[Experiment] Making Cheering Easier
For a limited time, within a select number of channels, we’re testing a different way to Cheer through direct purchase Cheering.
Direct purchase Cheering allows you to unlock a fun community benefit through monetary payment, rather than through Bits. This experiment is only available to select creators and you must be located in the U.S. to participate. If you have any further questions please refer to our help article (https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/cheering-experiment-2022?language=en_US)
We look forward to hearing your feedback on this!
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serevain commented
yeah no. this aint it fam. as a CC who makes 95% of their income from bits, this is a nail in the coffin for small streamers. i think this is a great idea ALONG SIDE of bits but not to REPLACE bits. also this was a REALLY bad time to roll out this experiment considering recent events....
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kendallnicole19 commented
thanks I hate it
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ThePossibilities commented
In the email, which is dressed as a promotional email that I would never read with no indication of urgency, there is only mention of adding a feature, not removing or replacing bits. Bits are the best thing you have, please never ever change that. This was a terrible job, please take the feature off my channel immediately, and please reprimand whoever is responsible for this.
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LightSpeedTaco commented
Unfortunately for me, and the channels I choose to participate in, bits were integral to the experience and the interactions with the community (the streamers, and chat). Now a large part of the experience has been forcibly removed and I'm not quite clear on why changes like this would benefit anyone other than those charging fees for transactions. Why fix what isn't broken? It blows.
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CasualElephant commented
Is this a bad joke? You know how many streamers rely on bits to run their alerts? and there is a bigger processing fee? Shut it down.
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ravroid commented
99% of the time when I use bits, it's to take advantage of bit sound alerts. This new approach seems entirely incompatible with bit alerts that streamers set up. I absolutely won't be using this and will just donate to the streamer directly if I'm forced to donate dollar amounts.
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Biohazard1700 commented
This hurts streamers. The only beneficiaries are the Twitch shareholders. If this goes through I will send money directly to the streamer through third party options rather than allow Twitch to continue taking an increasingly large cut off the streamers hard work.
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SquishShe commented
Streamers will make less money and suffer. Please don't
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TheDavidJordan3165 commented
This makes cheering dead basically. from the bits, auto-fill going away to no longer being able to watch ads, and the fact doing things on twitchrpg gives you bits, you're basically saying ***** bits in general
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Violaycious commented
I am opting out of this experience. The transaction fee increases make this bad financially, and the lack of alerts and unlocks for the giver remove perks related to giving bits. Add to this that we can use outside donation services for a much lower overhead. If I think about my own behavior, I buy bits in bulk 2-3 times per month to maximize the benefit I am able to give. This takes that away and will encourage me to look outside of twitch to donate to streamers I enjoy. This also comes at a terrible time since in October is my highest time of the year for bits. Typically bits are around 5% of my channel income, but have been close to 20% in October. If this program is forced while so incomplete it will further encourage me to send users off twitch to contribute to my channel.
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NavJackKnows commented
This makes cheering and making money harder for streamers I watch. They have existing sound clips and graphics and in-jokes and community understanding based around the concept of bits. This wreaks of changing something just to change something without fully outlining how this could effect the wide streamer community. You don't just suggest and A/B test a change without first understanding why a feature is/was the way it is/was.
Cheering IS easy. Direct purchase cheering is a gigantic step in the wrong direction on top of other changes that are already in a poor direction.
Bit voting polls is another thing that is VERY fun and crucial to many communities on here but that seems to be missing at present. One streamer i watch is having to scramble to figure out a new way to produce previously promised content that was quite dependent on Bit based voting in polls.
someone seems to have it out for bits and maybe more clear communication from Twitch to content creators is needed on why you feel the need to phase them out. is it some legal thing in other countries outside of the USA? is it a possible new law you are preparing for in which bits are now considered something you don't want to deal with having to defend?
don't sell removal of features as a "fun new *SMILE EVERYBODY PLEASE SMILE* feature where we recommend you dance or sing a song". we're all adults. communicate to the talent and creators as such please. thank you. -
MisterRadon commented
Horrible idea. Don't do this.
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Sails_ commented
Replacing bits will be devastating to revenue for many streamers in the Retro category. Specific bit values drive engagement through memes and situational references. Cheering specific dollar amounts will dramatically reduce interest. If you have any care left for the remnants of the old guard, please do not remove or devalue bits.
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AllFunNGamez commented
Please tell me this is not going to become a thing. I would not be able to survive as a streamer on Twitch anymore.
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Hikthur commented
This does not make cheering easier, has a lower cut for streamers I am trying to support, brings monetary value directly in, does not have fun graphics, does not work with any existing infrastructure, and abruptly and for no reason disrupts streamers I enjoy. I see no benefit for me as a viewer to run lots of small charges on my card. I see no benefit for streamers as they get less money. The lack of granularity in value from 1 bit all the way to thousands means a lot of fun things and sliding rewards (alerts, special values to trigger something, etc.) go away.
Overall this seems like a very strange and bad decision.
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ViventesMors commented
I'm not a huge fan of the "cash" cheers. The simple fact that they don't contribute to hype trains, the creator gets only a portion of the donation, and viewers can't accrue towards unlocking bits badges, is frankly very annoying. Bits are a great system on their own! They don't need an overhaul.
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ns_rah commented
As a viewer, this is incredibly annoying and after reading all the complaints, I cannot believe Twitch has not ended the experiment as a lost cause. When a viewer buys bits they intend to spread them across multiple channels for the day/week/month however long they budget for. With this, it forces viewers like me into multiple micro transactions. Also, I like knowing the streamer gets every penny of the bits, because the viewer pays the Twitch service fee upon purchase of the bits.
If I wanted to give out free emotes to the channel, i would gift subs to chat. Who knows if anyone who is even chatting right now is getting the emotes to use, and for the duration of the stream, not even 24 hours (which in most cases can be unlocked with channel points).
Bits are intended for the streamer 100% and that is how cheering should be. This all seems like a rip off to me and an attack on hard working content creators. I really hope Twitch ends this so the streamers can go back to normal.
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LEGENDofDiCE commented
My viewers have no interest in this, and the ones that did use the experimental Cheer, did not like it. They had no idea who in chat unlocked the emotes, nothing that interacted with the stream or chat to tell us. Bits are far more engaging for viewers, and as my viewers put it, they know the streamer gets to keep it all. They would rather Tip through paypal than use this new Cheer system.
I do really hope this is over soon, I don't mind helping out and promoting a new or temporary way to experiment fun stuff on Twitch, but I DO NOT think it is fair or right that Twitch took away regular bits for the streamers participating. The loss of revenue from that alone will turn me off from ever opting in to an experiment again.
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njmacguy1 commented
Horrible idea!! Bits are creative, engaging, and WAY more fun than Alphabet's system that you're clearly trying to copy. DON'T TOUCH BITS OR CHEERMOTES!!
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Chriskaa commented
Literally one of the worst features Twitch could have come up with. Just another way to take more money from hard working content creators. This will not help grow Twitch but instead scaring away a lot of viewers and supporters that won't contribute to this. Regardless the streamer gets the bad end again...