When you are setting up your Twitch stream, sometimes you’ll want to make sure that you have certain rules to set up.
Often the chat can get quite rowdy and you might want to steer clear of topics like politics and religion, two subjects that might get people riled up.
Rules on your Twitch chat can then be maintained by your mods. Anyone can see your Twitch commandments, so you won’t have to keep repeating yourself repeatedly.
If anyone violates these codes, then you have plenty of cause to get them suspended or banned.
If you want your chat to be a place where anyone can be themselves and reduce the amount of offense that is caused, then we would recommend you adopt some basic rules in addition to the community guidelines set by Twitch.
How To Setup Twitch Chat Rules
It is very simple to set up chat rules for your Twitch. All you must do is go into ‘settings’ and click on the ‘channel and videos’ panel.
In this panel, you’ll be able to write up the rules and regulations of your channel.
This will be displayed to your viewers when you get into the chat, making it clear that you will have to follow these guidelines.
What you decide to put down as your guidelines is completely up to you. Twitch has its own ‘Terms Of Service’, often referred to as ‘TOS’.
A lot of these rules involve copyright infringement and inappropriate conduct such as threatening behavior. So, you might want to familiarize yourself with these rules to avoid repeating them.
Some of the guidelines to Twitch encourage people to be nice to each other, asking you to listen to your fellow users and to respect the decisions made by your mods.
Twitch also has strict policies against bullying and other harassing behavior. Homophobia, sexism and racism are also strictly forbidden by Twitch.
You can reiterate some of these rules in your own chat if you want.
How Can I Make My Twitch Stream Family-Friendly?
There are a few methods that you can employ to make sure that smaller children and adults can watch your stream as well.
No swearing is a good rule of thumb, especially if you have a stream that is marketed to children.
You can identify certain keywords that are banned from your Twitch.
Once you have done this, the automatic mod will suspend or ban anyone who has used these words. It will also delete the offending words.
You can also specify what happens to anyone who is breaking your rules.
If someone is caught swearing and you have indicated specifically that you don’t want them to do this, then you can always ban them immediately.
What Other Methods Can You Employ To Reduce Unwanted Behavior?
There are plenty of other features that will allow you to block or require authorization to post certain content on your chat.
Blocking Hyperlinks
This comes in the form of a check box. By clicking the check box, you can make sure that nobody is allowed to post any hyperlinks in your chat.
Twitch recommends that you block all hyperlinks as this could make your channel susceptible to repeated spam or troll attacks. However, this will also stop gifs and funny pictures from being posted.
This is up to your discretion, depending on how you want your channel to be.
Verify Email
This will allow you to wheedle out the bots and trolls that can sometimes plague your account. By requesting an email, you can be sure that the person trying to get into your chat is indeed human.
How Can You Track Chats In Twitch?
You can employ third-party programs such as TC, Chatterino and Chatty For Twitch.
Each of these offers you different functions and you might have to try each one to find out their various functions.
If you do not want to pay for these additional windows, then you can always have the chat log open on your phone.
It might be slightly tricky to monitor the chat on a separate device, but it can be done easier if you are using a holder.
How To Encourage Friendly Interaction In Your Chat
To get people chatting, having a theme on your Twitch channel will be very important.
If you are using your channel to stream games, then you might want to encourage debate by asking for game recommendations.
Another method of getting people to chat is by discussing your favorite movies or games. You can ask your viewers as many questions as you like and respond to their answers live on your video stream.
If you have friends in the real world, then you can ask them to create discussion points. Mods are also a good method of creating lively discussions. This is because you can instruct them to initiate the chat.
This is very useful if you are busy playing games.
Bear in mind that not everyone will be wanting to participate in the chat straight away. Lots of users indulge in what is called ‘lurking’.
This is quite normal behavior for anyone that is new to Twitch, as they might feel nervous about getting involved in the chat too soon.
What Rules Can’t You Set?
Obviously, there are limits to what you can control on your Twitch stream.
You might be able to moderate offensive content, but your Twitch stream will be a lot less fun if you want to restrict all your viewer’s interactions.
Again, there are no rules against you doing this, but you might end up pushing people away from your stream.
If you feel that you have been unfairly suspended from a Twitch stream, you can always appeal the decision. You can appeal all suspensions that last 30 days or less.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, a decent guide to Twitch rules and regulations. You should make your rules clear before you set up your Twitch channel.
However, you can always amend these rules, which is useful if you notice certain annoying or offensive conduct over time.
