[prox]

It’s too bad they are so unimaginative when it comes to that. I mean at the very least they should hand controls to the streamer to run an ad: right now it’s the algorithm that does it.

Also they should primarily look at other ways to monetize. Subs are still the best way, but not everyone has that kind of money.

One other big problem is that there former heads just didn’t get streamers and they ran a lot of big ones out of the building. One streamer with a crazy amount of paid members was treated poorly in an amateurish way.

I think they have new management now which at least seem to be a bit more in tune with what streamers needs are and some of the painpoints.

[Analemma_]

> I mean at the very least they should hand controls to the streamer to run an ad: right now it’s the algorithm that does it.

They do: as a streamer, you've got a button to trigger an ad break at any time. But the streamers rarely push it, for the reasons already mentioned. Video ads pay so little that it's not worth it to streamers to annoy their audience that way, when direct monetization methods which depend on happy viewers (subscriptions, shout-outs, merch) are much more profitable to them.

There's a real problem of incentive misalignment between the streamers and the platform re: monetizing the stream by sticking ads in it, and I don't think it can be resolved; hence the layoffs.

[pclmulqdq]

They do give streamers a button to run an ad break, but they force ads on you if you don't run them often enough. That is very common for many streamers, because the ad breaks hit a large fraction of your viewers and it sort of kills the conversation for everyone.

[prox]

Is there a button? I recently became affiliate but haven’t seen one, there is just controls for setting the intervals and the amount of time, with more perks as you increase the timeslots.

[corobo]

Can you use the /commercial command? That should fire off 30s of ads. You can also specify longer breaks with e.g. /commercial 120

Manually running enough ads should also stop the auto scheduler from running ads and disable prerolls too

[prox]

Will try that, probably at the beginning of my stream when I have actually not started yet. Thanks!

[dathinab]

I roughly remember that there was one for a time which allowed you to somewhat shift the scheduled hourly ads, but I think they might have removed it after testing. Through I think it also never worked really well either.

[pclmulqdq]

I believe the "run an ad" button is for partners.

[prox]

Ah I see, not there yet ;)

[ctroein89]

Twitch should have offered a merchandising business via Amazon. It feels like Twitch should have understood how their streamers make money, and ensure that all of that monetization happens via Amazon in some way shape or form, whether that’s a print-on-demand business or facilitating product placements.

[prox]

Absolutely! That would be a great idea. They could leverage their know how to scan for product placement depending on category you are in. It would seem far more in line.

[k12sosse]

We never did find out why they banned doc.

I first bought YT premium after I found out the YT model of ad-free is ONLY the equivalent to buying Twitch turbo. A membership to the channel will still get you ads.

And having YT premium changed the game of how I consume all media.

Thanks, Twitch.