends & posts from this blog once again start showing in search engines (not that I'm expecting either of these to actually happen).

Switching Warframe clan & cleaning up of friend lists

This wasn't widely known by people that follow me on Twitch because I have yet to actually stream Warframe on Twitch, but I was accepted into the Aurora Gladiators clan roughly the end of March in 2023.  As of 9/8/2024 (possibly the day before, after I logged out; I wasn't given any notice about it when it happened), I am officially no longer a part of that clan & have since moved on to another clan.  Seems they are twisting statements I was saying in clan chat (in-game) to make it an offense to their clan rules, thus resulting in being booted from the clan...  I would suspect with the toxicity I got in a off-hand explanation, there's probably ban against my account in their clan as well (not that this is going to matter, I wouldn't be attempting to rejoin after the way they dealt with it anyways, much less recommending them).

One person in the clan that was still on my friend list (who I contacted to try & find out why the actions were taken on their part) ended up needing to be blocked based on accusations being made of my personal site while they were explaining why they believed I was kicked (the assumption on why I was kicked was an acceptable misunderstanding, but the toxic comments towards my site was what warranted I cut ties with him), but they told me to contact another Officer in the clan.  This officer was Deathrow, which unsurprisingly I couldn't contact over DM anymore, nor was I able to whisper them in game (not sure if I was typing their name wrong, all I know was the message wasn't going through & I wasn't able to pull their profile using chat commands).  I made sure to take screenshots of the discussion (should it be needed at a later date, possibly in a review of personal experience while I was in the clan) before I removed them as a friend & added them to my Ignore list (unfortunately Warframe doesn't have proper blocks, so I'll probably still run into them in the future); they were also removed as a friend & blocked on Discord shortly afterwards.

While I received no notice of a removal or even a warning, after speaking with Mike (shortened in-game name, not the full name), it seems the accusation is that I was self-promoting my Twitch channel (among other false-accusations about my site similar to the same degree of what was being stated when the mass-attacks from Steam trolls started).  Just because you say you have a channel, doesn't mean you are promoting it, however given the fact that I made a statement that I would be redirecting any giveaways through the clan (not actually doing giveaways in the clan yet, but it was a consideration when I had something decent I could give up) through my Twitch channel instead, I guess I could see how they could make a mistake of thinking it was a promotion (regardless of how it may have looked, it definitely wasn't intentional).

This could have also been retaliation to the statement that I wasn't going to be donating to the clan anymore (a decision that was decided roughly 4 months ago when it became clear a lot of people couldn't see my posts in clan chat), they were still gaining taxes on trades in the Dojo regardless.

An additional possibility could have been a discussion with Deathrow (again, not the full in-game name) the night of 7/28/2024 (I took screenshots to document the discussion), where I was offered an officer position in the clan (stating they had noticed my willingness to be helpful towards other newer members & even getting some positive statements about it, something I didn't expect with the negativity I was noticing), however I rejected the position, stating that I knew that a number of people already didn't want me in the clan & that I didn't feel I could be proficient as an officer if people couldn't even see what I was saying in clan chat (the lack of responses being a normal issue, particularly at night).

As stated before, I was already considering leaving the clan due to toxicity in it anyways (not to mention a negation of one of their Discord giveaways literally the day before; I'm guessing they thought I wouldn't notice it, but that's kind of hard to miss when I get notifications of mentions on my phone), so their actions just forced my decision to find a better one much quicker (I was probably going to leave before another week had passed anyways).  The individuals that I was intending on getting invites to the clan (friends I was trying to get into the game), obviously I won't be able to invite to that clan anymore (nor would I even recommend them at this point, I'd be more recommending against joining that clan), although I might be able to get invites to the new clan once those friends meet the requirements (I'll have to inquire on what is required later; I only joined a new one today & details are still not entirely clear, outside of it appears that taking part in events is mandatory).

In response to the forced-migration to a better clan, I've cleaned up my friend lists on Warframe & Discord (as well as placing a few blocks/ignores where necessary) to remove anybody I didn't recognize their names or recognized as added in Warframe (those that were a part of the toxicity in the Clan also got added to my block list if I had a discussion over DMs with them).  Many of those that were Twitch streaming buddies are still on the list, however I've removed a few that I added back during my Fortnite days (not specifically remembering much beyond what was in the DM), no blocks were issued against people that didn't deserve it however (I think only 2 blocks were placed on Discord after being booted, both a part of the former-Warframe clan).  If you've been removed from my friend lists & weren't a part of that clan, then I may re-add you on request (I should be able to start streaming again after the 17th after fiber is installed at my home, requests can be made in chat during streams, however due to the channel being on high alert from the Steam attacks, I may not add people if I don't recognize them as being on the list prior & not a part of that clan).

I will also be cleaning out messages I was keeping in my Inbox in Warframe (which were kept as reminders of when I receive a gift), seeing as pretty well ALL gifts in Warframe were from clan members & after their misguided removal, it's not going to be something I want to be remembering, nor does it have any remaining relevancy on friendships if they are still a part of that clan.

For the time being, I am going to hold off on giving the name of the new clan I am in, although it's possible to pull a user's profile in-game using chat commands, so I wouldn't be surprised to see members of that clan looking to cause problems with the new clan I have joined; Warframe permissions unfortunately are just too open when it comes to access & manipulation of information in their game (not to mention a limited ignore system rather than a proper block system).  I'm expecting I will be letting viewers on Twitch know what clan I have joined when I start streaming to Twitch again (estimated to be some time after the 17th when I have fiber transfer rates).  I may also end up sharing/publishing some of the screenshots of discussions I have backed up from when I was in the clan (possibly in a review of the clan on my personal site), but for the time being, I don't see it as necessary (that may change in the future).

Ultimately, I think the safest bet would be to create my own clan, even if it doesn't have a lot of members.  Getting booted from guilds/clans over misunderstandings is nothing uncommon & it's not something only I've become a victim of either, I've heard many other people state the same thing.  There's a reason why I would only ever play on my own Killing Floor server when I played the game, it avoided drama like this because I could deal with people that were causing problems (very rarely needing to, but there was those rare griefing cases).  Who knows, I might even manage to get it into featured clans, however any attempt to do this is going to be a very long ways down the line (not even sure Warframe will still be running by the time I attempt it), I have a long ways to go in the game before I can really even consider it...

UPDATE:  I ultimately decided to take this a step further, that being that now ANYBODY in the Aurora Gladiators clan or any other clan under it's alliance (The Gladiators Legion) are no longer welcome in my channels.  Between 2 to 5 AM after I had logged off, my IRC client picked up 3 of their members joining my channel, I would expect this is while they were deciding to boot me from the clan.  Note that I did not give a link when I mentioned I was going to be doing the giveaways on my channel rather than in the clan, these users must have looked it up themselves & the first one to have joined (not once, but twice, coming back roughly a half hour after they left the first time) has been verified as an officer of the clan based on comments left on the official Warframe forums (promoting their clans).  All 3 of those users were banned from the channel giving a reason showing that their clans & alliance are no longer welcome in the channel (this will also be public in the Now Playing section when Warframe details are in there).

Provided their clan members are only watching, not causing problems in chat & (DEFINATELY) don't disclose that they are in one of those clans, they won't be banned from the channel.  If it is determined that they are in one of the clans in that alliance however (currently including Aurora, Celestial, Darkfall, Lunar, Nightfall, Quantum, Radiant, Solar & Tempest from what I can find online) they will be banned from the channel on association with it as a result of the actions by their officers on 9/8/2024.

I was booted from the clan under the accusation that I was promoting my channel.  Given I'm currently banning all members of their alliance (one of the largest alliances in the game) spotted in my channel (and verified as a member of it), can they really still make that claim?

Getting fiber, expecting to start up streams again

I received a phone call yesterday regarding fiber now being available in my neighborhood through CenturyLink (or more accurately, was available since March of 2022, so I'm getting notice roughly 2 and a half years late).  I have set up a date to have it installed, as well a getting my speeds updated to a fiber plan, so my 40 mbps download & 3 upload will be upgraded to 500 mbps both ways.  This means that streaming of online games will be an option again, so I'm expecting I will start streaming again once I have the new connection rates, as early as the 17th when it's installed.

Note that I no longer play Fortnite however (I don't even have this game installed anymore), not after Epic Games stole 4 years of my life from collecting V-Bucks for use in the Save the World mode (roughly 37,100 V-Bucks forcibly transferred to the Battle Royale mode, a mode I don't play).
I have been playing a lot of Warframe lately, so there's a very high likelyhood that this will be the first game I stream once I am able to do so again.
I am still looking for a decent method to be able to stream from console systems again (spending a lot of time & money on Nintendo Switch games after the attacks from Steam trolls started targeting me over multiple sites); it may require new hardware, but ultimately console system games could become a part of the Twitch channel again (if I can find something that actually works, Elgato still ignoring requests for the old Game Capture HD to be fixed with Twitch streaming).

One final note is that it appears health issues are still going to be playing a part in how long I will be able to stream...  After going back to my old surgeon, it's been determined that the masses that have to be removed are too big & is currently determined to be inoperable...  If I do go back to them again, I'm considering asking if skin grafting could be an option.  In any case, this issue is causing an ongoing issue that results in anemia as a result of loss of blood, so if I do get back to Twitch streaming, periods of how long I can stream for may be limited...

The other issue here is that because of the mass attacks from Steam, my channels are still on high alert & therefore high restrictions are still in place.  This shouldn't affect anybody who has an account over a year old, has followed the channel for over 6 months or has a verified phone number on their account, but for those who haven't met any of these conditions, chatting in the channel won't be an option...  These restrictions won't be reverted back to what is normal until 2 years after the last attack, which is currently expected to be 5/30/2026.  Additionally, permissions on my Discord server still remain as invite only & invites are only offered to those I trust on request, this will continue until the 2-year period has expired since the last attack from Steam trolls.

Due to cutoffs from certain PC gaming platforms, I will not be able to run games over their platforms until I am able to acquire a copy of Windows 10 (or higher) to be able to continue running these platforms & gain back the option to run games I already own over them (this includes a number of games that were updated since then & no longer run on Windows 7).  Due to my personal site & this blog being blacklisted on Bing, I am unwilling to put any more money into Microsoft, so any legitimate copy of a newer OS will only happen if gifted to me (I won't waste any of my own money on any more Microsoft products, this was also a deterant to getting an XBOX system when it was being considered, instead going back to Nintendo when I got a Switch).

Current games & platforms that I have confirmed as not runnable on my current OS include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Ubisoft Connect (formerly Uplay)
• 7 Days to Die
• For Honor 
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• No Man's Sky
• Soulworker

Note that this is only a small portion of this list, there are plenty of other games that I haven't considered streaming or playiing yet & some games that aren't allowed to be streamed on Twitch or videos of those games uploaded to YouTube. I will continue adding to the list as I run into more games owned that I can no longer run.

Steam supports harassment, additional permissions locked up

On January 14, 2024, I woke up to find that Steam had apparently put restrictions on my primary Steam account, which showed they supported the harassment coming from their users on their platform:

These actions from Steam made it clear that they were no longer a trustworthy source for purchasing video games anymore.  I had already been holding off on new purchases from Steam due to the cutoff of Windows 7 becoming known half-way through 2023 (the exception being a couple of Platinum purchases in Warframe), but this makes the decision set in stone, there won't be any more purchases being made through Steam anymore (I don't even feel I can trust them to have access to my payment information, so any F2P purchases that would have been made using the Steam API will be done directly through the company, no longer through Steam because Steam benefits on those purchases are no longer a bonus when I can't trust the company).

Once I found out about these restrictions, a number of things started happening to start negating information from my Steam profile, in addition to cutting ties from Steam over other sites:

• All other voluntary information, showcases & optional information was removed from my Steam profiles.
• A slew of comments were posted to my profile regarding this matter & additional steps that were being taken in response to it.
• All self-posted comments in the thread where these attacks that have been happening since October of 2023 were self-deleted.
• My Steam wishlist was cleared out, given it was clear I wouldn't be putting any more money into Steam after the revictimization. 
• My Steam profiles were stripped down to basic display options, no longer showing additional profile display options I had earned or purchased using account points.
  
• The Steam Facebook page was blocked.
• Referral traffic from Steam domains to my personal site are now blocked, resulting in a ban message.
  
• My Twitch channel was updated to disclose details about the revictimization & why streams of Steam-exclusive games won't be done on that channel anymore.  Streaming of Steam games may still happen, but links that would lead to purchases of Steam versions will no longer be provided when streaming those games.
• Chat restrictions on my Twitch channel now prohibit links to Steam domains.
• Chat restrictions for Twitch accounts that don't have a phone number on them now have the highest restriction available before they can participate in chat:
• Chatters without a verified phone number must have accounts older than 6 months (previously 1 week).
• Chatters without a verified phone number must have followed for more than 3 months (previously 10 minutes).
  
• A new command was added to the StreamElements bot that responds to mentions of Steam with details of why it's no longer a trustworthy gaming platform I'm willing to purchase from anymore.
• Giveaways were discontinued on my Twitch channel (given they only included Steam activation keys or giftable guest passes anyways)
• All Steam activation keys were disabled in the StreamElements store for my Twitch channel.
  
• Comments were FULLY disabled on my YouTube channel, along with a post in the Community section of the channel explaining why this happened.  This hid any existing comments that were on the channel, as well as negates any option of a user disputing a video calling them out for poor behavior in games.
  
• Open joining of my Discord channel was disabled, now only being allowed through private invitation using expiring invitation links.
  

Additional articles are expected to be published to WonderGamer.net giving details about the ongoing harassment, internet stalking, doxing by Steam users & revictimization from Steam management, but will have to come later when I have managed to catch up on some other tasks that have been getting put off for a few days already.

Despite removing the original comments from that thread where the targetted harssement started, that thread is still be monitored & I will continue to document the harassment, given that harassment is going to be evidence when this matter is reported to police seeking action against the criminal actions of Steam's users & potentional fines against the platforms that refused to do anything when reports were filed.

Discord access currently private invite only

After getting past messages fixed on my Discord server, I noticed that the one individual that was still on the server (joining when these attacks were active) had apparently passed around links to other Twitch channels that aided me in getting affiliate status (following me to a Discord server through one of those channels, attempting to add & message me, at which point I contacted the owner of that server, which resulted in them being banned from it because they had also attempted to do the same with them).  That individual was booted from my server & permanent invite links were revoked.  Until the attacks have died down, invites to my Discord server will be private invite only using expiring links.

Additional cutoffs, another emote removed

On 4/2/2022, I decided to extend the boycott to games that were developed using Epic Games technology, meaning that any game that uses the Unreal Engine is now included in the boycott that started as a result of their cutoff of V-Bucks from the Save the World mode in Fortnite, meaning I won't be supporting channels that stream those games or purchasing any new games that use that engine (being grounds for placing those games on ignore on Steam until Epic Games decides to do something about their decision that drove me off from their game & avoid any purchases that would put my money in their wallet).  In addition to this, another emote was removed from my channel (Killing Floor's Fleshpound emote), as well as I've added more games to the "Discontinued streams" section of my Game List (the re-written one, which I started when the Game List plug-in stopped working correctly).

Additional emotes will be removed or restricted from the channel as I find more games that were developed using Epic Games technology, as well as their games being restricted from being streamed on my own channel or hosted from others (possibly leading to unfollows of channels I was following and/or removal of those channels from my auto-host list, even if it's only temporary until Epic Games pulls their heads out of their ass & decides to fix the problem they caused with stealing V-Bucks from StW-only players & locking them in a mode they don't play).

EDIT:  Channels on my Discord for games developed/published by Epic Games, exclusive to the Epic Games platform or developed using their technology have already been set to private & are currently inaccessible.

Twitch extensions having issues, possible removal & replacement in the near future

On 2/6/2022, I noticed that both the Game Lists & Exclusive Content for Subscribers didn't appear to be working on my channel anymore (the StreamElements Leaderboards extension is still working however).  I spent maybe an hour trying to troubleshoot the extensions that don't appear to be loading anymore to make sure it wasn't an issue on my side, eventually giving up on trying to troubleshoot them & just marking them for removal at a later date.  I'll be leaving the extensions on the channel for now, but they are likely to be replaced by something else in the near future if they don't start working on their own...

More chat restrictions in response to further attacks

As I stated earlier, I decided to increase restrictions on chatting in my channel as a result of regular harassment when I was streaming (particularly when the game being streamed was Fortnite).  As of 2/4/2022, the minimum requirement in the screenshot on the linked blog post has been updated from a minimum of 1 week to 3 months (if the viewer's account does not have a registered phone number or hasn't been following for a minimum of 10 minutes).  Details regarding what happened on 2/3/2022 to prompt this change can be found in the extended video evidence description at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LGHViVsJPPAyVR5TKqC_REFdJ4ubldF936HRdCpjm2Q (with a list of ALL known accounts, name changes & logged attacks starting on 2/5/2020 with the original situation in the video evidence located at https://youtu.be/B-4jmNFZD-o).

Community tab disabled on YouTube channel

On 2/3/2022, I noticed that the Community tab on my YouTube channel was no longer present (probably gone for some time).  Doing an online search would give indication that this function is only available to those with over 500 subscribers (regardless of whether they had access to it prior or not).

I was using that section for updates regarding the YouTube channel (which has probably all been wiped at this point, can't even see what was on it anymore even in my YouTube dashboard), it looks like I am going to have to do the same as I had to do with Twitch when they removed their Feed function & start running written updates on an external site (which is what is seen here).  As of yet, I haven't determined if I am going to create a new blog for it, I might just create a list of posts related to the YouTube channel farther down the right-hand side of the page.

The YouTube channel is used more for highlight backups of streams on Twitch, but due to health issues that have prevented me from being able to stream much over the past couple years, it's still serving as a place for gaming highlights (or when it's necessary to display somebody for who they are as being a troll or griefer), just more for highlights recorded when I'm gaming (even if I wasn't streaming).

I still want to get back into being a regular streamer on Twitch again, however due to the whole COVID situation, medical resources are strapped tight & I'm unable to get my surgery taken care of (I've been trying to set this up for over 2 years already).  Without going into too many specifics, the surgery is necessary to stop a bleeding issue, which leaves me with a lack of energy as a result of daily anemia from that blood loss.  Until I can get this issue resolved, extended time gaming won't be possible & having to walk away from the PC to deal with these health issues is a common distraction from what would make it possible to continue being a streamer on Twitch...  I might try to do streams occasionally when I feel I have enough energy to do so (I know I've tried setting up to stream in the last few months, but didn't have the energy to do so before I was ready to start streaming), but there's no guarantee on how long I'll be able to stream if I am able to get started, so we're just going to have to play it by ear until my health is good enough that anemia isn't a daily factor in my life that interferes with my ability to get things done...

Emote reclassification, more emotes available to Tier 1 subscribers

On 11/22/2021, I noticed a notification from Twitch stating that they had given us more emote slots for Tier 1 subscribers, so I decided to reclassify my emotes so that Tier 1 subscribers would have access to more of those emotes when they subscriber (currently 4, with 1 more still & 1 animated I may add later).  The Ammo, SeriousBomb & Fleshpound emotes were moved to being accessible to Tier 1 Subscribers, while I moved the Raven emote back to being available to all tippers of 1,000 bits on the channel (currently including 3 other Fortnite streamers, or at least former-streamers of Fortnite).

Of course there would be a catch in doing this, where like many other things on Twitch have become broke (or previously gained perks being revoked), I found that once again I'm having to go through the initial acceptance period that Twitch imposes on newer affiliates (where I had gained approval to immediate acceptance of emotes over a year ago)...

Note also that the bit leader on the channel has the ability to request an emote resort (allowing access to emotes more to their liking in cheer slots that they have reached).  Unfortunately seeing as Twitch is now making me go through the acceptance process again when I attempt to resubmit emotes to have them resorted, this means that any time I have to do so, those emotes will become temporarily available until Twitch re-accepts the emotes (even if it was supposed to be a simple resort of existing emotes)...

Twitch restrictions increased on channel

Due to the obscene amount of "buy viewers" bots & abusive users on Twitch, decided to increase the restrictions beyond just email verification.  This now includes a phone number verification for new chatters, but with a minimal restriction (seeing as bots typically follow & are gone in a split second, they'll never get past this...unless they were actually stupid enough to add a phone number to their accounts).  The account age restriction should block the people creating new accounts just to be abusive in chat.

Anybody who has chatted on the channel in the past (and hasn't been banned) should be exempt from needing a verified phone number on their Twitch account, otherwise they can just wait 10 minutes after following to chat if they don't have a verified phone number.  The account age bypass may be adjusted or removed if it bypasses independently rather than in addition to following.

Restrictions will be adjusted as necessary, but I don't expect I'll have to go much farther than this.

 

Twitch breach of information

On October 7th, I received an email from Twitch stating that all stream keys had been reset on Twitch (being that I use older software that requires manual entry of the key on my PC, this was an important email for me, although I have yet to update it in my old beta version of OBS):

While at the time I was unaware that there had been a breach of information on Twitch (the email not specifically mentioning this), I suspected as much to be receiving an email like this.

The next day (October 8th) I got an email from Norton regarding the attack on Twitch, a web version of this email can be found here.  This email made me aware of the situation & after reading futher details about it on The Verge, I realized that this could not only be the reason why certain functions are getting broken on Twitch, additional steps are likely necessary by creators to secure your account, as well as protect your identity from being stolen...

While I suspect people using 2-step authentication on their accounts are probably safe (with perhaps the exception of using a mobile authenticator, seeing as it might be possible the hackers managed to pull restoration keys to access your account), email & SMS/text secondary authorization methods should still remain secure.  Changing your password might be a smart move if you are not using texting or email 2-step login protection.

The bigger problem is the theft of personal information, which might make sense to protect your identity with an extra layer of protection (like with credit monitoring or through LifeLock).  I personally use the authenticator on my main account, so I expect I will be at least changing my password, if not changing the 2-step authentication method (seeing as I have Norton Dark Web Scanning for my personal information, I'll get a notification if that password gets listed, at which point I'll know it's necessary to change the authentication method beyond the password).

Stay safe out there streamers, do what is necessary to secure your accounts & identities against the technically-advance criminal enterprise that attacked not only Twitch, but every user on their site.

Further hosting functions broken

As I continued to mess with it, I found that there were additional functions broken with Twitch hosting, not only with auto-hosting, but also with manual hosts.  What I found was that in addition to auto-hosting not working, manual hosts also were not showing on the website.  I did however manage to find out that hosts were still being listed over mobile & Shield apps (Google Play).  It's possible that host listings might still be working on the PC client, but I haven't used this in several months (only using it for a short period to test whether it got past certain buffering issues when I was using my primary browser to get other things done while watching/listening to a stream on Twitch, removing it when I realized that the PC client shared modules with my primary brower & still buffered when using Firefox, resorting to Microsoft Edge to double-lurk channels when I still needed to get something done in Firefox).  So while manual hosts may seem pointless if you use Twitch primarily through a PC browser, it still has some use if you have followers that may use a mobile/media player (such as the nVidia Shield/Shield TV) app.