Twitch has just made a major change to how chat bans will work on channels and it might make streamers think twice before jokingly banning their viewers.
No one ever likes being banned on Twitch, whether it’s from the site itself or a stream. That said, chances are if you’re banned, there’s a reason for it, even if that reason isn’t a good one.
Unfortunately for streamers or communities with moderators who ban viewers as a joke, permanent bans are now also making viewers unfollow channels automatically.
As noted by Twitch security alert specialist Ravager, previously, broadcasters had to block a viewer to force an unfollow.
Now, a chat ban is all that suffices.
newly-discovered change: if banned from a channel you follow, that follow is removed. previously, the broadcaster would have to block you to force an unfollow. now, a simple chat ban would do. by no means does this justify a claim of mod abuse.
— Ravager (@_Ravager) November 3, 2021
It should be noted, however, that timeouts or anything that isn’t a permanent ban won’t automatically result in an unfollow.
On paper, this is a good way to get rid of trolls and remove your channel from their list. But there’s not really anything stopping them from just coming back, even if chat is hidden and they need to manually search.
Twitch community mixed on new ban change
As expected, some users took issue with the fact that joking bans will now lead to unfollows, and losing followers isn’t something an up-and-coming streamer wants on their path to partner.
As a mod who has accidentally timed out the wrong person a few times, I live on constant fear now, what if I accidentally hit the wrong button ;-;
— negitave b (@Negitave_B) November 3, 2021
“As a mod who has accidentally timed out the wrong person a few times, I live on constant fear now, what if I accidentally hit the wrong button,” a user wrote on Twitter.
“This is a problem for the joke bans and also as I was just reminded, people use channel points for that as well,” another chimed in, referring to how some streamers let viewers ban a fellow user.
This is a problem for the joke bans and also as i was just reminded, ppl use channel points for that as well.
Nightmare— Voyevoda911 (@Voyevoda911) November 3, 2021
“So maybe this is primarily for bots then guys? So if you get follow botted, we ban the bots, and they get unfollowed so that your follower count isn’t distorted,” someone else suggested, noting how follow bots and hate raids are a big issue on the site.
So maybe this is primarily for bots then guys? So if you get follow botted, we ban the bots, and they get unfollowed so that your follower count isn’t distorted. It’s good from that perspective indeed.
— Goodie😎 (@DaGoodieOne) November 3, 2021
It’s unclear why Twitch made this change and didn’t announce it publicly, but in any case, it’s definitely something streamers and viewers should be aware of going forward.
The post Twitch just made a big change to chat bans to prevent trolls coming back appeared first on Dexerto.
https://www.dexerto.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03/twitch-chat-ban-rework-streamers-change.jpg