Top Cheer!
Something is absent from my channel. Twitch push hard for it and it is very common among much larger channels especially. Sadly no, it isn’t advertising as we all have to suffer that now they are enforced outside of creator control. Of course I’m talking about things like top cheers, community leader boards, loyalty scores and other names for what I see as basically; ranking your followers by how much money or time they’ve given you.
I don’t like systems that rank my audience. Firstly I don’t like people to feel they’re any less valued just because they can’t make it to every stream or aren’t giving me their hard earned cash. Secondly I feel terrible that these systems encourage competition in a way that could be easily seen to prey on people who are competitive, completionist or anxious, and they are deliberately disassociated from being monetary.
Now lets be honest, I don’t want this writing to put anyone off or dent revenue so, if it’s about supporting me directly then donate or throw bits at me but remember it’s not about the large sums or having more than the last person. It all means a lot to me and I prefer not to have software displaying who is the ‘leader’ by quantity, dangerously implying that they are somehow more meaningful to me than any other person willing to support me. I’ll continue to be amazed and grateful to all of you who do!
When it comes to supporting the channel I am overjoyed to see the content shared and the word spread. I love to see discussion in the Discord and on Social Media. It’s also important to critique the content and let me know what I could improve and what you want to see more of – this isn’t my job and enjoying it is vital to wanting to do more of it. I adore feedback and suggestions!
I will make a note right now the channel has only just passed 300 followers and is a massive source of enjoyment for me in almost every aspect with very low overheads. Some day in the distant future of this thing of mine there may be greater overheads or a bigger solid community that knows I don’t rank people by what money they give but would enjoy having these systems on show; some day they become a feature on my channels but I am never going to like what these systems could imply.
