millerjpower

[millerjpower]

A letter to "fully accessible" and "sensory friendly" spaces

One of my pet peeves as a disabled person and access consultant is when people say "fully accessible". No live event or place can be fully accessible to everyone all of the time. For example, a person who can't see in low light needs bright lighting at a venue but an autistic person with light sensitivity needs low lighting. That is just one example of millions where different people's access requirements clash. Of course this doesn't mean we should all give up on accessibility but, in order to respect all disabled people, it must be acknowledged.

"Sensory friendly" is a similar phrase: it tends to mean soft lighting, low voices, and muted colours, but that isn't sensory friendly to everyone. For example, while some autistic people prefer soft spaces like this, others need more "heavy-handed" sensory experiences to stay grounded and focused. So, similarly there is no such thing as a space that is "sensory friendly" to everyone.

You may be thinking "okay but isn't this a bit pedantic, you know what they mean" but, I don't! I can guess a sensory friendly space will be quiet or that an accessible venue won't have stairs. But a person's access needs are specific needs, we need to specifically know if they will be met or violated in the space. I don't want to just turn up and find out if I can exist in a space or not.

The point I am trying to make here is that communication is key in access in all areas. You should try and make your space accessible as possible but, just as not everyone will like your content, not everyone can access your content.

Twitch Tips!

Avoid using phrases like "accessible stream" or "sensory friendly", these can be very frustrating. If you would like to communicate the accessibility of your space, instead say "closed captions", "cosy", "no flashing lights". If you're really committed to a certain level of access, consider having a panel explaining what you try to achieve.

[millerjpower]

Free Animal Crossing Overlay!

You probably have probably seen that tweet by now, the one with the teacher recording his lessons behind Isabelle's desk. I immediately thought "heck people like this, I could make this!" so I have.

Of course I can't sell it because of nintendo's copyright but I would really appreciate a donation to help support me to make cool free things like this! You can donate here, suggested donation £5!

It's usable by green screen users and vtubers! As long as you have a transparent background you can plop yourself behind Isabelle's desk.

Just put the background file in the background (sourced here), and the speech bubble in the foreground, with you in-between!

The font for the name box is Ariel Rounded in #E9AC1D.

The font for the speech text is Rodin ProN-DB in #7E755A. Rodin ProN-DB is unfortunately a licenced font, but there are plenty of dupes as it's a pretty basic font. In the video I use Pixel Chat's Mukta.

Grab the files here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16enTIehbCklV1ygLGuU4GA7_Y0SGtUbF?usp=sharing

Enjoy! And remember you can support my free content here or commission your own custom overlays here.

[millerjpower]

#TwitchDoBetter, Fanhouse, & Diversifying Income

Preamble: I fully respect everyone's reactions & choices in response to the lack of safety on twitch. Nothing written here is a value judgement or suggestion of the "best" action, just explaining my actions.

TL;DR - if you want to support me off of twitch you can do to millerjpower.com/support.

August has been a lot for me as a small, marginalised activist & content creator on twitch. Twitch creators have been calling on the company more than ever to make their platform more accessible and safer. This is nothing new, but has escalated as RekItRaven started #TwitchDoBetter & harassment has increased on the platform in recent months, affecting medium sized Black creators the worst. Many are "hate raided" (ie. bombarded with racist, ableist, or transphobic copy paste messages from up to 100s of bot accounts in a matter of minutes) several times every stream, disrupting their work & potentially alienating audiences who were enjoying a usually chill & safe space.

As a small creator though it is a little different. I have been hate raided once - they humorously told me I'd never be a woman - but it was manageable & was barely a disruption. I'm not the main target for trolls as such a small streamer. However the whole atmosphere of the community during these events has be difficult, and it is hard not to second guess you're reaction to it. This is especially true as an autistic & a disabled person, seeing so many people changing platform, making more content in new places on top of what they already do; it's hard to not think "shit am I being judged for not following everyone to this platform" or "am I a fool for not stretching myself across more paying platforms". I am lucky to be reassured by friends, colleagues, and role models that everyone is entitled to do what's best for them, and I have incredible respect for people changing platform or joining more platforms. However, it is hard to not panic in the face of disordered or unwanted change as an autistic.

Thus, I wanted to share with the world what I'm doing in reaction to #TwitchDoBetter & why, to help me feel more confident in my choices and hopefully legitimise others who feel similarly to me.

I'm staying on Twitch (for the foreseeable).

As a small creator a really a lot on:

free and easy access

connections & overlap with other channels

discoverability

These are all things I reliably have on Twitch. It is quite scary though, as if my friends & connections all move to different platforms (to YouTube, Altair, or Fanhouse exclusively) I'll be forced to make a move to the most popular of those unless I've managed to grow significantly on my own. And while I have nothing against moving itself, the choice of where & potentially splitting my audience are all very stressful. I love that twitch is a hub for steamed content, it gives me that discoverability. It also gives me the ability to have my content be free & easily accessible. You can search "transgender" & "disabled" and see me pretty quickly, only having to sit through a quick ad. No-one needs to subscribe to support and enjoy my content, and the more people who enjoy it for free means more people coming in who can afford to throw some cash my way.

Twitch, on the face of it though, is a horrible way to make money. Although it's been amazing at bringing viewers to my channel and providing fun incentives for them, I only receive 50% of the money people give to me and that's after exchanging it from US dollars. Even then, I only get paid on a monthly basis if I have made $100; if one month I only reach $98 I don't get paid. Beyond hate raids then, another big reason streamers are moving or spreading over more platforms is to make a more acceptable rate. New popular platform Fanhouse offers creators 90% of money they bring in, Patreon between 95-90%, drawing many streamers to take it up as a second income to twitch.

As a small, disabled content creator I am reluctant to follow the trend, and equally feeling pressured to. Spreading myself across two platforms means spreading myself more thin. I work for myself because my disability makes it difficult to hold down a regular job full time; I'm already pushing myself to capacity to make a living. There is the option to move over my content to one of these platforms but I have reservations. As I said above, as a small creator I want my content to be free and easy to find. Although you can put content up for free on Patreon and Fanhouse, people assume that it's probably paid content when you share it on Twitter & the like, and neither of them are platforms you can just browse to look for new content. So it's creating more work for myself that isn't easily sharable and discoverable, not a good move for me.

What am I doing in response then?

Although I am not spreading myself to other platforms or leaving Twitch, that doesn't mean I'm ignoring the problem. My reaction is twofold: campaigning for change, and implementing safety tools. It is unfair that any marginalised people need to use up their labour and energy doing either of these things, but it is currently the best way to survive for me at least.

If you would like to campaign for change with me...

Follow RekItRaven

Tweet at Twitch telling them you want a safer platform

Take part in protests such as A Day Off Twitch and shouting in Twitch livestreams for change

BUT do not be rude to anyone who isn't doing all of these things, especially small and/or marginalised content creators. We're all doing our best

If you would like to up your safety tools...

Create a shutdown button for hate raids

Run commander root

Ban users on community ban lists

Increase your mod team if you can, and give them clear rules and protocols to follow

If you would like tips on how to do all of these things check out my guide to safety tools for small streamers, or look at hateraidresponse.carrd.co.

Thanks for reading my thoughts! If you would like to support me and keep my content free you can tip or subscribe at millerjpower.com/support!

[millerjpower]

Twitch Safety Tools for Smaller Streamers

Hate raids, doxxing, and follow bots are not a new thing on Twitch, but their reach and domination is increasing. More and more these things are affecting smaller streamers who never expected anything like this to happen to them. Especially now with the identity tags, marginalised folks with upwards of 10 viewers need to be on their guard and are scared to go live.

By no means do I think it should be the responsibility of the streamer to try and protect ourselves from this level of danger, especially when Twitch is owned by one of the most powerful companies in the world. However, at the moment looking after ourselves is the only option if we can't or don't want to leave the platform.

If you would like to read my thoughts on the current state of Twitch you can read them here. This post will just be going through my tips and tutorials for safety measures on Twitch without spending money or having a huge mod team.

Of course there are loads of tools out there, I'm not saying these are the ultimate ones but the ones I have found easy and useful.

Hate Raid Button

The number one thing that has helped me avoid the worst of hate raids is my hate raid button. You may have heard of the pricy hardware Stream Deck. Well there's a much cheaper way to achieve it to allow you to have useful moderation tools, change scene, and do all sorts of things at the touch of a well labelled button! I use Deckboard which is free, or £2.79 for the Pro version with more buttons. I use an old tablet to run mine, but you could use a phone or just run it on your computer.

I won't give a full tutorial of how to use it here as it is pretty self explanatory (although let me know if that is something you would want!), but I will talk you through the hate raid button I have made as it's a little more complicated.

Click an empty spot to make a new button, and name it what you want.

In the action menu select "multi actions" and press the button below "open editor".

Click "add action" then "Clear Chat" action

Click "add action" then Subscribers or Followers only.

Click "add action" then "Send Chat". In the "send" box spam an emote code 100 or more times (remember to put spaces!). This is so if any viewers have BTTV and doesn't get chat cleared, any nasty messages will be removed from their view.

If you can separate your follow alerts from your other alerts and make them two separate browser sources. Then you can click "add action" then "toggle source" and select each of your scenes that have alerts and then your follow alerts. When you press the button it will turn off your follow alerts so all the nasty usernames don't show up on your screen. If you can't separate your alerts, just select your alerts source on each scene.

Do the same if you have your chat on screen. Use "toggle source" to turn off on screen chat on any scene you have it.

Commander Root Blocklist

By now you've probably heard of Commander Root, and it's ups and downs. And while I use it and find it very useful, there are risks in using it. So I will explain it's uses and risks here.

I use Commander Root for it's blocklist manager. You can paste in lists of usernames to block, or select "block all known bot accounts" to block every bot on their list. This not only bans the accounts from your channel, but stops them from following you at all. And unlike on twitch, it can do huge lists at once rather than you having to go one by one.

You do this by pressing the green button "add new blocks" and then paste your list in the text box, or press "block known bot accounts".

I haven't had any problems with Commander Root blocklist, and I think it has really helped reduce my amount of hate raids. However, it is not recommended by Twitch and many people have had problems with it.

One problem you shouldn't ever have is losing all your followers. This is a problem with Commander Root's follower remover which I recommend staying well away from if you want to keep your legit followers.

However, Commander Root's blocklist can get you shadow banned from Twitch, meaning that you can only chat in channels where you're a mod or VIP for a while. Like I say this hasn't happened to me, but it can happen so it is your choice if you want to take that risk.

Another mild issue is, once you have used the blocklist tool once, it can take ages to load the page again. But, be patient! It will load eventually.

Twitch's offered alternative is that when you do get hate raids to clip them and report them to twitch. Twitch will then remove those accounts from the site altogether. This does work, amazingly! But I am not a fan of it as a method, as I want prevent hate raids not put a bandage on it after it happens. That said, plenty of people have had success with this method after waiting a couple days, so it is a good option if you don't want to risk the shadow ban.

Running a Mod Team

If you can, it is good to have a small mod team even if you don't have a huge audience. It means that if there is any trouble it doesn't need to throw you off what you're doing. Here are a few tips for running a mod team.

Make sure you have clear, easily accessible guidelines for your mods to follow. Mods are less likely to take action in a difficult situation if you don't explain to them what you would like them to do. By telling them something simple to follow like "we have a 3 strike system, break the rules once is a warning, twice is a time out, and three times leads to a ban" makes it so much easier for them to do their job. Explain your rules to your mods and why you have them so they can better understand how to protect your space.

Make sure your mods are people you can trust with that responsibility. If you're thinking of taking on mods you don't know so well, I recommend making an application form with questions like "why do you want to be my mod?" and "what important things do mods do?" so you know that they are there to be responsible.

Communicate with your mods. Make sure you have a group chat where they can talk about what's happening on stream and ask questions about mod procedures. If you would like them to do something differently, tell them! They're not psychic.

Treat your mods with huge respect! They are doing hard work for free and they don't owe you anything. If they can't make a stream, need a break, or just aren't feeling it for a little while you should affirm and respect that. Treat your mods to fun games nights or treats every now and again so they feel valued!

I hope you can find this useful! If you have any questions feel free to leave them in replies, or tweet at me on @PytharGames! If you would like to support my work and keep it free for everyone, you can tip or subscribe to support here.