Speedrun charity marathons being hosted by my twitch channel

zewing

Edit history:

zewing: 2013-11-08 03:48:58 pm

2013-11-08 04:39:42 am

just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it

For those who don't know I'm zewing and my twitch channel is http://www.twitch.tv/zewing

I've been thinking about it a lot and my twitch channel has everything available to it on twitch (aside from front page but thats not important). I know a lot of people do charity marathons but not every one of them get partnered by twitch. So I'm thinking of offering my channel as a host for these marathons. The most important aspects my channel has that would prove beneficial to making the marathon successful is:

1. Quality encodes - This is the biggest factor and having this option allow a wider audience to view the channel and lets you stream at just about whatever settings you want. There's nothing worse than talking about the charity organization or commentary and stream lags on your part (i've had this happen it's horrible). Asking twitch to partner a marathon may not happen so having a guaranteed partnered stream would make things easier.

2. This isn't really major but my stream is well established among the speedrunning community. It is front page of SRL at all times due to being OG SRL team api member as well as participating with the community for well over a year. It is also part of SDA's team api and w00ty and I've streamed runs that are here on SDA's website. I also have a pretty established viewer base when it comes to speedrunning.

So what are your thoughts on this? Good idea / bad idea? I already have a process I would stick with but rest assured I would not give away my twitch credentials. I got into speedrunning bacause I could use a simple ability like playing a game and help charities out in more ways than I used to be able to.

Thread title:

For those who don't know I'm zewing and my twitch channel is http://www.twitch.tv/zewing

I've been thinking about it a lot and my twitch channel has everything available to it on twitch (aside from front page but thats not important).  I know a lot of people do charity marathons but not every one of them get partnered by twitch.   So I'm thinking of offering my channel as a host for these marathons.  The most important aspects my channel has that would prove beneficial to making the marathon successful is:

1.  Quality encodes - This is the biggest factor and having this option allow a wider audience to view the channel and lets you stream at just about whatever settings you want.  There's nothing worse than talking about the charity organization or commentary and stream lags on your part (i've had this happen it's horrible).  Asking twitch to partner a marathon may not happen so having a guaranteed partnered stream would make things easier.

2. This isn't really major but my stream is well established among the speedrunning community.  It is front page of SRL at all times due to being OG SRL team api member as well as participating with the community for well over a year.  It is also part of SDA's team api and w00ty and I've streamed runs that are here on SDA's website.  I also have a pretty established viewer base when it comes to speedrunning.

So what are your thoughts on this?  Good idea / bad idea?  I already have a process I would stick with but rest assured I would not give away my twitch credentials.  I got into speedrunning bacause I  could use a simple ability like playing a game and help charities out in more ways than I used to be able to.

ace3df

2013-11-08 04:53:13 am

Marathons are fun, but are starting to get over used. This isn't a "Oh you shouldn't do it we already have lots" but more of a "be /very/ different than other marathons." You I have to disagree with the whole "I'm partner" part as it literally takes up 8/10th of your post just talking about how you're partner and now how this will work. Anyone can do this partner or not, it's what you bring to the table that counts.

ace3df

2013-11-08 04:54:11 am

I have to* and not how this will work*
Fuck I should read what I type

zewing

2013-11-08 05:34:23 am

just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it

I'm just asking for opinions on whether or not this is a good idea or not. I cant stop people from doing marathons but I can help them out in the ways I pointed out in my first post

Edenal

Edit history:

Edenal: 2013-11-08 06:55:45 am

2013-11-08 06:55:13 am

Hockey enthusiast

I think the question is: "Is there a real need for a shared channel across charity marathons?"

Why beat around the bush and use a private channel instead of trying to build a common platform for these events with a simple set of rules?

From my understanding SDA has offered their marathon-stream-account to marathons who fulfill certain requirements, the big one that it has to be an on-site marathon. And since you've raised the question there is a real demand for that type of channel.

Bottom line is, I believe what you have here is a very flawed solution to a real issue.

zewing

2013-11-08 01:12:17 pm

just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it

what do you mean flawed?

ace3df

2013-11-08 02:04:34 pm

Like I said I don't want to come across as "oh don't do it." It's just you need to give a bit more detail:
Around how long will it be? A week end, 2 days midweek or you haven't decided yet
What type of games? All games, some games, Action type games
Do you need to have a decent time and a mic to do a run (commentary optional, and is needed for no mic runners)

Surreal

2013-11-08 02:06:38 pm

dabes

In my opinion if SRL or SDA wanted to contribute to these smaller scale charity marathons, each of them could open their own unique channel for others to use. People wanting to hold a charity marathon could fill out an application to either site to use the channel, giving details about the marathon, time slots, charity it goes towards, etc. This would be the best way to approach this and would benefit the charities most as the channel would get viewers on an exponential scale, and would likely be more organized in getting it done.

I think that charity marathons, while great for charity, are also a cornerstone for introducing people to speedrunning (I'm sure half of the people who started speedrunning became inspired from a _GDQ). Having one of the two giants holding the charity stream allows new people to have a direction to go and find out how they can get started. While you could plug speedrunning as an individual streamer (not specifically you, but anyone in general), doing it with a community name behind it makes it easier I feel.

You should try having a talk with puwexil or cosmo about starting something like this. imo

In my opinion if SRL or SDA wanted to contribute to these smaller scale charity marathons, each of them could open their own unique channel for others to use. People wanting to hold a charity marathon could fill out an application to either site to use the channel, giving details about the marathon, time slots, charity it goes towards, etc. This would be the best way to approach this and would benefit the charities most as the channel would get viewers on an exponential scale, and would likely be more organized in getting it done.

I think that charity marathons, while great for charity, are also a cornerstone for introducing people to speedrunning (I'm sure half of the people who started speedrunning became inspired from a _GDQ). Having one of the two giants holding the charity stream allows new people to have a direction to go and find out how they can get started. While you could plug speedrunning as an individual streamer (not specifically you, but anyone in general), doing it with a community name behind it makes it easier I feel.

You should try having a talk with puwexil or cosmo about starting something like this. imo

zewing

2013-11-08 02:29:24 pm

just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it

i couldn't understand your stuff ace3df it was really weird reading but the way it'd go it'd have rules and stuff. I'd only let people that post here on the sda threads even get a change to partake just due to organization and being detailed in the posts. It'd be only for speedrunning since that's what my channel is only ever broadcasted.

As for what surreal mentioned it seems like a good idea that would be better than what I'd do but I haven't seen that happen to any of the marathons this year. Aside from AGDQ and SDGQ (and ESA) no other marathon really got that exposure. If using my channel even if I go through a lot of safety measures and stuff is not good idea then I'd go with surreal's idea.

Edenal

Edit history:

Edenal: 2013-11-09 03:25:12 am

Edenal: 2013-11-09 03:23:54 am

2013-11-09 03:01:05 am

Hockey enthusiast

Quote from zewing:

what do you mean flawed?

Your channel is a private subscription channel. How do you prepare the handle transparency with revenue from subscriptions / adds? What about potential tax issues? You are in a way responsible for everything that transpires on your stream, what if someone would "steal" the money which was targeted to charity?

How will you stay unbiased to those who want to run a marathon on your channel? Immaterial rights to streamed content?

I don't believe the underlying issue can be solved by you offering your channel to others. That why it's flawed.

*****

Here's some quick thoughts and brainstorming on how a shared channel could work:
5-10 individuals have a shared responsibility for the channel. Their main task is to distribute stream keys to runners. And keep track of misbehaving individuals, and strike and you are out.
The channel should be subscription free and not run any adds what so ever. Eliminates any issues with money and let's the hosts focus on game play. Trans-coding is the only thing that is needed really.
Any charity marathons ran on the channel will be forced to setup a PayPal account that is owned by that charity, no middle man. Noes not have to be a charity marathon tho, but a purpose / theme would be needed if it's not. Like a Mega Man marathon och a Christmas / random holiday marathon. Or Golden's idea with A-Z is pretty cool!
No marathons will less than 20 runners. No marathons longer than 72 hours. Minimum 5 days between marathons.
To keep quality high on this channel, the hosts of the marathon must share a stream layout, which need to be ready 2 weeks in advance to the marathon.

If people are serious about making something like this a reality, I'd be glad to help in any way I can.

[quote="zewing"]what do you mean flawed?[/quote]
Your channel is a private subscription channel. How do you prepare the handle transparency with revenue from subscriptions / adds? What about potential tax issues? You are in a way responsible for everything that transpires on your stream, what if someone would "steal" the money which was targeted to charity?

How will you stay unbiased to those who want to run a marathon on your channel? Immaterial rights to streamed content?

I don't believe the underlying issue can be solved by you offering your channel to others. That why it's flawed.

*****

Here's some quick thoughts and brainstorming on how a shared channel could work:
5-10 individuals have a shared responsibility for the channel. Their main task is to distribute stream keys to runners. And keep track of misbehaving individuals, and strike and you are out.
The channel should be subscription free and not run any adds what so ever. Eliminates any issues with money and let's the hosts focus on game play. Trans-coding is the only thing that is needed really.
Any charity marathons ran on the channel will be forced to setup a PayPal account that is owned by that charity, no middle man. Noes not have to be a charity marathon tho, but a purpose / theme would be needed if it's not. Like a Mega Man marathon och a Christmas / random holiday marathon. Or Golden's idea with A-Z is pretty cool!
No marathons will less than 20 runners. No marathons longer than 72 hours. Minimum 5 days between marathons.
To keep quality high on this channel, the hosts of the marathon must share a stream layout, which need to be ready 2 weeks in advance to the marathon.

If people are serious about making something like this a reality, I'd be glad to help in any way I can.

Softman25

Edit history:

Softman25: 2013-11-09 03:31:07 am

Softman25: 2013-11-09 03:28:26 am

2013-11-09 03:28:17 am

Might as well put in my two cents: (These comments are a response to the OP only. Points have been made, I'm not discounting them, just being independent of them)

1) Quality-choice-encoding is a thing - and would be cool. Same thing goes for the fact your stream is eligible (by being a subs channel) for getting on the front page. Again, can't deny it, that's a boon.

2) With enough marketing, there really doesn't need to be anything 'extra' - such as hosting on an already popular channel. As much as this is a great offer, in theory you could do just as much (on this front) by plugging the hell out of the marathon in question.

3) As has been said, the fact that you will receive ad-revenue for hosting it on your stream is a bit iffy. I'm not trying to say you're being suss or anything, but it is a consideration. Further, as again has already been said, if someone thinks your a cool dude for doing what you are doing - or mistakenly believes you are the marathon's channel - and pays for subs - how would that work? Again, not accusing, but it's a minefield at best.

4) By doing this, you force yourself to be deeply involved - and restreaming would be mandatory. Unless you can go it the entire length of a marathon (Commonly 72+ hours) then you'd have to give people editor. Logistically it would be troublesome. Not too bad I'd concede, but...interesting.

5) Back to advertising, if the marathon creates a neutral channel for the marathon - and the marathon alone, and gets enough hype for it - actually puts in the legwork to get it on SRL front page etc, we've pretty much got to the same point (on this front) that your channel has. At least for 'exposure'. (The obvious exception being twitch's front page.)

That's about it. Do not get me wrong, I think it's a cool offer. But it really just makes more problems than it solves / helps to solve.

(Just a quick note @Edenal - saying no marathons longer than 72 hours is a farce - considering that most will run for about 4 days on average - and then the traditional bonus stream. I'd also say at least two weeks between marathons - to attempt to avoid saturation. However, this is all semantics when push comes to shove.

At the same time as I whinge and bitch, I'll put my own hat in that ring - if people are serious about making a communal channel for communal marathons - count me in)

EDIT: As another idea - if a new communal channel did for whatever reason get subs - just make it play ads / collect revenue - and each month or [insert time period] we designate a charity that all that money goes to, or something like that. I agree that it's a little meh, and we'd all be fighting over where to put the money, might as well! No one has to chip their own cash in to watch an ad. (etc etc)

Might as well put in my two cents: (These comments are a response to the OP only. Points have been made, I'm not discounting them, just being independent of them)

1) Quality-choice-encoding is a thing - and would be cool. Same thing goes for the fact your stream is eligible (by being a subs channel) for getting on the front page. Again, can't deny it, that's a boon.

2) With enough marketing, there really doesn't need to be anything 'extra' - such as hosting on an already popular channel. As much as this is a great offer, in theory you could do just as much (on this front) by plugging the hell out of the marathon in question.

3) As has been said, the fact that you [i]will[/i] receive ad-revenue for hosting it on your stream is a bit iffy. I'm not trying to say you're being suss or anything, but it is a consideration. Further, as again has already been said, if someone thinks your a cool dude for doing what you are doing - or mistakenly believes you [i]are[/i] the marathon's channel - and pays for subs - how would that work? Again, not accusing, but it's a minefield at best.

4) By doing this, you force yourself to be deeply involved - and restreaming would be mandatory. Unless you can go it the entire length of a marathon (Commonly 72+ hours) then you'd have to give people editor. Logistically it would be troublesome. Not too bad I'd concede, but...interesting.

5) Back to advertising, if the marathon creates a neutral channel for the marathon - and the marathon alone, and gets enough hype for it - actually puts in the legwork to get it on SRL front page etc, we've pretty much got to the same point (on this front) that your channel has. At least for 'exposure'. (The obvious exception being twitch's front page.)

That's about it. Do not get me wrong, I think it's a cool offer. But it really just makes more problems than it solves / helps to solve.

(Just a quick note @Edenal - saying no marathons longer than 72 hours is a farce - considering that most will run for about 4 days on average - and then the traditional bonus stream. I'd also say at least two weeks between marathons - to attempt to avoid saturation. However, this is all semantics when push comes to shove.

At the same time as I whinge and bitch, I'll put my own hat in that ring - if people are serious about making a communal channel for communal marathons - count me in)

EDIT: As another idea - if a new communal channel did for whatever reason get subs - just make it play ads / collect revenue - and each month or [insert time period] we designate a charity that all that money goes to, or something like that. I agree that it's a little meh, and we'd all be fighting over where to put the money, might as well! No one has to chip their own cash in to watch an ad. (etc etc)

zewing

2013-11-09 10:40:40 am

just( •_•)>⌐■-■ ..... (⌐■_■)wing it

I never inteded on having my channel play ads if I offered it. I can disable pre-roll ads before the stream starts up to eliminate this. The thought of even mentioning that is pretty retarded. Why would I care about benefiting from a charity stream. It's also not like I DONT know how i'd setup a system in place to deal with who gets the channel / who i'd offer it to / rules for using. If you think I want to make money off giving my channel away then ur really mistaken.

That being said having a shared marathon channel does seem like a good idea and if someone ACTUALLY tries to make that happen I'm pretty sure I'd never (or anything rarest of circumstances) offer my channel for charity streams if there is already an SRL/SDA non on-site jointed marathon account (basically re-stream using private accounts).

"How will you stay unbiased to those who want to run a marathon on your channel? Immaterial rights to streamed content?"

I dont understand what ur asking in 2nd question my vocabulary is pretty bad. As for the first question I"d only let people use my channel if they take a series of steps that show they're serious. Posting about it on SDA threads, me personally verifying the paypal email is in fact a verified charity email, charity / cause is well explained, and various other pre-cautions.

As to how long in between marathons I'd allow channel to be used is about 20 - 30 days and I'd need about a month in advance to even consider you using my stream.

Final Note: I said it a million times already but the only reason I speedrun is so I am competent enough to help out charities (PCF being the biggest due to personal reasons). I can assure you I have no intentions whatsoever of trying to make money off this. And since I do have subscription I think the best I can do about this (if it happens) is "If people sub at any point during marathon I'll pay 4.99 * #subscription" to said charity.

I never inteded on having my channel play ads if I offered it.  I can disable pre-roll ads before the stream starts up to eliminate this.  The thought of even mentioning that is pretty retarded.  Why would I care about benefiting from a charity stream.  It's also not like I DONT know how i'd setup a system in place to deal with who gets the channel / who i'd offer it to / rules for using.  If you think I want to make money off giving my channel away then ur really mistaken.

That being said having a shared marathon channel does seem like a good idea and if someone ACTUALLY tries to make that happen I'm pretty sure I'd never (or anything rarest of circumstances) offer my channel for charity streams if there is already an SRL/SDA non on-site jointed marathon account (basically re-stream using private accounts).

"How will you stay unbiased to those who want to run a marathon on your channel? Immaterial rights to streamed content?"

I dont understand what ur asking in 2nd question my vocabulary is pretty bad.  As for the first question I"d only let people use my channel if they take a series of steps that show they're serious.  Posting about it on SDA threads, me personally verifying the paypal email is in fact a verified charity email, charity / cause is well explained, and various other pre-cautions.

As to how long in between marathons I'd allow channel to be used is about 20 - 30 days and I'd need about a month in advance to even consider you using my stream.

Final Note:  I said it a million times already but the only reason I speedrun is so I am competent enough to help out charities (PCF being the biggest due to personal reasons).  I can assure you I have no intentions whatsoever of trying to make money off this.  And since I do have subscription I think the best I can do about this (if it happens) is "If people sub at any point during marathon I'll pay 4.99 * #subscription" to said charity.