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My Livestream Rules
12 years ago
This is a followup journal requested by some people who wanted to see an overview of my channel rules. I'm also going to explain why the rules exist as well. And I should note that all of these rules exist out of necessity, because before I instituted them they had become an issue. So if you don't like them I am sorry, but the actions of others required me to have them.
If you run your own stream, feel free to swipe this for your own use. I hereby grant you permission.
My livestreams run three nights a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8PM EST (with a preshow starting at around 7:30 for newcomers) until I get tired. I will also usually stream on 'off' nights and do comic work, commission work, or do gaming.
THE BACON RULE!!! - When we reach a topic where people are genuinely starting to get offended, we call 'bacon'. Bacon means we stop talking about the current topic and move on. I like the bacon rule because it's a much more positive means of changing the topic than simply telling people to stop -- instead we just change the subject to talk about Bacon for a little bit instead. It gives people an out. As an aside though, 'bacon' is not for a single person to use who simply wants to change the conversation because they don't like it. It's a tool for stopping a large conversation that is getting out of control.
Keep RP poses to a minimum. When I first started streaming I didn't have a roleplay rule, and people were having huge scenes in channel. The problem with roleplay is that it often brings out the competitive nature in people, so Bob pretends to blow up Bill, and Bill retaliates by blowing Bob up more, and so Bob retaliates, and so on and so forth. When it reached a point where people were responding with roleplay poses when they were asked to stop, I'd had enough. So, you can roleplay waving or hugging someone or an action/scene that takes 1-2 lines, but after that you stop. For the people who want to know why I also try to stop it even when I'm not streaming, it is because time and time again I have seen that the people who roleplay heavily when I am not streaming almost always continue to do so when I am.
Don't spam. Think about what you type before you type it. Some people will spaz and type one word reactions like crazy to the point where it makes my buffer scroll too quickly for me to keep up with customers or important comments/questions from people.
Keep it PG rated. I appreciate intelligent humor and clever plays on words. But simple vulgarity just shows a lack of cleverness. I try to be a lady, and I expect the people in my channel to know how to act in the presence of one. Not to mention we have children who often listen in over their parents' shoulders, and I'd rather they not see anything blatantly rude.
Don't promote a stream without permission. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been streaming for two and a half years and I have never tried to steal viewers from another stream. So when someone uses me to promote themselves, I don't really care for it. Saying that, I'm happy to help my friends. But when someone is around strictly to self-promote, I can tell and I don't like it. All I ask is that you ask me first, 90% of the time I'll say yes.
Don't post links without permission and use a URL shortener when you can. People would casually post to porn, graphic images, screamers, and illegal downloads in channel. Also, folks would bandwagon and start linking back and forth like mad. So, ask permission first. 90% of the time you'll get a yes. We ask for a URL shortner like http://bit.ly because Livestream chat hates links and will break most of them, and people often reacted to this by posting the long broken links several more times.
Bold is for mods, underline is for commissioners, please don't use italics and keep the color of your name text at a level that I can see. Geeks like to look unique, and in a text environment that uniqueness is displayed in text and color. Folks will try and use the special setting or really bright colors to get attention. But sometimes it can be distracting so we came up with a standard. Additionally, I am badly nearsighted and chat is 12 point type that I read from three feet away. So take it easy on my eyes if you could.
Don't backtalk me or the mods, don't constantly question our rulings, and don't whine at us passive-aggressively when we correct you. Before I instituted this, every time I made a ruling some white knight would pop up and would question me about it every single time. Also some folks took correction as a direct attack on their pride so they feel the need to retaliate. This is rude, undermining, and often insulting, so we don't allow it.
As a final note, if you slip up it is not personal and I often forget it ever happened very quickly. But if someone is deliberately breaking the rules and deliberately pushing, that is when there is a real issue. So the main point is, if you're trying to stick to the rules we notice and we don't hold grudges. If you're deliberately trying to rebel, push, and cause problems we also notice and will react accordingly.
If you run your own stream, feel free to swipe this for your own use. I hereby grant you permission.
My livestreams run three nights a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8PM EST (with a preshow starting at around 7:30 for newcomers) until I get tired. I will also usually stream on 'off' nights and do comic work, commission work, or do gaming.
THE BACON RULE!!! - When we reach a topic where people are genuinely starting to get offended, we call 'bacon'. Bacon means we stop talking about the current topic and move on. I like the bacon rule because it's a much more positive means of changing the topic than simply telling people to stop -- instead we just change the subject to talk about Bacon for a little bit instead. It gives people an out. As an aside though, 'bacon' is not for a single person to use who simply wants to change the conversation because they don't like it. It's a tool for stopping a large conversation that is getting out of control.
Keep RP poses to a minimum. When I first started streaming I didn't have a roleplay rule, and people were having huge scenes in channel. The problem with roleplay is that it often brings out the competitive nature in people, so Bob pretends to blow up Bill, and Bill retaliates by blowing Bob up more, and so Bob retaliates, and so on and so forth. When it reached a point where people were responding with roleplay poses when they were asked to stop, I'd had enough. So, you can roleplay waving or hugging someone or an action/scene that takes 1-2 lines, but after that you stop. For the people who want to know why I also try to stop it even when I'm not streaming, it is because time and time again I have seen that the people who roleplay heavily when I am not streaming almost always continue to do so when I am.
Don't spam. Think about what you type before you type it. Some people will spaz and type one word reactions like crazy to the point where it makes my buffer scroll too quickly for me to keep up with customers or important comments/questions from people.
Keep it PG rated. I appreciate intelligent humor and clever plays on words. But simple vulgarity just shows a lack of cleverness. I try to be a lady, and I expect the people in my channel to know how to act in the presence of one. Not to mention we have children who often listen in over their parents' shoulders, and I'd rather they not see anything blatantly rude.
Don't promote a stream without permission. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been streaming for two and a half years and I have never tried to steal viewers from another stream. So when someone uses me to promote themselves, I don't really care for it. Saying that, I'm happy to help my friends. But when someone is around strictly to self-promote, I can tell and I don't like it. All I ask is that you ask me first, 90% of the time I'll say yes.
Don't post links without permission and use a URL shortener when you can. People would casually post to porn, graphic images, screamers, and illegal downloads in channel. Also, folks would bandwagon and start linking back and forth like mad. So, ask permission first. 90% of the time you'll get a yes. We ask for a URL shortner like http://bit.ly because Livestream chat hates links and will break most of them, and people often reacted to this by posting the long broken links several more times.
Bold is for mods, underline is for commissioners, please don't use italics and keep the color of your name text at a level that I can see. Geeks like to look unique, and in a text environment that uniqueness is displayed in text and color. Folks will try and use the special setting or really bright colors to get attention. But sometimes it can be distracting so we came up with a standard. Additionally, I am badly nearsighted and chat is 12 point type that I read from three feet away. So take it easy on my eyes if you could.
Don't backtalk me or the mods, don't constantly question our rulings, and don't whine at us passive-aggressively when we correct you. Before I instituted this, every time I made a ruling some white knight would pop up and would question me about it every single time. Also some folks took correction as a direct attack on their pride so they feel the need to retaliate. This is rude, undermining, and often insulting, so we don't allow it.
As a final note, if you slip up it is not personal and I often forget it ever happened very quickly. But if someone is deliberately breaking the rules and deliberately pushing, that is when there is a real issue. So the main point is, if you're trying to stick to the rules we notice and we don't hold grudges. If you're deliberately trying to rebel, push, and cause problems we also notice and will react accordingly.
and sounds also that some problems been running around lately
It's just one of the reasons that makes Gen's stream such an awesome place to be. :)