Building an Inclusive Twitch Community: A Neurodivergent Streamer’s Guide
When you set up your Twitch stream, one of the first tasks you’re assigned is to set your chat rules. If you’re here, you’ve probably already decided that you want to stream, so let’s get into it. Twitch’s official channel has straightforward rules: “Be kind”, “Respect other humans”, “Include everyone”, and “Listen to the moderation team” (Twitch). Another common rule to see on Twitch channels is “no hate” or “no hate speech.” In this post, we explore these rules and more, and how your rules will build an inclusive community from day one.
Beyond “No Hate”: Cultivating Uplifing Language
No hate is a great place to start, but at its core, it is not inclusive. The absence of hate is not the act of including others. The “no hate” rule on my channel reads as follows: “Only use uplifting language in chat.” It exists the first time people click the chat box in another form: “Say things meant to uplift others—not tear them down.”
Inclusivity means more than banning certain language—it is actively fostering an environment where people feel safe. Although we are online, we still want to be true to ourselves, and autistic people know full well how dangerous masking is—we won’t allow people to push masking on others. I am always on the lookout for better ways to highlight inclusivity in my rules, so the wording changes, but the idea never does.
There is a bit of a personal backstory to this as well, and I’m sure other neurodivergent streamers will see themselves in these reflections. Being a late-diagnosed autistic adult means I spent my childhood as an undiagnosed autistic child. I was a constant victim of ridicule and exclusion. I spent recess in the quietest corner I could find, often reading, drawing, or daydreaming. I dreamt I could fly, giving me the wings I needed to escape the noise of the playground. Bullies, the natural enemy of imagination, saw me in my dreamlike state and encircled me, tripping, pushing, and one repeatedly “gleeking” in my face (gleeking is the act of forcefully spraying saliva from under one’s tongue).
It should come as no surprise then, that online bullies find no patience, no lectures, no platform in my channels. Instantly banned and we move on with our lives.
Crafting Rules with Clarity and Empathy
Depending on your comfort in front of a camera, rules that feature compassion might look quite different. What’s important, though, is that your rules are clear to you and your community, and that compassion and understanding are clear drivers.
I haven’t yet felt the need to include language about the types of hateful content (racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, etc), because I feel that the first rule encompasses all of those. As I write this, I realize that this could be a reflection of my privilege, not having had to face the majority of those situations. If I want to consider myself an ally of marginalized groups, I probably should call out specific things as examples of unreasonable conduct. Even my disability isn’t always immediately apparent on camera, so that might be an important adjustment for me to make. Looks like I just signed myself up for a new project this week.
Rules specific to your neurodivergence may also be helpful. I do not like playing multiplayer games with viewers. I prefer to solo queue, or play with my kids, and the very thought of inviting people from my stream to play with me fills me with absolute dread. I find this to be far less common on Twitch, and more of an issue on TikTok, but if playing with others is something that bothers you, putting it in your rules gives you something to fall back on when people push, or ask just once too many times.
Your rules are a way to expand on other boundaries or triggers you might have. I personally don’t mind backseat gaming, but I see a lot of people with rules explicitly stating no backseating. I find politics exhausting and I do not feel that a gaming livestream is an appropriate place to discuss political issues. For that reason, all real-world political discussion is banned in my community. Besides politics, nothing fractures communities as much as religion, so religious topics are also banned. Again, they’re exhausting. I’m here to have fun, and I took one theology course in university—I’m not an authority on anything religious.
Twitch shows users your chat rules the first time they try to chat in your channel, but it can be tricky to find after that. For this reason, I recommend having your rules in your Twitch panels, and maybe even have a !rules chatbot command, if you use a chatbot.
The Art of Moderation: Corrections, Bans, and Compassion
Set the tone. Lead by example. It starts with you. There is no shortage of phrases that emphasize the importance of the streamer being a beacon of their own rules. Your interactions, reactions, and language will be the first thing that people see, and if they see you breaking their own rules, how can they expect you to fairly enforce those rules? Be true to yourself, be open about who you are, and why your values are so important to you. Demonstrate them, and acknowledge when you falter. If I begin getting frustrated with a game—especially competitive multiplayer games—I quickly find myself exuding that frustration, and sometimes that frustration is directed towards my teammate who has 0 kills, 9 deaths, but won’t switch off Spider-Man and play someone else. If you catch yourself getting frustrated, you can take a breath, take a break, or walk away—play something else, or move to a Just Chatting stream.. something to split yourself from the source.
Whether you self moderate your channel or have a team of moderators, it’s important everyone involved has a consistent pattern. Do you want zero tolerance for some behaviours? Warnings and timeouts for others? If you’re a small streamer with no mods, or if you’re a larger streamer with a team of mods, you and your mods are usually your number one fans. Above all else, you want to make sure you and your mods are having a good time.
If your mods spend the entire stream timing people out and issuing warnings, how are they enjoying your stream? Warnings are good for minor, less disruptive infractions, but I am a big proponent of ban and move on for anyone who has made a choice to break your rules. This means they clicked accept and chose to break those rules anyway—in my mind, that’s an easy ban.
That said, we should also try and assume positive intent when things are unclear. I streamed during COVID, and there was an influx of people who would enter a stream and ask, “Are you vaccinated?” These people weren’t trying to start a positive conversation—they were looking to start fights. There is no assume positive intent in some cases, but if someone in chat comments that the Spider-Man hasn’t done anything useful this match, that’s likely not cause for an immediate ban. Like you would catch yourself, use this as an opportunity to have a discussion about how you could phrase that in a more constructive way. I like to always assume everyone in the match is watching the stream, so if I say “This Spider-Man is buns and needs to quit Marvel Rivals” (I just learned the new slang “buns” by the way), I’m not using language that uplifts anyone. Maybe he’s still learning Spider-Man, or maybe someone on the other team is particularly good at targeting Spider-Man players, and this player was doomed to have a poor ratio from the beginning. My favourite character to play is Wolverine, and sometimes after seven matches of playing Tank or Support because nobody else would, I tell myself this match I’m playing Wolverine and I don’t care if we lose. Spider-Man could have gone through the same thing, but we will never know. So, instead, we assume positive intent and if we have to say something, we find something constructive to say, or we just don’t say anything.
When using the timeout, warn, or ban features, it’s important to communicate exactly why it happened. Your repeated comments about the Spider-Man player, despite a reminder of the rules, has led to a timeout for the remainder of the stream today. Next time, please come back with an attitude that is not in conflict with the “respect everyone” rule.
Handling Conflict: A Neurodivergent Approach
The Internet is a diverse place and you are bound to be someone’s first neurodivergent creator. And that person might not recognize or understand the needs of a neurodivergent creator, especially if your boundaries are different from others.
One of my boundaries is I don’t do Discord. I don’t have a Discord server and will not be setting one up. I understand that a lot of people value Discord for their communities. I did just find out about Discord Forum channels, which is actually somewhat exciting, but I need to do a lot more research before I think about that.
I get people repeatedly asking about Discord. I explain that my autism makes the idea of Discord very overwhelming and uncomfortable. The counterargument is well you could have mods who help you, and yes, I probably could. But what’s the point of having a Discord community if I don’t participate in it? Instead, I reiterate that Discord is not an option for me, but here are my social media channels that I do use.. feel free to follow me there.
Misunderstandings are a great opportunity for education, but only when the subject is open to it. As you get to know people, you will quickly learn when a misunderstanding can be a teaching moment, and when it deserves to be resolved quietly. Don’t forget to consider that you could have misunderstood the viewer as well, so do seek clarification when things are unclear.
Conflicts, even between a streamer and a viewer, can be exhausting, especially for neurodivergent creators. I’ve found it valuable to take my comfortable stream time and reduce it by 30-60 minutes—so in my case, I stream 2 hours instead of 3 hours. The offline hour allows me to reflect on the stream, and not just conflicts but also what went right, what went wrong, if I need to adjust any settings.. it’s a time that I’m offline, but still connected to the stream, processing what happened and fixing any mistakes—or planning to fix them for future streams.
Final Thoughts: Cultivating Your Unique Community
You don’t need to get political to see the state the world is in today. We all need a pocket of positivity to rely on, and that’s one of the things I try to do in my community. I’ve never understood the value of toxicity when all it does is brings people down. With these thoughts, I hope to provide a better understanding of my own stream and help other neurodivergent creators to be leaders of a new wave of positivity, which Twitch, gaming, and the world desperately needs.
Have you explored any techniques for fostering a welcoming and inclusive community? What specific strategies have you found most effective in building that community on your streams? Leave your answer in the comment box below.
