When you reach even a small level of success online it comes with trolls. They are everywhere and Twitch is no exception. There are lots of different types of trolls online. Some are just being genuinely funny and are harmless while others can take things way too far such as Swatting.
So, how do you deal with trolls in your Twitch chat? First off, congratulations. If you are starting to get trolls it probably means that you are doing something right. It comes with the territory. In this article we are going to take a look at how to deal with trolls on Twitch.
How To Set Up Your Channel To Combat Trolls
The first step to combating trolls is setting up your Twitch channel correctly to deal with them. You want the process of dealing with trolls to be as automated as possible. Let’s take a look at some things you should do on your channel:
1. Add Rules To Your Twitch Channel
The first thing you should add to your channel is rules. What you deem as trolling may be normal in another streamer’s chat. You need to outline what you allow to happen in your chat.
Here are some simple recommendations we would recommend adding to your rules section:
Recommended Channel Rules For Twitch
- English only.
- Avoid racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination.
- Avoid talking about religion or politics.
- No swearing/cursing/profanity language.
- Avoid spamming.
- Self-promotion is not allowed.
- No gaming spoilers.
- Show kindness.
- Respect one another.
- Have fun!
You can adjust these to your liking. You can check out our full guide to creating Twitch rules for more information.
2. Add Moderators To Your Channel
Once you have added rules to your channel the next thing you should think about is getting moderators for your chat. If you are at the point where you are getting trolls you probably have a big-enough audience to find some moderators.
We would recommend asking some people who have been regulars in your chat if they are interested in becoming a mod for your channel. Most people will get excited about becoming a mod on your channel.
When you have a mod they can quickly identify a troll in the chat and remove their message potentially before you even see it. If they repeatedly post negative messages in the chat I would advise your mods to ban them.
3. Add A Chatbot To Your Channel
Another way to moderate your chat is through a chatbot such as Cloudbot or the Stream Elements bot. Using this is a great way to instantly block certain words or phrases from your chat.
If certain words are triggered the bot will remove the message and timeout the user. You can even set the bot to ban a user if they send multiple messages that trigger a spam filter.
Check out this article on the best chat bot commands for moderators.
What To Do When You Have A Troll In Chat
If you have a troll in your chat you should not let it annoy you or get you down. You should simply ignore these people and ban them from your chat. Do not give them attention or reply to them. This is exactly what they want.
If you simple just ignore them and remove their messages/block them they will move on to another chat.
Ultimately do not give these people the attention they desperately seek. If you don’t know how to block someone on Twitch, follow the steps below.
How To Block Someone On Twitch
In your Twitch stream chat you can simply block somebody by type /block [username]. This will block this person in your chat and they will not be able to send any messages again.
Some people will come back on new accounts if they are really looking to annoy you. Again, don’t give them any attention and simply have you or a mod ban that account. eventually they will give up.
How To Spot Trolls On Twitch
There are different types of trolls on Twitch. Some are harmless fun while others are actually quite serious. Below is some of the different ways people may try to troll you on Twitch.
Name Trolls
Be wary of the names that you read out on Twitch. People may try to get you to say banned words to attempt to get you banned. Others will try to make you say something funny like the good old Bart Simpson prank calls.
Check out this list to see some of the most popular troll names people will get you to read out.
Link Trolls
Link trolls or spammers will spam links in your chat. We recommend disabling links in your chat through your Twitch settings or chatbot. You can whitelist sites like Youtube and Twitter if you want your audience to share videos with you. At least you can be certain that these links are going to content that is safe.
If you allow other links in your chat, your run the risk of getting a virus or leaking details through an unsafe link.
Backseat Gamers
If you play games for fun and aren’t necessarily the best in the world, you may find that some people will back seat gamer you. “Why did you do this, you should have done that” etc.
You might want to allow this in your chat but some people won’t like it and just want to play the game casually. That is fine too. Add no backseat gaming to your rules to avoid this as much as possible in your chat.
Fake Donations
Fake donations are popular on Twitch. There are multiple ways people can fake donate on the platform. People do it, primarily to new streamers to get a reaction from them. This can be in the form of sending their message in bold colored text to make it seem like you have received a donation. Sometimes people will also send fake donations on Paypal and then do a “chargeback”. This means that the money is reversed back to the donator and you do not receive any of it.
We wrote a full guide on how to stop fake donations on Twitch. Check it out to make sure the donations you are receiving are actually real.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is one of the most serious forms of trolling. People will follow you around all of your social media accounts harassing you. Some will even go to the lengths of trying to find your private information such as your address and leak it online.
You will see some popular streamers be “swatted”. This is when a viewers calls the police and say that a terrible crime is being carried out at the streamers house. The police then show up to the streamers house. This can be scary and has resulted in someone losing their life.
Try to keep as much of your Private information hidden if you can. The less you reveal about your personal life the less likely they will be able to harass you offline.
Wrapping Up
You should now be well versed in how to deal with Twitch trolls. The best thing you can do is simply ignore these people. The less attention you give them the better. Ignore and block should be your strategy.
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