Do not deprecate hosts.
There was a notice put out about hosts becoming deprecated next month.
This is an awful idea. Do not do this.
The reason given for doing it is clear and obvious deflection; it's false. No one with average viewership under like 6000 uses twitch chats as a community server; when someone is offline, that's it. Their attention is off the chat and elsewhere. The idea that hosts prevent interactions with streamers is complete bull.
Moreover, raids are not a direct replacement for hosts (most people don't even -know- this because this fact has been so thoroughly obfuscated,) because of the referral ID causing a viewer to not count to the raided channel for ad or partnership metrics. Hosting was an incredibly useful -community building tool- on twitch; you host into another channel, that user notes you down, they host into you and share their audience in a way that actually contributes useful numbers beyond "was a viewer". Raiding does not do this. Raiding is an anti-growth tool. Viewers might follow and check someone out again following a raid, but many are there primarily just because a streamer raided them over and have no interest in staying; hosts, because they required active interaction with the hosted channel were more likely to stay because it tested viewer interest.
Hosting was and still is an invaluable community tool. To remove it and not provide its actual functionality to raids is extremely anti-user.
Hello everyone! Thank you for coming together to bring us your feedback on Hosts. We made the decision to remove this feature because it consistently confuses viewers–particularly new viewers or those who are less familiar with Twitch–because they don’t realize the channel they visited is hosting another stream and also they cannot interact with the hosted streamer in chat.
We also hear your feedback and acknowledge the need for community building tools that help promote other streamers. We’ve recently introduced the following features that help you do that:
- We recently released a feature called shoutout that lets you promote another streamer’s channel in your chat and makes it easy for your viewers to follow that channel without leaving your stream. To initiate the shoutout during your stream, use the chat command “/shoutout [channel]” - viewers who do not follow the channel will see a pop-up with a follow button for that channel. If the streamer has an upcoming stream in their schedule, the shoutout will also highlight their next scheduled stream with a button to set a reminder to watch.
- Recommend another stream to viewers when you are offline by adding them to your Suggested Channels list in your channel settings (formerly known as your “Autohost list”). When their channel is live, their stream will appear in the carousel at the top of the page. You can also display your suggested streamers list in your streamer shelf.
We appreciate the feedback you’ve shared, and look forward to new suggestions that help your communities connect with one another.
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thatonehorrorfan commented
I just like being able to support my favorite streamers any way I can.
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buggles commented
please leave the hosts, half the time at the moment I am not auto joining the raids (I assume a glitch of some kind?) and the hosting lets me know where everyone has 'gone' if I happen to have not been paying close attention. Hosting generally should help with this glitch if it is happening to others or becomes more common
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ZM_Art commented
Hosts are so important for smaller channels. It's a way of networking for those of us with small, but loyal fanbases wanting to share other streamers to our audience.
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MxQuarkyCat commented
Hosting is so important to networking. Period. I only ever host channels I endorse. I share my community with other communities through the host feature. People find my community through the host feature.
This does zero to help anyone network and get more traction. Why remove a huge feature of the voice you give us on this platform? All removing it does is have negative effects to people watching and to us streamers.
Also since your notification systems are so broken you never push out live notifications. Sometimes the only way I will know someone is live is cause someone else HOSTING them. Hosting other creators literally helps us all out, streamers, and viewers alike.
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ViciousCode commented
This is such a bad idea to remove this feature, it helps no one and small streamers will suffer for it.
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gowsif commented
Dear Twitch,
You're the best streaming service out right now. Please stop trying to make that untrue.
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Asura_Cascade commented
Massive agreement. I believe that hosting a channel is a compliment, an endorsement. By removing the ability to host it feels like you are removing an immensely valuable tool for communities to grow and for creators to support others. Please U-turn on this change. Chat will riot.
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MississippiCajun commented
As many others have stated, DON'T GET RID OF THE HOSTING ABILITY. I routinely host several chats a day while doing busy work for my job. This is especially true as a Mod for several streams that can go on at the same time. I routinely will choose one stream to host while modding several. Whoever at Twitch says that "hosting is not providing enough exposure" either never been on Twitch for long periods of time or just wants this site to die. How about you sit down with not only your big name streamers, but also the guys starting out as well as the people who don't have high numbers but been loyal for over 6+ years. I know several streamers like this who maybe pull in 50-60 on a good day, but routinely have a core group of around 10-15 at most. If you want us to use a specific feature more often, then highlight it and improve upon it. Make it more personal for each streamer to use it.
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braveandboldbatman commented
I use the host function all the time to help get the streamers I follow some much needed exposure. What Twitch is saying is just completely untrue. Stop taking away features that people actually use and is useful for the streamer. Maybe have more engagement with the community on how they feel about something being removed before it is decided to just remove it without discussion?
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SmollCreAture commented
Horrible idea to remove hosting, thats how i find alot of the streamers i like and how i support others
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4r1ga70u commented
Stop been greedy and start listen to community Twitch. we need more features and not less.
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orange_tj commented
removing hosts is just a pathetic attempt to control which streamers get promoted. This is just a tool to hide affiliates and partners arent "profitable" and refuse to run an add ever 5minutes
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Caranlhach commented
This is a terrible decision on Twitch's part. And, saying it is because streamers are ignoring people is a stupid thing. People will talk to who they want to, period. Plus, a lot of streamers who host will also hangout in the chats of those they are hosting, if they want to interact with people at the time.
I think this is just a way for them to push their "Suggested Channels" thing more, and give less choice to the actual streamers. -
TharaDieEule commented
Absolut uncool, was Twitch da vor hat und ich muss hier deutlich mein Veto einlegen und schließe mich der Mehrheit an: Bitte macht es nicht!
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Oni_Kidou commented
This is a horrible decision you guys at Twitch could ever make. This is a feature that helps grow communities and to connect with other people and help others grow. If it's broken them fix it. Don't throw it away. I even use this function to host other streamers that I also engage with so people who follow and want to interact with me can still do that.
This will hurt a lot more than fix if you get rid of hosting. Keep hosting alive and don't get rid of it.
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Nixitur commented
Absolutely agreed.
The problem with raids is that unless I was there when the stream ended, it is literally impossible for me to know who the streamer raided. If I show up to the raiding streamer's page five minutes later, there is no indication that that raid took place, no way for me to find the raided streamer.
With hosts, I'll automatically be shown the hosted stream whenever I check the hosting streamer's page. It's very good for discoverability.Not to mention that hosts also show up on your "Following" page, furthermore increasing my exposure to smaller streamers that I wouldn't have found any other way.
If the raided stream was visible on the raiding streamer's page after the actual raid, and if raided streams showed up on your Following page, that would be at least something. But as the feature is now, it is not a replacement for hosting, and strictly worse for discoverability.
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peepoAsh commented
bad idea!! keep hosts!!
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sweetmusicwoman commented
It truly doesn’t make sense to remove hosting. Keep hosts please!
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Akantia commented
It's just plain wrong to get rid of hosts! The feature is a good way to get people interested in people outside of their fave streamer!
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bigsomething_ commented
Once again, this is a product of the unfortunate detachment between those who run Twitch and those who live their lives on Twitch.
This is a terrible decision because it completely ignores the amount of good that hosting has done for streamers the world over. It does not "limit a streamer's growth potential" as they have stated in the FAQ, it rather builds on it, allowing streamers a higher status on the recommended pages. Furthermore, if a viewer wants to join the hosted stream, they are literally one click away from doing so.
This is speculation, but I feel as though there is a more unpopular reason why Twitch would rather do away with this feature, and they are using the familiar excuse of "community engagement" in order to further this goal. We've seen this when they had removed the "friends" feature despite its frequent use among users. The only reason I throw this out there is that there simply isn't enough transparency in what Twitch staff regularly do that impact its millions of users like myself.
This is unacceptable. It is not necessary to remove this feature to promote streamer growth, much like it was never necessary to remove the friends feature to promote user interaction. In fact, it is exactly counter to the point. Even if it isn't useful to some users, it doesn't mean it isn't valuable to others.