The actual problem is that the number of followers still has some meaning for people. Seems it's still a metrics advertisers use to negotiate contracts with streamers and even Twitch uses it for its affiliate programm. But the number doesn't say anything. There are thousands orphaned accounts that still count as followers. Even activly used accounts often follow streamers the account holder doesn't watch (anymore) or doesn't watch any often due to streaming time collisions of prefered streamers. So the number of followers is completely useless. (It's just way easier to determine compared to viewers.)

If Twitch would make that number inaccessable to anyone, no one would even care about it anymore. You follow to receive "... just went live" information, that's it. - BAM no more problem with follow bots. No need to restrict or even remove the endpoints.

If you need a number to present to an advertiser, use the viewer count with some additional statistical information like average, min, max, 95%-quantile, standard deviation, a confidence interval etc.
First of all that's a way more reliable number and second of all, that's way more honest.

Finally, Its a good news for all developers. I am also a developer and develop different kinds of games and upload them on a https://thunderapk.com/granny-outwitt-mod-menu/ this website. So that every person can play them easily.

I like this idea for other endpoints as well. For example, accessing chat logs, specifically through V5 video comments, is now on the chopping block. My use case relies heavily on analyzing this data, and while it will still be possible to use IRC to log messages in selected channels, this is highly inconvenient. If trustworthy developers could be given access to this data it would serve the community at large while avoiding malicious abuse.

Since Twitch is going to introduce follower emotes for all broadcasters soon, I think it's important for broadcasters that their chat bots are following their channels, so the bots can use the follower emotes in chat messages. This is why it should be possible for bots to follow their users automatically.

I had an application that used this endpoint precisely to remove "possible bots" from the broadcaster's account. 😢

I also just posted to the forums thread about this, and hope you guys fix it: https://discuss.dev.twitch.tv/t/deprecation-of-create-and-delete-follows-api-endpoints/32351/39?u=chrishecker

I do think there should be some sort of vetting process for certain endpoints for trusted apps. Like the partner program for developers. Partner streamers get elevated access to features automatically like emote approvals until they are misused. Once a developer is “approved” they can get elevated access to certain endpoints like this one or maybe new future endpoints too.

@ZoeS17

I totally agree with you - I don't understand how a user getting Botted Followers matters

1) Viewers are watching a streamer because they enjoy the content, not how many followers they have
2) Twitch reviews your statistics before promoting you into the Twitch Partner Program, the number of followers has no impact on your success into the program
3) There are so many good ways to use this follow tool to help aspiring streamers grow. My application made it so streamers could share clip moments and these could serve as a preview to their channel where viewers could hit the follow button and go on to the next form of content

The new solution is tough - now we would have to redirect someone to twitch, they would have to log in, before they could follow an end user and have a chance at watching them in the future

To eliminate these because some bot accounts are inflating the number of followers a streamer has seems to hurt the 99% of streamers that could benefit from this API kit

The issue(s) that I see here are that while it seems like this may mitigate malicious or capricious bots it only seems to do so by removing endpoints that benevolent developers may use too. This reeks of security through obscurity and while may not be intentional, feels semi-hostile to positive development practices.

I for one feel that while bots are useful I never understood the need, nor desire, for so many followers. That being said, I realize that I may be in the minority in that feeling. In any case, I believe that removing such an endpoint only changes the scope of where such malicious actors may code for next. In all likelihood, they moved on once they heard this announcement(which no doubt contributed to it's expedient removal without deprecation). Point in fact, I don't think even restricting this/these endpoint(s) behind any form of vetting process should be need, nor required. Will it likely fully mitigate the risk, possibly. But let's speak to the larger issue(s) at hand here: am I likely to have to make my source open source(yes), should that requirement be a fully working code(maybe), how well is the endpoint documented(at the moment it's removed, so null), am I guaranteed that changing my code won't require a revetting of the entire codebase(unsure at this juncture but unlikely), how would the platform benefit from code like this being vetted(it would make bots have a harder time following and unfollowing), are there any potential other solutions(yes, many). One such potential solution is that you could add a follow button to the a user's viewercard(which already is a minimized view and allows `Add Friend`, `Whisper`, and `Gift Sub`). Does this solve the problem of programmatically allowing such a follow/unfollow to occur, kind of, though it does require the user load a web site/browser this allows the platform to make sure the user is logged in via cookies or another means(i.e. Authorization Header)

In summary, I think that a respectful dialog between users(perhaps mostly developers) and the platform's development/admin team seems the most beneficial course at this time. I have outlined, my issues above and attempted to suggest a potential mutually beneficial solution. I am open to constructive criticism and/or comments.

I outlined some of my reasonings on the Forums, but I regularly use both the Create and Delete endpoints and ended up being impacted by this change.

https://discuss.dev.twitch.tv/t/deprecation-of-create-and-delete-follows-api-endpoints/32351/8?u=neverforget98