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...