At the time of writing our Quarantrain raids have been going on for just shy of 21 days. Thats 3 weeks of conversations, planning, panic, and every version of ‘hurry up and wait’.
So what is a Raid anyway? Its a structure that is unique to Twitch as a viewing platform AFAIK. You can see Twitch’s official raid documentaion here, but that doesn’t really tell you why anyone should care.
Nearly every streamer thats been on Twitch for more than a few streams has done a raid. In most platforms you go on to stream a live video, and when you quit the crowd disperses. A raid is like having a bus outside the club to take your viewers on to the next party. Then at the other side you get your clubs name up in lights and a sudden burst of activity in the receiving stream.
Its a good way for streamers to make connections with each other, and build their audiences. Yes in fact you can build your audience by giving it away sometimes. Twitch is ironically very much more about social networking and relationships than Youtube or especially FB. Taking some time to connect on there really helps your channel reach sustainable levels.
Raids haven’t always been a part of Twitch. They were added a few years ago, and it seems long time DJs are still getting used to them, some of them learned long ago to dislike them because long ago they were mostly negative. Of course new DJs are often largely focused on other things to have picked up this detail right away.
There are some negative possibilities for raids. Some people use them to collect groups of trolls together. They create new accounts even, to up their numbers. Those who are first welcomed, become a nuisance. These troll raids have largely gone out of fashion in modern times. There can also be an expectation of quid pro quo. That because one gave a raid they should get one in return.
The first isn’t a huge problem for us because we’ve been growing an intensely positive crew, and we all get a feeling of satisfaction from helping the streamers succeed and having a good time while doing it. We have had occasional trolls, but we work with mods in our streams to ensure they get muted or banned to keep them away from our parties as well.
As for being owed something. No. We are a group of fans that likes to spread our support to talented DJs that don’t have the viewers that they deserve. Each time we arrive we ask about getting to our destinations, but its not a demand. Its our hope that our friendly support will be enough in trade to move us along to our destination. We really do appreciate those who send us where we need to be. Its this kind of cooperation between streamer, viewer, and raid guides that keeps us moving along.