RANT: Mods, Chats & "Banter"

[Organised Chaos]

Hello all.

I have been watching casino streams on YouTube for well over a year now - all starting with Nickslots when he had only a few viewers on his casino streams. To this day I still love watching Nick, and have seen the viewership on his YouTube channel naturally evolve to well over 15 times what he used to have.

I have also branched out and started watching many other casino streamers - mainly the ones accredited by Casino Grounds (Kim, David Labowsky, Slotspinner, Casinomon) because I know they are genuine and legit. But there are one or two other streamers like RocknRolla who I also really enjoy watching.

As a result of this, I have come across many weird and wonderful characters in the chats, the vast majority of whom are decent people just there to enjoy the stream and have a laugh in the chat.

Don't get me wrong, I know there are occasionally some people in the chat who make vile comments and try to spoil the chat, but the majority of the people are just there to have a laugh - myself included. In fact, the YouTube chat plays an integral part in why I even watch a lot of the streamers in the first place.

Over the last few months though, the quality of the chat has been ruined - and not because of YouTube viewers either. It is in fact because of the over-eager moderators who are on these channels. Some of these moderators don't seem to understand what "banter" is and seem to ban / time-out long serving YouTubers for anything and everything. In general, the problems I have seen are below:

1. Some moderators are out of touch with sarcasm, dark humour and general banter. This type of chat was allowed long before they even arrived on the scene. But now it seems it is no longer allowed anymore. Why is this?

2. Certain moderators, who clearly don't like each other, happen to moderate on the same YouTube streamers channel, causing a toxic atmosphere. Why is this?

3. Certain moderators seem to have come from absolutely no where and are now moderating on every streamers channel - and not particularly doing a good job either. Why is this?

4. Certain moderators are two-faced and talk shit about some YouTube streamers behind their backs, but then to my surprise I find them moderating on their very channels. Why is this?

I have deliberately left out the names of these moderators in question, because I don't want it to be a personal attack on anyone. But I will happily release the names of the people, if requested.

At the end of the day, you have to be an adult to gamble, therefore meaning that all of the casino streams are for an adult audience. Again, I will reiterate that genuine vile comments, racism, bullying or discrimination of any sort should be dealt with accordingly. But there has been a hell of a lot of comments which should be classed as harmless fun, yet the people have been banned, timed out or had comments deleted.

YouTube chat is renowned for having more "banter" than Twitch chat, so maybe certain "stricter" moderators should be assigned to Twitch only. Or certain moderators with certain "banter" thresholds should only be assigned to certain streamers.

 I don't know exactly how to fully address this issue, but what I do know is that I haven't even participated in any YouTube chats for the last 6 weeks, and it is for the reasons mentioned above why this is the case.

If you think I am wrong with what I've said then I am open to any comments which you may have.

Thanks.

 

[Slotplayer]

The problem with banter is that it doesn't always come across very well when written down. If only you could see the facial expressions, you perhaps could make a better judgement.

 

[Nicola]

One of the reasons I have declined so many offers of mod on Twitch.

Sometimes it's hard to work out what is banter and the like. But clearly anything racist should be dealt with straight away. Last night for example on one stream (shortly after the Manchester attacks) the discussion was wholly inappropriate.

 

[tomgreen]

I felt the need to respond publicly....  You all but mention my name so I don't really care if you make it public.

As a mod I can only do what the Streamers want, after all its their channel and they decide on what they prefer to have.  I don't ban people and only removed comments and statements that are plain vile.  There is no need to talk about peoples private parts in a casino room chat. Outright attacks are also frowned upon and as for language, each streamer has a limit or a line drawn. I remove the language when it gets fowl. People wouldn't talk this way if it wasn't anonymous. I am sure of that. 

I would appreciate knowing who is making accusations and by what name you appear with. that may explain a lot.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Regards

Tom Green.

 

[Organised Chaos]

Having read my initial post back, and also looking at what ExSlotplayer and Nicola have said, I can now sympathise that moderators will have a tough time keeping up with all the chat, especially at busy times. So it probably is best to "play it safe" and remove comments that may have only been banter, but could still look offensive to other people who are new for example.

Tom Green it wasn't specifically aimed at you at all. I actually think you're a good man. I will admit that sometimes I do think you remove some messages that possibly didn't need removing, but I can now see that you were indeed likely just playing it safe, and removing anything that may come across as offensive.

I was actually going to delete this topic once I had time to reflect on it, but the option wasn't there anymore.

I guess the only thing I can say now is that a few months ago the majority of the "questionable" chat messages were not deleted. So I am just wondering what has suddenly changed which means they now do get deleted? Certain mods do allow all banter, certain mods allow some banter, and some mods seem to allow none. Shouldn't it be up to the streamer to set the limitations and not each individual moderator?

I still stand by my observations that some mods are two-faced and there are often multiple mods on a streamers chat who blatantly don't like one another. So possibly looking at mod selection for various individual streamers, rather than each channel just having the same mods.

 

[tomgreen]

I stand by what I stated...  unfortunately the "banter" is primarily childish dribble considering it is an adult chat room...   I noticed you are staying anonymous as well.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  I have checked with the streamers and offered to step aside... its in their hands so if you have personal objections then please contact them directly.

Best Regards

Tom Green

 

[SpinMeUp]

You really ask yourself how some of these persons became mods in the first place. Look at Kim's (by the way fantastic) stream. There's one mod, whom I am not going to mention, who is spamming the chat everytime all the time. It wasnt even funny in the beginning, and it is certainly not funny at this point. This is such a childish behavior I wonder how old he or she is. It's embarrassing and it is more annoying than any 'normal' viewer could ever be. Attention seeking behavior from someone who obviously has a lack of attention in real world. 

 

[Skylined87]

You really ask yourself how some of these persons became mods in the first place. Look at Kim's (by the way fantastic) stream. There's one mod, whom I am not going to mention, who is spamming the chat everytime all the time. It wasnt even funny in the beginning, and it is certainly not funny at this point. This is such a childish behavior I wonder how old he or she is. It's embarrassing and it is more annoying than any 'normal' viewer could ever be. Attention seeking behavior from someone who obviously has a lack of attention in real world. 

Obviously mods are just normal people who (sometimes) have flaws (like everyone else). I'm sure if something is funny for you, it doesn't mean it will be funny for someone else. Modding takes absurd amount of time and chat reading. I do agree that on some point there can be questionable behavior, but in my opinion that's still way less damaging as if mod would ban or timeout someone. Kim's chat is as free as it can be, I'm sure you've noticed that yourself.

So all in all, mods can't please every single person in chat, just as streamer can't please every single person in chat. And that is okay, it shows us and streamers ways on how they can improve to try to please as many as possible.

 

[LetsGiveItASpin]

You really ask yourself how some of these persons became mods in the first place. Look at Kim's (by the way fantastic) stream. There's one mod, whom I am not going to mention, who is spamming the chat everytime all the time. It wasnt even funny in the beginning, and it is certainly not funny at this point. This is such a childish behavior I wonder how old he or she is. It's embarrassing and it is more annoying than any 'normal' viewer could ever be. Attention seeking behavior from someone who obviously has a lack of attention in real world. 

Thanks for your feedback @SpinMeUp

In some streams it has been way to much joking around and spamming, after this weekend I told the mods that were pushing it to calm down if they want to keep their moderator position. I expect my mods to be more responsible and if they can't follow our mod guidelines it's better if they stay as regular viewers. Main goal with the stream is for everyone to have a good time and feel welcome and I expect my moderators to help me make it like that.

 

[SpinMeUp]

Thanks for your feedback @SpinMeUp

In some streams it has been way to much joking around and spamming, after this weekend I told the mods that were pushing it to calm down if they want to keep their moderator position. I expect my mods to be more responsible and if they can't follow our mod guidelines it's better if they stay as regular viewers. Main goal with the stream is for everyone to have a good time and feel welcome and I expect my moderators to help me make it like that.

Thank you, Kim. Keep up the great work, you are awesome and always fun to watch your streams.
(Would love to see your huge 60k+ € win, though!!!! )