Twitch has different 'boosting' features available to some streamers, such as channel point boost challenges or the new Boost Train. While great in theory for discoverability, completed boost recommendations right now seem to be sent to completely random users.

This means that recommendations are not always seeking the audience that the streamer is hoping to reach, or is content viewers aren't looking for. For example, when checking my own Front Page for these boosted recommendations, I've mostly been recommended channels streaming in languages I do not speak, or in categories I've never engaged in as a viewer or streamer.

This randomness also puts marginalised streamers at higher risk of harrassment as a result of financial support from their communities. For example, when my community completed a Level 4 Boost Train, the only new chatters in my stream were trolls targeting me for being a trans person. Hype Trains are designed to be a moment of joy, not a time where we have to worry more about being harrassed.

Instead, Twitch should send recommendations from boosts out based on user data that Twitch already has (e.g. how they filter 'live channels we think you'll like' and other recommendations). Curating recommendations based on these aspects or other user data available make them more appropriate and meaningful for viewers and streamers alike.

I was just thinking about an idea that would probably help people who are new to streaming on Twitch to have a tab list of New and upcoming streamers who have like 100 followers or less to see an entire list of new streamers who haven't had that many followers to be easily seen to give chance for them to be noticed by channels who have slightly bigger followership and viewership. This would give new streamers a chance of being noticed and checked out, and also gives opportunity for bigger channels to drop them a raid too, because part of being a community is supporting each other on the platform, and sometimes we just want to help out these smaller channels and give them a little boost.

Having connections, and friends to come watch your streams is nice and all, but in the grand scheme of things doesn't really do much for growth on the platform. It would also make new streamers less discouraged by their growth on the platform not feeling like it's going anywhere, and being stuck with low viewer counts. So make a list of 100 New streamers or something like that.

There's been issues on twitch where at some points when I've been getting some toxic streamers recommended to me in the side bar or on my home page and some of those streamers and their mods have been very nasty towards others besides myself so i figured i would make a petition on this since i'm sick and tired of getting streamers that are abusive towards their viewers besides the chat mods they have contributing to the fire towards newcomers to the platform by scaring them off.

Its mostly been from both affiliate and some partner streamers. Non-affiliate streamers is not as bad since its very hard to get onto the side bar for the front page of users logging in. From the side bar people usually go in blind without being aware from what is on the streams content first without a thumbnail unless they looked on their page after exiting a stream they've been watching to look at them in the follow tab.

What twitch should do to make it feel more safe from channel recommendations on the side bar or in the follow tab is if people had previous history of being time banned for a certain amount of time even if it was days or hours they should be restricted more from not being able to be shown on the side bar or peoples follow tabs. There might be a point including in people that have had a perm ban since their account will be gone from the website, but there's also been problems with people abusing the system by getting back onto the website with their original account after they were perm banned then continuing on persisting in their bad online habits until their reported again by users. They should be restricted from being enabled in their bad behavior. This has been an ongoing cycle and i feel its time to shatter that cycle and have some change done on the platform for part of the recommended section.

There is also sometimes when minors come on the website as well to view certain channels, but sometimes they'll stumble upon mature rated channels. This would also lessen the chance of younger viewers being targeted towards toxic people and make it safer for teenagers to watch their favorite streams on the platform by finding streamers that are more family friendly and better for their mental health as they grow up.

I wanted to type this out as an awareness petition since a lot of abuse and harassment happens on twitch each month by some streamers or chat mods depending on the day and time of each month. So by having this getting twitches attention this will help make twitch a better platform and more enjoyable to watch rather then blindly going in without knowing the history of a streamer that's recommended in the side bar or in the follow tab for the recommended area then being surprised or shocked by how their behaving then scaring off a viewers from their stream after being reported. Twitch will never grow if this keeps happening so its time that streamers are well rewarded for their hard work and good behavior rather then trying to rush into getting affiliate and partner from doing it for the money then people start finding out how bad they are after watching them with toxic behavior.

I hope you all consider my idea for this part of the platform. Thank you!

Currently, Word of Mouth is a big factor for channels being discovered by new viewers. You've found a great new channel that you think your friends will enjoy so you want to tell them about it. Currently, all you do is share the channel link with your friends and you've directly helped that channel grow... but there's no direct reward for helping that channel.

What if there was a 'referral' system available where you could share a link, with a particular referral code, with your friends and if they choose to follow the channel you receive a bonus amount of Channel Points?

There are a range of other potential incentives - if a Viewer shares a particular channel link and 'x' amount of other viewers spend 'x' amount of time in the channel then the referring Viewer might receive some Bits?

The purpose is simply to increase channel discovery for the channels we find valuable. They might not have the most amount of viewers but their content may be just what someone is looking for and unable to currently find it.

Providing 'personal blacklists' would give users the ability to hide content they're sick of seeing and enable for a higher quality browsing of Twitch. This would give users the option to hide content or channels that are purposefully clickbait or channels that they don't want to see reappearing when browsing for a stream. Channels that constantly use all caps in their titles are annoying and we should have the ability to blacklist them for our accounts. Same goes for many of the streamers who have 66% of the screen covered by their face or 'other body parts' and only 33% gameplay/content. Wading through a sea of clickbait may be fun for some, but it gets tiring when you're looking for new channels with good content and personality.