Howdy everyone!

Twitch is a great platform for all kinds of entertainment, finding new interests, and sharing our hobbies - and we can participate as much or as little as we want.

However, a lot of viewers of BrickBuilding streams are new to Twitch and might worry about the ‘unwritten rules’. What’s more, lately more and more folks are starting to stream too!

I’ve therefore pulled together what are hopefully some useful guidelines below. Nothing is ever a hard and fast rule, as this is etiquette not Terms of Service (ToS), and every stream has its own atmosphere and quirks.

Topics:

Info and Rules

• Check if a channel has rules (usually below the video player or by tapping their name on mobile). If the streamer has info there, they put it there for you to read. So read it! It has a lot of info like FAQ, Rules, and Links!
• If you are warned or timed out for caps, emotes, or posting links; chances are the streamer uses a bot with filters to moderate chat. Ask for permission to post a link if you’ve got something relevant to share.
• Channels will often have a title above/below their video. It will almost always tell you what the creator is planning on doing during the broadcast.
• Channels often have commands that chatters can activate by typing, generating a bot reply in chat or activating something on stream. Common ones are !title !build !discord !uptime. Look for a list in the stream title or info.

Chatting

• Different streamers read the chat different amounts, and sometimes with a delay. If they miss your message, don’t spam by repeating things or tagging them.
• It’s considered rude to talk about other streams in the chat even if they are friends unless brought up by the streamer.
• This includes your own channel or content. Don’t ask to be shouted out, or say things like “I have to go stream, bye!". The streamer will bring it up if they want to. On the other hand, if a streamer doesn’t bring it up, don’t take it personally!
• Same goes for sharing something you’ve done/created. Usually streamers love to see relevant things from their community, but not shameless advertising. Also consider sharing in their Discord server.
• It can make a streamer feel bad if you say that you're bored, that chat is quiet, or that you're leaving to watch another stream.
• Most streamers don’t like to hear how many viewers they have. They can see and worry about numbers if they want to.
• ‘Backseating’ (telling the streamer how they should go about what they’re doing) is usually frowned upon, but can be okay when respectful - for example in my channel I’m happy to hear part or technique suggestions. Many channels explain their preferences in their rules, but if not, ask.