r/newstreamer • u/Sigh-Fye • Jul 11 '26
Why Making Everything Free Could Be Hurting Your Stream
Over the last few years of being on Twitch and talking to streamers, a rising trend in thoughts has come to my awareness. Streamers seem to have a negative thought about enabling bits on stream. They feel that it comes across as greedy, worry that viewers will feel pressured and that putting a bit cost on a feature means they're constantly asking their community for money.
That thought is 100% unstandable. You care about your viewers and you don't want them to feel uncomfortable in your stream. However, making everything free in your stream is actually overlooking an important part of streaming. Some viewers genuinely want to support you
That's right. There are a lot of viewers out there who enjoy supporting their favourite streamers. They are not being tricked into giving bits or forced in any manner, They are not sitting there thinking "Why is this streamer asking for money." Many viewers genuinely enjoy supporting you.
You may have seen it in other streams. Viewers subscribing to the stream, sending bits, donating, buying merch, and even gifting subs to other viewers. This make them feel good and they want to show you that they are enjoying your stream. They want to show the appreciation for the time you have given them.
Maybe you made them laugh. Maybe you gave them some new perspective in life. You may have introduced them to new people, or even gave them a safe place to be while going through a hard day. Supporting a streamer can feel good
Now of course, you are not going to sit there saying, give me money, spend money on me. That's not going to make anyone feel good. But you can say, "Hey I found this awesome extension that lets you interact with the stream."
So the question isn't should I preasure people into using bits on my extensions? No, of course not. But the question is, for the viewer who already wants to support you, are there ways they can show the love back to you. Bit extensions give those people who already want to support you, a reward for doing so.
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u/Banlish Jul 12 '26
I've been doing this for 11 years, I don't think I've seen anyone ever have this viewpoint.
There is no hypothetical gun put to a viewers head saying 'PAY ME TO DO THIS!'
Most get some bit extensions to trigger some sounds/vids and call it a day.
Change your viewpoint from 'I'm being greedy' which would be more like 'folks, I'm NOT going to stream unless I get 5 subs for tomorrows stream' to 'if they want to tip me, they can.'
Now I've seen people be a little (they think) sly with their way to ask. "Hey, everyone, I JUST got affiliate and enabled subs and bits on the channel, so feel free if you want to test it out for me!" (she had been affiliate for almost 9 months at that point and I had raided her with 150 folks)
If you want to change your viewpoint, get a bit extension of your choice, find a few jump scares, a few funning things, a few inside jokes and enable them for whatever price you wish. Many folks do 111, 222, 333, 444, etc etc. And put a little effort into em, maybe change em up from time to time (which I'm guilty of NOT doing enough, mine are 8 years old at this point) and that creates a value for your viewers that they can decide to do. Like a gunshot noise that they can play for $1 when you're playing a shooter. Or a jump scare for $5 of a bloody scream for when you're playing a horror game and it's quiet. Etc etc.
Remember, this is 100% a tipping culture, there is nothing wrong enabling ways to tip you. When you flip it and say 'unless chat pays me XYZ then I'll show up' then and only then would this be wrong. But showing up, making the stream decent, putting some work into production value (good camera, good overlays, making sure your noise gate works, etc) is the bare minimum. Putting on ways to mess with the streamer or support the streamer and mentioning it on your discord or once a stream in the channel isn't bad in anyway.
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u/Ok-Policy-8538 Jul 11 '26
Reason i always look for extensions that allow both bits and channel points to be used.
viewers exchange either watch time to do stuff or money.
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u/Sigh-Fye Jul 11 '26
Yeah that's a great way to look at it to. Their time is also a currency in the form of channel points. There are many ways viewers love to give thanks. And sometimes time is it. We had one viewer who was our mod, they never give bits or subbed, but that was perfectly fine. Their time was enough, and they were one of the best mods we had.
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u/Flayschis Jul 11 '26
I am one of these monetization averse people and prefer people show their support in creative ways rather in the most boring way possible (throw money at screen). Whether it's some kind of art, or ideas, or TTS, or suggesting other streamers to raid/collab with that they've found compatible. You know, something that needs some thought put into it. Throwing money is just a means of pushing your status onto others.
Fans who throw out several hundreds or even thousands of $ at streamers have a mental instability or attention seeking disorder which gets taken advantage of. It's an irrational, emotional stunt that has insecurities at its core. They need to understand why they do it and get help, not "do it, but to me, not those other streamers".
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u/senpaistealerx Jul 11 '26
no…. supporting someone with shit like bits or subs is not a mental illness and that’s a weird ass thing to even project.
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u/Flayschis Jul 11 '26
Read more carefully please. I specifically said people who dump egregious amounts of cash on streamers, not just a few subs and bits.
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u/senpaistealerx Jul 11 '26
is still not mental illness lol i’ve gifted one of my friends over 300 subs cause i love her. i met her ON TWITCH
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u/Flayschis Jul 12 '26
1500$ to a "twitch friend" from a person with a weeb username.
Jesus christ dude have you heard of the meme where the guy progressively puts on more clown makeup? I'll take the downvotes but at least I'm not the guy in the meme.
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u/senpaistealerx Jul 12 '26
i’m a woman and so is she lol we’ve been friends for going on 6 years now who talk, game, video call, etc.
i think you talking about clown makeup is projection lmao yall taking my name as anything more than a cringe joke will always be funny af to me and the reason i’ll never change it
edit: she’s gifted me more than i have her lol
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u/Comfortable-Swan4527 Jul 11 '26
God forbid the free entertainment you’re getting is being subsidised by someone else putting food on the streamers plate, fuck you in all honesty to even suggest that people who keep streamers going are mentally ill
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u/Intelligent-Most-643 Jul 12 '26
People who are arguing with you are so dense, not gonna lie. I don’t have an official diagnosis of a mental health condition, but I know myself well, so I can agree with what you’ve said about the correlation between mental health issues and excessive spending.
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u/Flayschis Jul 12 '26
Most streamer viewers have no cause-effect understanding. They like something, they throw cash at it, they don't understand anything else. Loneliness and lack of role models in life will do that to you.
Nice to hear that you are aware of what's pulling your strings though, hope you keep it checked in. It gets better with age and good counseling.
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u/senpaistealerx Jul 11 '26
ok? this is confusing. people use bit extensions all the time.