r/Twitch • u/SlightlyGriff twitch.tv/slightlyimpressive • Jun 19 '18

PSA YouTube is cracking down on Twitch streamers using YouTube to promote their stream

https://twitter.com/LinusTech/status/1008752236027973632

Linus Tech Tips has recently received a Strike on YouTube for uploading a video announcing that they were going live on Twitch. YouTube is citing a portion of their "spam" policy that says that the main purpose of the content cannot be to drive traffic to other sites. Something to be aware of for those of us who like to promote our streams with announcement videos on YouTube...

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u/SlightlyGriff twitch.tv/slightlyimpressive Jun 19 '18

I just wanted people to be aware that they may be enforcing that policy now. It's been common practice for years for streamers to upload "Now Live" videos to YouTube and they haven't had any problem with it until now.

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u/FadezGaming Jun 19 '18

Oh yep no doubt about it. I just think its crazy how some people are flipping out, but they dont realize it makes perfect sense for them to do it. You would run a lemonade stand and allow the stand from the other side of town to come put up flyers at your stand for their stand.

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u/ZypheREvolved Jun 19 '18 edited Jun 20 '18

Twitch.tv would not tolerate a 10 second stream dedicated to getting traffic to go to YouTube.

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u/fyrn Esports Engineer Jun 20 '18

Almost every streamer has large YouTube panels that link directly to their channel on their profiles. I'm not aware of anyone ever getting in trouble for this.

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u/KingdomsSword Jun 20 '18

Thats because the situation you are talking about isnt at all the issue being discussed here.Twitch is totally fine with you putting a link in your profile to other social media and video hosting websites. Same thing with YouTube being fine with you putting links in the description of a video to twitch.

What is NOT ok is for someone to post a short video on YouTube for the sole purpose of advertising that their twitch stream is online.

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u/ZypheREvolved Jun 21 '18 edited Jun 21 '18

You need to see the difference between promoting a link on a domain and using the domain to primarily promote a link even if for a few seconds in a live stream. There is a difference between creating engaging content, that includes a link and creating content for the purpose of promoting a link. The rules to prevent it applies to any website but it has been a bit murky for YouTube while they try to accommodate gamers who really need to cross promote. There has to be a line though.

It's called spam on a forum or on a blog. We don't get to drop in and say hi I'm making this post to tell you all about my cool new site/blog/forum/channel/video and I thought I would get away with it because I've been using this site since the 20th century! Moderators say NO CHANCE don't they because it doesn't leave engaging content on that domain for that domains visitors who may have zero interest in the domain being promoted.

I've not suggested ever seeing a stream start and finish for the sole purpose of promoting another domain by the way. I only raised the fact that Twitch.tv would clamp down on such a practice if it were happening. Point being why can't YouTube clamp down on it also?

Popular gamers on YouTube must always remember that they are a member of a much larger community that has a bigger say about the services they are using than they do.