Integrate Custom Tags with existing tags
Bring back the ability to use regular tags. The custom tags are nice, but there is currently no option to use the tags we had access to before unless entering manually. The requirements for these custom tags (ie, no spaces) precludes some tags like 'body positive' or 'mental health'. Having the ability to choose from the multitude of tags that were recently introduced, as well as define user tags, just makes sense if you want to truly promote individuality. Using ONLY custom tags means that some people will be using tags no one else is, and therefore their streams will not be discovered. This is not in line with a commitment to user individuality and identity.
Hi everyone!
We're thrilled to announce the launch of custom tag suggestions. This feature was inspired by the requests you have provided here on UserVoice, and we're so excited to finally be able to provide this functionality.
Suggestions for custom tags (1) reduce the chances of manual errors made by streamers when adding tags to their stream info and (2) allow viewers to more-intuitively explore existing tags to find content relevant to their interests!
We hope you'll enjoy this addition. Please feel free to provide us with feedback (https://link.twitch.tv/CustomTagsFeedbackUV), so that we can continue improving the ability for streamers and their communities to connect!
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ManedCalico commented
I absolutely agree with this. I'm glad we're able to make custom tags, but I find myself really missing the pre-defined ones. Even adding autofill to the custom ones would be great so we can add ourselves into what the community is already using. Their announcement compared the custom tags to hashtags, but I feel like they just added a text box for us without creating the infrastructure that hashtags have on other platforms.
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sinarynn commented
I think having a common language would help with discovery. Not only that, it felt like all the tags that we were fighting for ended up being for naught with this new system. Please bring both the pre-determined tags and custom tags!!!
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LoFiKnight commented
I love getting to add custom tags, but I wish the system were a hybrid system so that we had certain standardized tags to make discoverability better, in particular for the LGBTQ community as there are many different acronyms used in the community and having one "predetermined" one would help so much.
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Ash_l337 commented
I have no idea why they didn't do this in the first place. Removing pre-determined tags and only using custom ones just made it less useful for discoverability as now every community is just more fragmented.
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Grin_N_Gob commented
Existing tags help with discoverability, but also keep communities together. We need to be able to use regular and custom tags in order to maximize our efforts to not only be found by new viewers, but to make folks feel included and wanted.
The last thing we want is someone searching "Mental Health" and having few results because of the new tagging system. -
Sigmund_Froid commented
Posted this on another suggestion talking about custom tags, but I think this one is more likely to be noticed:
"The new system suffers from inconsistency, as, naturally, different people use different words.
This, in turn, makes it difficult for users to actually use the Tags, since there are different versions of the same community.
Users won't be able to find the community they want to join as easily, diminishing the point of having Tags in the first placeA combination system would definitely solve this issue, and would offer more to the previous system, while losing nothing from it.
As is, the new system creates more issues than it solves, as it doesn't properly serve the purpose tags were supposed to serve in the first place"To add more to this, this change is particularly problematic for smaller channels, since a lot of them rely on tags to be found...
If Tags are basically useless, as they are now, it's almost impossible to be found without having a bigger audience already.
This in turn, halts growth both for smaller channels, and twitch as a platform! -
ashkero commented
Only custom tags has already caused so many issues in terms of discoverability and usefulness - i have seen people use LGBT, LGBTPlus, LGBTQ, LGBTQPlus, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIAPlus and although they are all clearly intending to use the same/similar tags, i cant find them unless i search each variation seperately.
I've also already seen issues where streamers have misspelled tags ie. auditoryASMR vs audetoryASMR
If there was either still a standardised set of tags able to be used OR some kind of search/autofill as you're typing that can suggest tags currently being used, it would reduce these problems drastically
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PhoenixBlue0 commented
There was nothing about Twitch's tag system that was so broken that this could possibly be considered a fix. Please give us back *some* semblance of standardized tags that we can use for our streams.
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twitch.tv/MonicaElleRose commented
tags failed the moment search didn't include the option to search part of a tag. as someone who is visually impaired the new tag system spacing and formatting is very difficult for me to read. i hope you continue to work on it exponentially because right now the old system for me was largely better.
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cakejumper commented
Puzzled as to why the tag system was changed. I thought the original system would stay intact alongside the custom tags. The new system is a nightmare for discoverability especially for smaller streamers.
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DemonCatDaphne commented
It makes some tags unreadable AND since the language tag is now also a manual tag lots of people don't have it anymore because they don't use tags. So this means I can't even filter streamers with "english" because half of them won't show up
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Nikkie_Stones commented
100% agree.
Twitch's discovery wasn't great, but Tags really helped discoverability & finding new streams to watch, vibe with, and raid into.
Since the introduction of Custom tags, discoverability & view counts have dropped considerably - which in turn has made a negative effect towards the platform. -
Cheeky8 commented
I agree with this entirely! Also worth noting that plenty of users struggle with spelling and are going to see their discoverability greatly suffering as a result.
Never gonna stop saying #TwitchDoBetter until they stop half-a**ing this stuff.