[enlyth]

Something about Twitch chat is magical, even though it is commonly just walls of copypasta, it feels like participating in a real, authentic audience. Often times it is more entertaining that the stream itself, just like on HN you would rush to the comments before even reading TFA to see what other people are saying.

I can't quite pinpoint why YouTube doesn't have the same feeling though.

[hbn]

Well for one thing Twitch has the advantage of being primarily gaming-focused, whereas YouTube is at its core a generic video host with no particular focus.

But YouTube has also completely destroyed their entire concept of having a "YouTube community" over the years. There might be something of various creator communities in various niches, but the heavy censorship, mess of a comments section that does everything in its power to halt any form of conversation, leaving only spam and idiots in most comment sections, etc. left it with nothing of a community, or any real creator/consumer dynamic.

YouTube no longer has private nor direct messages, so if people want to communicate they have to do it on another platform. It's also just a bit of a mess with the transition from the original idea of "everyone has an anonymous handle" to "every must have their Google+ profile linked and use their real name" to "Google+ is dead and now some people have silly handles and some people are real people." The whole thing adds up to make for a place with no coherent community.

[astrange]

The YouTube comment algorithm actually totally changed around 2019 because of everyone complaining about it. It's now very strongly focused on "wholesomeness", so if anything it's not stupid enough.

[Zuiii]

The only wholesomeness I see are kind-worded scam messages. I can't say I feel sad for youtube. They wanted it to turn out this way.

[starkparker]

YouTube's UI doesn't facilitate it. YT chat is for textual chat, but clunky and staid, which is a very Google thing to implement.

Twitch chat is for emoting, especially in ways that please the streamer. Trying to actually chat with someone on an active Twitch channel is futile.

[wil421]

It feels like teen chat rooms on AOL with more flair. Except I don’t remember the hordes ganging up on and harassing people on AOL.

[WJW]

There was plenty of ganging up on AOL too, if you were even a little bit outside what "mainstream AOL" people thought was acceptable.

[wil421]

You could just leave the chat or sign off. Hard to do when some people are all about doxing and swatting nowadays.

[mqus]

Something else streamers mention is that on twitch there are way better/more moderating features than on youtube. Shared ban lists, automod bots, annottions like "likely avoiding ban" etcpp