Some platforms build communities and others build themselves.

Everyone has their own preferences, and every platform has its perks. YouTube offers the most options: videos, streams, and shorts. Videos were the main draw originally, but as trends have moved forward, YouTube has pushed shorts more and more. TikTok focuses solely on the short-form side. Instagram attempts to emulate it, and even Twitch has a clips scroll on the mobile app. The focus of every platform varies, but the goal remains the same: keep the user on the platform. How each platform achieves this goal of retention changes how creators are required to interact with it.

YouTube has a simple goal: keep the user on YouTube with constant feeds of optimized content that is aimed at and personalized for every individual using the platform. Ideally, this results in people spending as much time on the platform as possible. TikTok has the same approach. The goal is to get users swiping through a constant stream of targeted content so that the maximum number of ads can be shown to each person using the app. As with every industry, time is money. In this case, the time you spend is their profit. This strategy leads to creators on the platform having to focus heavily on trends. The platform governs what succeeds by subtly shifting what users see, always offering something new and ready to be watched. I've noticed over the years that this builds a lot of negative and catchy content. If you upset someone with a thumbnail or a post, negative, passionate responses lead to large sums of engagement. The result is a large number of commentary channels, leading to endless discourse on something.

This discourse manifests a bit differently on TikTok. The short-form nature of the platform makes it significantly more focused. Creators interacting with this system leads to scattered communities. The main form of interaction is audience members responding in video format to attempt to grow themselves on the platform to gain the highly coveted clicks and hearts. It is a platform where everyone is vying for 90 seconds of internet fame. To be honest, the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a pyramid scheme.

Twitch, on the other hand, handles this completely differently. It does not focus on edited video. Creators can archive highlights, but the recordings of streams vanish after three months. The way Twitch attempts to keep users on the site itself is by landing you on a stream and hoping you build up some interest in the community, then decide to say hello and talk with the crowd of people watching. With time, people become interested in the community and return time and time again to say hello to people they met in those chats, slowly building up a community. In a live-stream format, Twitch builds communities.

If YouTube builds distractions with constant discourse and TikTok distracts you into thinking you can become internet famous, what is the best approach? Personally, the only platforms I use are YouTube and Twitch. I don't feel like I use YouTube the way most people do. I look at my subscription box and don't pay much attention to what YouTube thinks I want to watch. The stats on my YouTube channel say that this is not normal.

Most traffic on YouTube comes from the rather ambiguous browsing features. This is the box of videos that pops up on the front page when you visit. It is the scroll on the right of every video. Yes, creators can build community on YouTube. This can happen organically in the comment sections; however, with the proliferation of AI responses being pushed on creators, I fear this will become less and less common.

Automating and dehumanizing responses like this will lead to less meaningful community interaction in the long term. I'd love to be proven wrong here, but I don't see it going in a positive direction. It is just another factor showing that YouTube just wants to promote YouTube. Don't even get me started on their horrible "Inspiration" features... That'll need a rant unto itself soon.

Twitch, on the other hand, builds everything around the creators, rather than making systems and expecting creators to adapt to them. In the long run, that makes platforms like Twitch susceptible to falling behind in the race for endless growth. However, this approach does make the process of building a community and sustaining a business a much more practical and achievable thing. Unlike its competitors, Twitch relies on the success of its creators. As long as the people making content on Twitch are growing and succeeding, so does the platform. At least, that is the theory.

In my case, it manifests in stats. Twitch nets me an average watch time of 64 minutes per viewer, while during my YouTube streams, I have an average watch time of 19 minutes and 34 seconds on my live streams. This is pulled from the last thirty days. This results in a less random and more family-oriented set of chatters on the platform that focuses on growing communities, as opposed to the platform that builds itself. I was once on a TikTok stream for a bit of contrast. Honestly, that was one of the highest viewer counts and least engaged communities I've ever seen in my life.

Community is what drives me. I value the community I've built as a whole. Some platforms simply cater to this type of creation, while others are more self-interested. I like the fact that after 11 years of creating on Twitch, the only thing that has really changed is how long my intro is and what music I play. Yet, every 8 months to a year, I feel like I have to rethink and totally shift how I approach creating for YouTube. On short-form platforms, I've been told that cycle can be as short as weekly.

It is the holidays! Since I have family obligations streams are going to be shorter then normal. To make up for this I will be streaming on Monday the day this blog post releases. Schedule is as follows; Monday - Thursday.

Friday till the following Monday I'll be working on the video for ghost candy. I am hoping to have it done and released sooner then later. There is a paid preview up on this site right now if that interests you. I also have a discount for the for my basic membership during the Holidays.