Hacker News Reader

Comment by jsnk | Hacker News Reader

Please no, I love Twitch chat the way it is. If streamers want to moderate chat some way, let them do it, but I really hope Twitch doesn't enforce one-size fits all topdown moderation rule. That's how you kill vibrant communities and subcultures who are the top 10% who make Twitch fun, and streams' finances sound. If you find memes and jokes crude for some stream, go to some other and support their streams.

So many games and communities have been killed by topdown approach to content moderation.

View on HN

They need to provide tooling to enable moderation, not necessarily enforce it. Forsen's chat isn't going to change, you will still get your gachi on, but official tourneys need a way to stop the insane racism. Look at TerrenceM's comments about how he hoped his parents didn't see the chat while they were rooting for their son in his first competition - it shouldn't be that way, and Twitch (and Blizz/Playheartstone) is failing streamers and competitors by not providing anything in this area.

It is difficult because even if you ban racist words, people will still find a way. The old BrainSlug emote is a perfect example of this (for those who don't know, it was the face of a black streamer. He was so sick of people using an image of his face to be racist that the emote was changed to a Futurama-esque actual brain slug).

It's tricky. If someone in chat is spamming ANELE ITS JUST A CLOCK BRO ANELE, it certainly has racial connotations, but is the statement itself racist? I don't know. I don't like it but I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable with someone being banned from chat because of t.

But do they find a way that is still relevant to the public?

I doubt he would be as embarrassed if commenters spammed 88, as opposed to more openly, well known racist terms. If they want to speak in a secret code, then there's already a long history of racists doing that which isn't unique to online.

>ANELE ITS JUST A CLOCK BRO ANELE

Realistically how different is this than people going on /b/ just to type the N word? MingLee spam whenever there is an Asian on screen, TriHard HE SAID IT when someone says 'nei ga' in Mandarin on a Chinese cast or ANELE spam when someone of Indian/Middle East descent is on screen etc. etc.

Surely it's a conscious choice of companies if they don't have moderation, when ordinary streamers manage to set themselves up advanced bots? I'm not saying it's not a good idea for twitch to provide bots out of the box. But if PlayHearthstone can organise a tournament, stage it, and broadcast it, I don't believe they're unable to deal with the chat.

  If streamers want to moderate chat some way, let
  them do it

In a match between two world-class players, one of whom was putting all their attention on the game and one of whom was splitting their attention with chat moderation, wouldn't the guy who was concentrating win every time?

Most streamers have fans/volunteers who are given moderation powers. No need for micromanaging while they're actually playing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com