This blog was originally used as a backup to the feed function that "used" to be on Twitch, it is now the primary means of a "feed" for my channel since that function was removed in 2018. This later started including updates for my YouTube channel in 2021 when Bing decided to blacklist my personal site & this blog from their search engine results.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
On 2/25/2019, I was made aware of a situation with StreamElements that resulted in a rollback of account data back to Nov. 4th, 2019:
Hello,
We are writing to inform you about a recent issue we had with our loyalty system and the steps we are taking to remedy the situation.
On Monday, one of our loyalty databases maintained by a 3rd party vendor was accidentally deleted from their server along with the related backups. The database held all of our recent customer loyalty program data. As a result, systems which rely on this program--such as giveaways, contests, stream store, watchtime, and media request with loyalty points--were disabled.
Because we were able to identify the issue, we have re-enabled the loyalty program today. Since the vendor informed us that they are unable to restore the lost data, we are using our own offsite backups from November of 2019 to reflect data captured up until that month. We realize this is not ideal, but it is the only option we currently have. If you prefer to opt-out of using the older data we restored, simply use the reset button on your leaderboard.
We apologize for the impact this has on your channel and community and will be putting in additional safeguards to ensure this doesn’t happen again. If you have any additional questions please come by our Discord.
There is very little I can do regarding watchtime & points gained from watching, point bonuses on the other hand, I have the ability to go through past logs & restore point bonuses for follows, raids, hosts & cheers. These logs include the following:
Dasbhoard logs restored to StreamElements through Twitch API
Local IRC logs on my computer
With these I should be able to restore all bonuses to people who deserved them & remove points from those that have had point wipes as a result of breaking he rules of the channel.
Commands & auto-responses will likely also need to be re-written, that will take additional time before another stream can be done & some of those commands may not came back if I can't remember what they were. Regarding the Fortnite commands, this are still disabled anyways, still waiting to be reimbursed on traps that I got ripped off for as a result of the AFK-kick on 2/12/2020 (which in all honesty, probably won't happen), there won't be any more streams of this game on my Twitch channel until these are reimbursed (solo runs are still being streamed over my Discord channel however).
Recently I switched my phone to another provider & found out afterwards that by removing my phone from my current internet service provider, this was NOT going to save me any money (only dropping it about $4 per month, meaning I was actually paying more between the 2 services). I decided to leave this for a month to at least get the prorated refund from overpaying the bill last month, but when I go my new bill from XFINITY, it became clear that the damage was far worse than originally expected, I not only didn't get the prorated refund I was promised on the next bill, the monthly price was also jacked up almost $20 more per month that originally quoted.
On 2/24/2020, it was decided that I needed to switch my ISP ASAP, the changes are already in motion & it doesn't fare well with my gaming habits or ability to stream to Twitch, so this may effect how often I'm able to stream to Twitch, what quality I am able to stream at or could just negate my ability to stream at all (this will be determined when I attempt to stream over this ISP for the first time).
This is what's currently know regarding the changes that are being made:
Downloads are going to take a LOT longer to download (when gaming is concerned, this means patches & new games), so that's going to effect frequency of streams (once I'm able to get back to streaming, health issues have been the main hindrance of regular streams for roughly 2 months now).
The upload rate is going to a mere 2 mbps upload rate (I had 10 mbps with the other ISP that I'm now switching from), so this might effect the quality of streams or possibly effect my ability to stream at all if I have to drop upload bitrate on video encoding too far to be able to meet what the upload bandwidth is capable of.
Currently I don't know what is going to come out of the monthly data cap, that will likely be the determining factor as to whether I can stream at all, if not needing a quality downgrade to still remain functional under the lowered upload rate. I was told it was unlimited (later they changed that statement to give an actual variable), provided it at least gives me 500 GBs over a month, I may still be able to stay within this restriction while streaming, however only time will tell...
Eventually I want to switch to Google Fiber, but currently this is not available in my area, I have put myself on a mailing list to let me know when it does become available. This will give me a much higher upload rate & a definite increase in download rate from what I'm going to be stuck with with this new ISP, but until then, I'll will be confined to new limitations with this new ISP until I am able to get a decent ISP in my area.
At first I thought AFK kicking in Fortnite was a good idea, however I found out today that it's not all that it's cracked up to be, especially when it ends up kicking somebody who was not AFK the entire mission that they got booted from. In this mission, you are going to see that I was active the entire time, however after I started putting some traps on the defenses, the AFK prompted popped up stating that I was AFK. This was my first time seeing it & I wasn't certain what I needed to do to get it to disappear, especially seeing as I wasn't AFKing to begin with, but as you can see at the end of the video, I got AFK booted regardless of the fact I was active the entire time & I was none to happy without being ripped off from completing my dailies a second time (the first time this mission was failed), didn't get any rewards at all & wasted the traps I put into the defenses. Originally I was going to call it quits after I got my dailies completed, but because I got fucked over on this mission, I decided I was going to call it quits after I took a second attempt at helping a viewer complete his Twine SSD10 & not even bother with completing the daily.
Twitch version Higher quality with Twitch chat to the side
Twitch version embed broken due to API change, have not managed to get it fixed yet
YouTube version Lower quaility with moderated commenting allowed
Because of what you see here, I've decided to call it quits with Fortnite until the new events start, I'll just be soloing missions until then & streaming of Fortnite on my channel (opting to stream other games) will be dead until there's actually something I need help with to complete.
With the upcoming surgery, it was already determined that I may not be streaming Fortnite at all during the recovery period (expected to be at least a month, however console games might be possible), this particular incident is likely going to increase that period of time that was already anticipated, seeing as technical issues like this is one of the things that really puts the nail in the coffin of where this game is going...
Going over the video again, this is what was
UPDATE: I decided to contact Epic Games about this the following day with the following statement through their Feedback function in the game:
On 2/12/2020, I got idle-kicked when I was not idle & the video located at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/550968818 proves this, I had a number of viewers during this stream that I had gained from a raid from sakis2011's channel (one of the 3 channels that helped me get affiliate as being a Fortnite streamer on Twitch with their raids). Obviously I was not amused with not only getting ripped off on my traps, but I also got negated reward from the mission & completion of my final daily. I ended the stream early because of this (only running one final mission for a viewer that requested help on his SSD), then called it quits & got this video highlighted from the stream. I have informed my viewers that I will be taking a break from Fortnite for a while, perhaps only soloing missions until the next seasonal StW events & not while streaming) in a blog post that can be located at http://twitch-wondergamer.blogspot.com/2020/02/taking-break-from-fortnite-due-to.html , perhaps the only thing that is going to even make me considering stream Fortnite again (Save the World, I don't mess with Battle Royale) is if I get compensated for the losses I incurred during this mission (which I doubt will happen, so what it comes down to it you've probably lost your publicity you're getting from my channel on this game as a result of this malfunction of what was meant to deal with individuals that I run into daily). My Twitch channel will currently trigger showing this video in chat if the !break command is used, I'm going to start streaming other games regularly rather than Fortnite because this malfunction has all but destroyed my interest in the game unless compensated for my losses (the missions rewards, the loss of V-Bucks were the daily completed & the traps put into the defense before I got booted) as a result of what you see at the end of this video. The time on the right shows the exact time in Mountain Time, matchmaking done through US West servers.
Obviously I don't expect to get anything positive out of this, but I've made it clear that my interest in Fortnite has been all but destroyed as a result of this malfunction in their game & while not specifically stated in the feedback left over the game, I am going to be limiting any activity in the game from this point forward, streaming of StW pretty well being negated from my channel at least until the new seasonal events start & any streaming will only be done if the power levels are high enough that I don't feel I can solo them. Of course I will still be recording them if I'm playing multiplayer at all, so videos could still show up on my YouTube channel (nothing positive, most videos I have published are of people that deserve to get kicked by this function, unlike what happened to me during this video), but no more streaming of Fortnite until I see something done to compensate for this malfunction & that likely means I will be avoiding any other games that would require a purchase of an Epic Games title in the future also (haven't decided whether I'm going to include games that use the Unreal Engine yet, but if they decide to ban my account or go after my channels rather than compensate for the game's error, a full public boycott including games that use their engine is definite, as would be the same result with another big name gaming/toy company that went after my YouTube channel).
UPDATE: Going over the video again, this is what was lost in traps & I at the very least want these back (or the mats that were lost to craft them):
6 Broadsides (Lv. 40)
1 Wall Dynamo (Lv. 40)
4 Gas Traps (Lv. 50)
10 Wall Darts (Lv. 40)
2 Wall Spikes (Lv. 50)
This amounts to the following crafting mats being lost because of the AFK-kick:
4 Carved Twine
8 Oxidized Mineral Powder
35 Sleek Mechanical Parts
30 Peaky Twine
12 Char-Black Mineral Powder
1 Battery
4 Bacon
4 Duct Tape
28 Fiberous Herbs
55 Nuts 'n' Bolts
154 Planks
UPDATE: Another StW streamer (who helped with getting the videos in this post sent to Epic Games & determined the reason for the idle-kick was that trap placement was not considered as a valid activity to prevent it from happening, which could rotationally result in improvements in the system in the future) decided to reimburse me on the traps that I got ripped off for...almost 200 times over. This was more than I was asking for, he stated that he was cleaning out inventory however, so even though I felt a bit bad about it, I accepted what I was offered (if I do get AFK-kicked again, I don't really have much reason to complain about it, I could be AFK-kicked 100 more times & I probably would have still come out ahead). This will get me streaming Fortnite again, I will however be leaving this post & the videos behind as a reminder of how this was an incorrect classification & hope that it gets fixed/improved in the future.
Due to harassment in the follow-up stream yesterday, chat is once again set to follower-only mode. Because this happened over 2 accounts, the minimum you'll need to be following is 10 minutes in the next stream, then dropped down to just a flat follower restriction in the stream after that (provided there isn't any more harassment during this period). Note that there was one other account that was created (literally only minutes old) & followed just before I ended the stream, which appears to have been created to continue the harassment through ban-evasion of the original individual that started this, this account didn't get the chance to follow-through with it however because I increased the follow minimum from 0 minutes to 10 before he got a chance to continue through that account; had he gotten the chance to continue through the 3rd account, the minimum would have been 30 minutes in the next stream & taken an additional day of streaming before this restriction gets fully disabled (again, that's dependent on whether there is further harassment beyond what has already happened).
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.
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 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).
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).
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.
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).
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.
