DDoS problems again, streams & online gaming on hold...

Getting hit with the whole DDoS bullshit again, expected to be retaliation from Twitch user iBreezyy after his channel got another report against it for racist & aimbot discussions over his VOIP during his Christmas stream.  I am currently on the phone with my ISP looking to see if we just need to replace the modem again, I will be following up with a police report & giving them his address so they can search his computer for evidence of being behind it if the issue doesn't get resolved tonight.

UPDATE: Contacted my ISP, they explained the situation to them, they reset my modem to factory default. Even after resetting everything on the modem to factory, packets were still continuing to drop in the ping test I had been running since the latency issues when I first attempted to stream Fortnite on 12/26/2018. After a while, the connection finally stabilized as I continued to watch the ping test, but I knew that if I attempted to stream again, I would start getting hit by it again. Shortly after that, I noticed iBreezyy started a stream, expecting he was going to continue the DDoS attacks until he felt I wasn't going to stream anymore, then decided to start his own stream.

After the modem's connection finally stabilized, I put the modem back into bridge mode again, I lost access to the modem's interface after that & spent the next few hours calling Xfinity over & over again attempting to get a fix; I just got disconnected from my 4th call with them & this representative apparently isn't educated in how a modem functions when put into bridge mode & doesn't realize that a router is a key element in receiving internet from the modem. I have explained over & over that I don't have the option to use the modem when it is not in bridge mode when using my web development software, the reason being is that it's reporting to the servers an incorrect IP address (a LAN IP rather than a WAN IP) & the servers my site is hosted on is rejecting the connection when it gets that the connection is coming from a standard LAN IP as opposed to my actual IP address over the internet.

I'm about to give up on them fixing it & just call them when I need it taken out of bridge mode, it's apparent they can't get the modem back to a working order as it was before the factory default, I'll spend all night on the phone with them if I just keep calling until they decide to send a technician; I'll just leave it as is & call them when I need it taken out of bridge mode (which will be never if their modem can't report the correct IP address when attempting to update my personal site)...

I'm going to give streaming another shot tonight to see if the statement of contacting the police again is what caused the attacks to stop, as it's expected they will start again when I attempt to stream again (unless the threat of filing another report is what got them to stop), that's when I'll file the report & bring up the case number from the last report, including the address of where iBreezyy lives so they can go speak to him at his home & search for evidence on his computer.

Internet issues interfering with streaming & online gaming

Due to technical issues with my internet, I'm going to have to wait until my internet stabilizes before I can start streaming again.  Currently the cause of the issues is undetermined (could have been something my friend was doing with is computer, could have been a DDoS attack organized by Twitch user iBreezyy again), but it's not going to be possible to stream or play any online game while that issue continues to be a problem, I'll (hopefully) give it another shot in a few hours)...  If I continue to run into the problem into tomorrow, I'll consider it a string of DDoS attacks & get law enforcement involved again...

Streams limited, Medicaid issues negating personal life...

For the past several months, Medicaid has been harassing me with regular reviews & requests for verifications that is taking up any extra time I may have to spend on other things, this is obviously interfering with my ability to do streams as often as I would like, not to mention my health is quickly deteriorating from the stress it is causing & not getting enough time (if any time at all) to recover from the previous series of what should have already been put to rest... It's expected they are looking for a reason to boot me off of what I should still be eligible for due to being disabled, however we already know that Trump is shooting to get as many people off of Medicaid as possible (even those that still depend on it to continue living, much like myself), unless I can find an outlet that is going to gain me enough income to live off of (a job would be fine if I could get hired, however job seekers with disabilities get much the same treatment as those with criminal histories, most of my attempts to get a job result in dead ends & wasted time), I have to continue dealing with it until I can find an alternative to it (I'd sooner just tell them to fuck off & be done with it, but I won't have any medical insurance if I do & I don't know what to expect if I tell them to get lost) or until it ultimately ends up killing me... Until I get a break from this constant avalanche of notices they are sending me every few days (sometimes several days in a row), I can't say when I'll be able to get back to streaming regularly again, much less going back to a normal life where I don't have to worry about Medicaid constantly trying to find a reason to pull my medical coverage & all expenses it covers (including, but not limited to doctors, disability case managers, medications, inhalers, hospitals, etc.)...

Fortnite streams are currently on hold (StW servers down)

I was intending on doing a Fortnite stream today before I lose out on one of my dailies (already at the max of 3), however when I attempted to access the game after patching, I ran into this:

This only leaves Battle Royale, which I don't play, so Fortnite streams are currently on hold on my channel until resolved. I'm currently monitoring the server status at https://status.epicgames.com, once the Save the World servers are back up, I'll be starting a new Fortnite (Save the World) stream ASAP.

If the Save the World servers are not back up by today's daily reset, I will start streaming other games until the servers are known to be back up.

UPDATE:  Servers appear to be back up, however I got gypped on a daily quest due to not being able to get into the game for over 4.5 hours (I should have been able to complete at least one in that time), so this blog entry is going to stay here, rather than my original intentions in deleting it were I able to complete one so I didn't lose out (the servers came back up literally directly after the daily refresh)...

Channel points & rewards

I have been offering rewards on my channel for probably a couple months now, including a number of games available in exchange for points in the Stream Elements store.  It's come up a few times where viewers were asking how they could gain points & I decided I needed to write an article on it so people could have easy access on how to gain points, including what bonuses are available when certain conditions are met.  First I'll go over how I'm determining how many points are required to get something from the store.

Store prices are comparable with the prices of those games at approximately 1 point per American cent if you were to purchase it at full price from an online store (it is possible these could be adjusted in the future if the price drops or raises).  Items can only be purchased from the store while a stream is running, this is to prevent abuse of bonuses that auto-award points (more on this later).  Note that some activation keys are pretty old however, it is possible they may have expired; let me know if you have a problem with this when you attempt to activate a key, I will refund the points if necessary (of course I will be testing the key on a new account before I issue any refunds to make sure it's actually expired & hasn't actually been used).

As for how to gain points:

• Viewing:  2 points per 10 minutes
• Points are gained at a rate of 2 points per 10 minutes while viewing.
• This is by no means a way to gain a quick game from the store, but it does accumulate over time if you are an actual viewer of the stream.
• Viewing (subscriber): 1 point per 1 minute
• Subscribers get a x5 multiplier on points gained by viewing.
  
• Following:  5 points one-time bonus
• You gain 5 points for following.
• One-time bonus that will be removed if the follow is removed.
• Hosting:  10 points per host, limited to 1 per stream
• Manual hosting auto-awards you with 10 points every time you do it.
• Bonus limited to one time per stream.
• Auto-hosting:  50 points one-time bonus after first auto-host
• Stream Elements used to be able to determine when an auto-host had been initiated & award the host bonus every time a host had been started through this method, but Twitch has made changes that has since broken this method & points aren't being awarded for auto-hosts anymore...  This isn't really something I can keep track of to manually award without some kind of logs...
• I would have sooner allowed users to continue getting the 10 point bonus on auto-hosts, but seeing as this auto-award has been broken, I had to come up with another method to be able to continue giving an awarded bonus to those that were doing it.
• Auto-hosts are determined by being added through the system on Twitch.
• Once the first host is noticed through Twitch's auto-host system, you will be awarded 50 points.
• This bonus will be removed if the auto-host is removed.
• Raids:  8 points per active viewer in a raid
  
  • I've been wanting to award points for raids for some time, but wasn't sure how to go about it considering Stream Elements doesn't have an option to auto-award points on raids, so I came up with a "per person" method.
  • Originally I felt I was going to have to do a lower amount on raids due to bots & inactive users that just sit in a channel & don't actually contribute to the channel (not even counting as a viewer), I determined that Stream Elements can determine how many of these users are actually active when they get sent to your channel, so I decided to go with a slightly higher rate per person.
  • 8 points per active viewer (active users determined by Stream Elements logs).  Active users are typically those that are actually in the channel (not bots or connected through IRC clients) & haven't dropped to an Away or Invisible status. 
• Cheering:  1 point per bit cheered
• You gain 1 point per bit cheered towards the channel (usually during the stream, as soon as I get a chance to do so).
• Cheers of over 100 bits will immediately award 100 points per 100 bits spent.
• Any value outside the multiple of 100 bits needs to be added manually, as stated in the first bullet.
• Tipping:  100 points per $1 tip
• Tipping through Stream Elements will give you 100 points per 1 American dollar spent towards the channel.
• Tips can not be anonymous if you want to gain points from it.
• Tips have to be at least $1, additional cents on the dollar will award additional points, but I'll have to add them manually.
• Single tips $5 or more will have the tipper highlighted as a VIP Tipper on the channel's list with the highest tip given listed next to their name (unless requested they do not wish to be in that list, but it will still be public on Stream Elements, I have no way to hide this).
• Subscriptions (Twitch):  Bonus points on subscriptions matching the calculated revenue from Twitch analytics (adjusted as necessary), plus the x5 watch bonus.
  
• Subscriptions (Patreon):  1 point per 1 cent (100 points per $1) recurring subscription
• You can chose your monthly recurring subscription rate.
• You will need to provide your account name if you want to receive points, but can request to remain anonymous
• Subscriptions over $5 will have access to posts on Patreon regarding game giveaways on various sites.
• Subscriptions over $10 can request a Tier 1 gift subscription on Twitch in exchange for 500 points gained in the month of payment on Patreon.
• Subscriptions over $15 can request a Tier 2 gift subscription on Twitch in exchange for 1000 points gained in the month of payment on Patreon.
• Subscriptions over $30 can request a Tier 1 gift subscription on Twitch in exchange for 2500 points gained in the month of payment on Patreon.
• Subscriptions are recurring, this will need to be canceled if you want the subscription to stop, however you will still get the remainder of the month of Free Game updates if you subscribed at $5 or over.

Retired bonus notes:

• The auto-host bonus has been retired due to Twitch retiring the Dashboard panel that showed who had you on their auto-host list & who was currently hosting you.  Should a visible means of being able to tell who is hosting you & who has you on their auto-host list be added back to Twitch, this bonus may be reinstated.
  

Last updated 1/10/2020

Restrictions:

• Bots are not eligible for points
• Twitch accounts are usually determined to be bots if they are sitting in my channel for excessive amounts of time while it is offline (I can tell this through my IRC logs, usually connected to my channel & others that I moderate nearly 24/7).
• This restriction would be different if those bots actually counted as a viewer, but seeing as they don't, I'm not getting any closer to partner status from them being in chat, so they aren't going to be gaining any points towards freebies off of my channel's shop when they don't even count as a viewer...
• Obviously, those who have been banned from the channel are not eligible for points & will have all their existing points removed.
• Breaking the chat rules will gain you a timeout & wipe your points at the end of the stream.  Typically the only people to break chat rules are new viewers that don't even read the rules before speaking, so this shouldn't be a huge concern for anybody that has been around in the channel for a while, this usually only effects those that enter the channel looking for personal gain.
• Breaking the chat rules does not necessary mean you are blocked from the point system (only means you have to start over in gaining points), but could warrant a ban if serious enough (meaning you're banned from gaining points as well) or you are repeatedly breaking the rules over & over.
• Getting hit by a filter that gives you an auto-timeout doesn't necessarily count as breaking chat rules, I can still see what you said through my IRC client, I will determine whether what was said was actually breaking the rules or not once I have a chance to look at any comment that may have been censored.  If you are a regular on the channel, I can add your name to the channel regulars list to help mitigate accidentally triggering the chat filters.
• In the event that somebody who has cheered, tipped or subscribed to the channel does break one of the rules & gets timed out over it (provided it's not severe enough to be a ban), your points will never drop below points gained from these bonuses minus points spent in the store.  These values are tracked & you will only drop to this value if you break the rules, however you may lose any other points that were not gained through these 3 methods.
• Timeout status will be tracked for anybody who has cheered, tipped or subscribed to the channel, so follow & auto-host bonuses can not be re-applied to those balances.
• Abuse of bonuses will have your ability to gain points removed & your existing points wiped.
• This "abuse" specifies manipulation of limited bonuses, such as attempting to get points for the follower or manual hosts more times than you should.
• This point in particular is why points can only be spent while a stream is running, it gives me time to mitigate any attempted bonus point abuse before starting a stream.

Last updated 11/28/2018

Special notes regarding name changes:

• Points are stored on existing names.
• Names do not change on Stream Elements when a name is changed on Twitch.
• If you are fairly regular in the channel, I may add your name to the regulars list, this will lower the chance that auto-filters will auto-timeout you (10 seconds) & wipe your comments in chat (filters regarding discrimination or aggressive harassment won't however, this filter even hits moderators & is permanent unless I cancel the timeout).
• Changing your name on Twitch does not update your name on Stream Elements.  This will not only nullify you being on the regular list, but also leave your points on the old name.  Let me know if you've changed your name, I can transfer over the points to your new name & re-add you to the regular list (if you were on it already) once I've verified the name change (this usually means you still have to be following the channel so I can verify the name change through my followers list based on placement & cross-referencing that list through my external spreadsheet of followers).

Mass-assault at large

The organized attacks from iBreezyy's channel has hit a new high (as my IRC logs are catching fairly quickly, even when I don't have a stream running) & I've decided I need to get the police involved again.  I've already filed a few reports against his channel to Twitch over the last few days (which did result in a temp ban for maybe 8-12 hours), but these reports only go so far (if anywhere at all).  With the amount of fodder (meaning Twitch users that are allowing iBreezyy to manipulate them into doing his dirty work for him) he has thrown at me in only the last 22 hours, it's become obvious this isn't something I can attempt to ignore & go on with my life while it's still happening, I need to give the police the additional information I managed to find online so they can speak with him about this vendetta of his face to face & what's going to happen if he chooses to continue pursuing it.

Attempting to put a stop to this may limit my ability to stream in worst case scenarios (if you see a ban on my channel, you will know he's succeeded, but I don't expect a bunch of false reports is going to get him anywhere, it hasn't in the past, regardless of how many pawns he's managed to get in on it), however the most likely outcome is I'll have to turn follower-only chat back on with an excessive minimum for new users to be able to speak (I don't want to make people feel obligated to have to follow to speak, but if this is what I have to do to mitigate these extended attacks that have been happening for 7.5 months already, I will do it; the channel had a 24-hour minimum for 2.5 months after the follow-up attack on 3/19/2018).

I am going to request that people do not file reports against him on my behalf, I am fully capable of fighting my own battles, I can deal with this myself (it wouldn't be the first time I've dealt with somebody like this, it won't be the last).  I will however request that if he or one of his goons does happen to approach you directly & slander my character, that you do report him through his channel (or through the channel of anybody who contacted you to do it), this is one area where you can help in putting a stop to this (it will be helpful if you have a screenshot to provide in the report, Google Drive is a decent means to share just about anything you would want to share giving you 15 GBs for free, provided it don't break copyright laws).

The full details regarding this matter (starting with the original griefing situation in Fortnite on 2/19/2018) can be found at http://www.wondergamer.net/Twitch/abuse/ibreezyy.htm

If you run into a ban message on WonderGamer.net, you could be in a wildcard IP range that has been banned for multiple hacking attempts from multiple IP addresses in that range; this can be adjusted once I've determined you aren't using an IP address that a hacking attempt has been attempted from, but adjustments may not work too well with dynamic IP addresses (you can check what type of IP address you have here).

---

UPDATE:  Currently I am attempting to compile an IRC evidence index before I file another report with the police, this is going to take some time to compile with nearly-daily logs starting around the time of the follow-up attack on 3/19/2018.  Getting this log completed is a priority, so streams will be limited until it's completed & I have been able to file the follow-up police report against iBreezyy.  This index will show every time anybody associated with iBreezyy entered my channel according to my IRC logs.  There may still be streams in between, this will give me a chance to test whether there are going to be disconnects to further prove possibility of DDoS attacks, however most of my time will be getting put into compiling this index until it is completed, I need to get the police report filed as quickly as possible, I've already notified Twitch that they may be subpoenaed for information on other individuals that have been taking part in these attacks on iBreezyy's behalf.

Let's discuss self-promotion

Self-promotion is a means where a user joins a channel & attempts to get them to come to their own through advertisements, sometimes using bonuses for new visitors or followers (sometimes bogus, sometimes real).  While this may be a real problem on various sites such as Twitch or YouTube, you have to look at how much can be said before it actually hits the point of self-promotion.

I for one have no problem pointing out certain details about their channels, provided they aren't outright attempting to get my viewers to go to theirs.  To give a few examples, a few channels that I used to go regularly to (regularly enough that I had follows & auto-hosts on them) or even was new to made these accusations, the irony about it was that the auto-hosts (or manual hosts, if I chose to do so) was basically promoting their channels through my own when whatever was said that they felt they had enough detail (however minor that detail may have been) to call me on what they believed to be self-promotion.

To give a few examples:

• I pointed out that I had some videos of people griefing in games, for use in reports against them or just to get the word out on who they were with video proof of the situation.
• I made it a point to say I would leave the host on their channel going on my own until I got my own stream up (the irony in this one is they already know they are being hosted & it's in the same sentence where they are already getting promoted on my channel; despite it being in the same sentence, they call you on self-promoting).
• The channel is getting trolled, the streamer is detailing the rules of their channel & I back up their statements stating the rules on my channel are the same (or at least similar), apparently enough for them to warn you that you're self-promoting where the purpose was backing them up...

I don't know about you, but saying something minimal about your own channel shouldn't be considered as self-promotion & it only makes me wonder how much they run into problems with others self-promoting on their channels to make that much of a hair-trigger conclusion that you're only in their channel for no good (even if it's a channel I've been to many times before).  It's these types of allegations that have had me end a host I had put on their channel prior or remove an auto-host I may have had on them for some time.  Streamers may be able to run their channels as they see fit, but is it worth the negative publicity & loss of potential income if they make the wrong decision?  This is something streamers need to ask themselves before they allow a hair-trigger shotgun misfire on actual viewers that made no mistake other than attempting to speak in chat on those channels to begin with.

My channel bans owners (and sometimes moderators) of those channels when they decide to make such faulty decisions (sometimes with an article being written to my personal site), sometimes including followers of those channels if they are coming to my channel to harass me while I'm streaming (these are extreme situations, I've done this with 2 streamers & their followers coming to my channel in the past); while that might not mean much to larger channels, those that don't have the option to receive donations over Twitch itself (or have a decent income to purchase new games themselves), it does cut them out from being able to accumulate points that can be used to purchase new games with those points (not having to spend actual money or getting them a discount if they want to cover the rest of the points in tips), so those who actually see this (particularly those with smaller channels; I'm sure larger channels don't need this benefit with the income they may be gaining from Twitch simply for streaming, so it won't matter if they get banned or not) need to consider the consequences of their hair-trigger actions, start thinking it out & looking at the full picture.