I know I'm in the minority here, but have you guys considered a different option for "Affiliate" that does not have the money go to the broadcaster directly?

I stream for fun, and for that reason along with other tax implication concerns, I don't want to get paid by Twitch at the moment. I was notified that I qualified for the Affiliate program but was hesitant after seeing everything I needed to fill out. I know there are other streamers like myself who continue to broadcast without getting paid, and I think it's great. The benefits of being a Partner / Affiliate are also great (Emotes and Channel Points being the biggest ones) but these are not available unless you start accepting money. So, what about a different type of option for people like us? Here are a few ideas I had for your consideration:

1. Have a payout option to go directly to charity. This can be done with Twitch as the donor (I don't care about taking credit or the tax write-offs at all, Twitch can have that). This would be the ideal option in my opinion.
2. Have the "Subscribe" button for $0, with an option to disable Bit Donations completely.
3. Have Twitch take 100% of the proceeds from any subscriptions and bits, signing a waiver if necessary. This one is a last resort to be honest, but at least it's an option.

If these options don't work with the current "Affiliate" definition, then why not create another category entirely for people like me. Call the program and its broadcasters "Torch Bearers" (or whatever you want, I just made that up). I think allowing a broadcaster to have emotes and channel points can help their channel grow a lot and provide great entertainment without having everything be monetized. Maybe the "Subscription" button can act differently for this group, kind of like how YouTube does it. You could still have requirements for this category similar to Affiliate to make it worth your while to setup (so not every channel can just hop right in), and you could also extrapolate on this with other ideas as well ... this is just an idea to hopefully start a discussion.

I think it's a great idea with no drawbacks other than Twitch setting up the infrastructure for the program. You could also upgrade / switch to Affiliate at some point if you'd like. Just something to consider. Feel free to comment and add to the suggestion. I didn't think about this for too long; just throwing it out there. I'm sure other people have good ideas as well.

To whom it may concern,
Dear Twitch,

There is something I MUST understand regarding these new sub prices, otherwise it will drive me insane.

In your official blog https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2021/08/05/local-sub-pricing-expands-worldwide/, under the 'Introducing Local Subscription Pricing' headline, you state, I quote "Over the next few months, we’ll be adjusting the price of subscriptions (existing subs, new paid subs, and gift subs) in most countries to better align with their local cost of living."

I live in Estonia, within 15 minute walk from Russia (literally; it's a frontier town). New sub prices for Russia, tier ascending, are €1.5, €3, and €7.5. For Estonia: €4, €8, and €20, respectively. Same as for Germany. This means that a tier-3 in Russia is CHEAPER than my tier-2, and for me buying ONE tier-3 equals almost SEVEN tiers-2 there.

Here are some fun economy facts, though. A minimum wage in Russia, in 2021, is €148 a month (most wages, however, are paid "in the shadow", circumventing taxation). In Estonia, it is €584 a month, and €3.48 per hour. In Germany, it is €1614 a month, and €9.60 per hour. Furthermore, a subsistence minimum in Russia, in 2021, is €147 for a work-able adult individual. In Estonia: €150. In Germany, it is €680. Which leads to my next two questions.

First, have the brilliant minds behind the reformed pricelist concentrated exclusively on the countries with substantial viewer count, and just blended all the rest together under the common denominator (e.g. Germany for EU), indiscriminately, regardless of their economies and their income per soul?

And second, if the people in charge have a clear understanding that, even though our view count is relatively low, we are still not wild mammals for a superior species to disregard, are the necessary adjustments to the new sub prices going to be considered?

Thank you sincerely for your time and consideration,
I mean it,

Eugene, a random Twitch viewer and subscriber from a non-essential country who just wishes to be treated as a person

P.S. I do apologize for an overly grumpy tone. These changes concern me signifacantly.

I think Twitch could do a few things to help improve the viewer experience for subscriptions:

1. More gift subs badges. The highest sub gift badge is 1000, yet bits go up to 5 million. In addition, you can't select which sub badge you want to use. You should have the option to use any of them if you've earned them.
2. Sub gift Badges should not disappear. They should be permanent.
3. Allow users to write a message if they gifted a sub. For example, letting a viewer know they appreciated a nice comment they made to the streamer within the gift sub.

Bonus: stop allowing Twitch to automatically change people's Badges in chat. If you gift a sub for example, your badge will change. Or if you're the hype train conductor. It should be manual, not automatic.

I am T3 subbed to a channel. If I cancel my subscription I can keep the benefits until the month is over.
If I now decided to resubscribe within that time period (before the old subscription is over) a message appears in the channel, saying that I resubscribed but with Tier 1. But neither did I resubscribe, nor was it Tier 1. I just cancelled my cancellation :)

This could lead to sub spamming, since I can cancel my sub and resub as many times as I want in that time period, but it would probably make a message appear in stream again and again, every time I do this.

A cancellation of the cancellation within the time period should not post a message to chat. And if it must, check for the correct tier!

SUB TOKENS

On the Mobile version of Twitch, you can purchase sub tokens to subscribe to creators without having to process a payment. The downside to this is having to pay an additional dollar for the subscription.

DESKTOP SUB TOKENS IDEA

This could be added on desktop aswell. I think its a great idea and I use it frequently and prefer it over normal subs. On desktop however, there shouldn't be an additional $1 added because Apple/Google isn't taking a cut of the revenue.

PRIME TOKENS IDEA

I've always wished I could save up my monthly Prime subscriptions to T2, T3, or even multi-month sub to a creator. Instead of having a monthly sub, you can gain 1 'Prime Token' every month to use on creators. The tokens pricing would be just the same as the current mobile Sub Tokens.