Stop including erroneous embeds in the viewer count
While it is good that streams can be embedded on other websites these should not automatically count as stream viewers on twitch.
It is far too easy for some businesses to take advantage of this by putting a tiny stream embed on a high traffic page that almost no-one watches, but which adds thousands to the view count of the streamers shown.
Not only is it just being dishonest with twitch viewers about a streamer's viewer count, but it damages smaller streamers too. Everyone knows the only reason this is done is because streamers with high view counts naturally draw in viewers at the expense of other streams, but a lot of viewers are conned into believing the view count is real.
I don't know how many categories are afflicted by this, but in the chess category it is disgustingly obvious, with streams of 100-200 real viewers showing viewer counts of 5-6k due to a tiny embed on a high-traffic page that almost no-one is really watching.
Some streamers also very obviously take advantage of this by streaming in the category to pick up the massive embeds before switching to a different game category to steal real viewers there too due to their artificially high view count which remains high due to the rolling average that appears to be used.
It would be much fairer to the majority of streamers to simply not include these embed views in the viewer count, and instead show the truer view count, as well as being far more honest to viewers. This is way worse than viewer botting that twitch seem to be strongly against, as it is strongly targeted at a small number of streamers.
Glamdring27
shared this idea
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RisenNephalem
commented
as a smaller streamer i 100% agree with this.. i've currently been playing Skull and bones.. and its obnoxious the amount of streamers above me in viewers with completely INACTIVE stream chats.. One of them came right out and told me and his 175 "viewers" that he paid a guy to post his stream on a russian website.. and its something he actively pays for... this man is a partner with twitch.. and yet cannot raid anyone... has a chat that literally does not move **** he's literally live right now.. with 200+ viewers and a chat that does not move lol.. aside from the 1 - 2 people that are ALSO partnered streamers with non moving chats.. just absolutely shocking..
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viennakeller
commented
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juanacollier
commented
I understand your concerns about embedded streams affecting viewer counts, and it's crucial for Twitch to maintain a fair and accurate representation of streamers' viewership. Can anyone over here recommend a loan app? Please.
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vanillaseagull
commented
Everyone knows this is to kill Fextralife, and I say the sooner the better.
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Wito
commented
How about we approach it differently? Embed view is valid no matter how big the player is but~~ the player should never autoplay. Player that does not play does not count into view count.
My reasoning behind this is that after working in frontend webdev for few years I can tell you that there is multiple ways to trick the system for the embedded video player to be "hidden" from the view or scaled down so javascript would not be able to correctly get its size and well... even if there is size limit it would still consume bandwidth of people without their "permission" which is incredibly bad for people with limited one.
I made a UserVoice about this a few days ago as side-effect of recent "dramas" revolving around this.
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BarryCarlyon
commented
A lot of the problem here is that the API jsut gives you _one number_ and marketing people scrape the API to build "inaccurate picture of Twitch"
If twitch creates a way for marketing peeps to get accurate information with a better break down than one number.
Then https://twitch.uservoice.com/forums/310213-developers/suggestions/47176289-authorised-access-to-statistics might fit the bill
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csharpfritz
commented
Please update the embed.js to check the size and visibility of the player and block the embed if it doesn't meet a minimum requirement.
If the embed is not in the browser viewport - don't stream video and don't count the view
If the embed is smaller than 320x200 (or some number) - don't stream video and don't count the view
Just think of how much bandwidth cost Twitch will recover if they DIDN'T stream content when the embed isn't visible
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Leopard
commented
Content creators are also getting hurt with sponsorship deals because embedding streamers are getting deals with terrible results, lowering the potential payouts for the rest of us.
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Goocher19
commented
Fully agree. Embed views should either not count towards a stream's viewership metrics, or should be prohibited. It is a manipulative practice to inflate metrics, and takes away discovery opportunities. This seems like it would be along the lines of viewbotting, and should be treated as such.