Why I Won't Consider Beam - Yet.

Many people have asked me "Why don't you broadcast on Beam?"

And the reason behind that can be summed up in this, "I don't feel like going to Beam just yet."

I have built a decently sized community on Twitch. I also have made a good network on Twitch, despite many people I networked with leaving. It has been 2+ years of hard work and perseverance to get where I am right now, but that isn't to say that in a year I will still be on Twitch.

Let me explain more in detail about where I see myself in two years. There are three scenarios right now regarding my career in livestreaming and I will go over each one.

1. I will be streaming on Twitch.

I will either be partnered or not on Twitch. I don't see much changing in terms of community. I will still have good people supporting me on Twitch. I will still be doing what I'm doing, regardless of partnership or not. The issue is that my viewers want me to be partnered. They ask me "Why aren't you partnered yet?" (Ouch. I'm trying...)

2. I will be streaming on Beam.

If I am not partnered on Twitch by September 30, 2016 and the prospects of being partnered or getting anywhere close to partnership looks slim I can definitely say this: I will want to make the leap from Twitch to Beam by then. It isn't to say that my time on Twitch will have been wasted, but honestly put,by then the networking and contacts I have made in the past 2 years will not have gotten me anywhere. Getting partnership on Twitch is all about 3 simple things 1. Who you know 2. Your community support and 3. who you are as a broadcaster. I need to get all of these variables working for me in order for partnership to happen. Right now I have numbers 2 and 3, though I need more consistency on who returns to my channel. I'm averaging 15-25 viewers a stream, which is great, but to even be considered for partnership I need to average higher than that and that is not currently happening because people are not coming back. (And I need to know why from those who are deciding not to come back). Also, my networking has not panned out at all. People are nice to my face but when it comes to giving me actual support, I am insignificant to them and can't help them further their communities, so they say they'll do xyz and then not. I also get pretty salty when people I used to be good friends with got partnered before me and then dumped me like a used toy so they can use the people higher than me for their own personal gain. That's a post for another day.

3. I will have stopped livestreaming altogether and moved on to something else.

I do need to financially and emotionally support myself and kiddo. I need to make sure that bills are paid and food is being put on the table. I have been devoting my entire being to livestreaming, graduate school, and taking care of kiddo. I wake up and the first thought is how can I improve at livestreaming. I go to sleep and my last thought is how can I improve at livestreaming. Without going anywhere on either Twitch or Beam, I cannot keep it up and so I'll have to move on to what will give my child the best opportunities and keep me feeling like I am successful in my life.

So to put it in a short list of why I haven't moved to Beam yet it goes like this:

1. I want to give a shot at partnership on Twitch everything I got. Deadline is September 30th, 2016.

2. I don't want to split up my community just yet. I call this "Fracturing a community." I've lost half my viewership to Beam, which sucks. My community has already become fractured with my viewers being fractured by other streamers who made the move. By moving myself there, I fracture it even further. I need to stay consistent on a platform to get anywhere with partnership.

3. Right now I haven't gotten the "warm fuzzy feelings" I used to get on young-Twitch from Beam or anyone on Beam. I mean, I may feel good about supporting a caster like thewalkthroughgamer on Beam cause he is a great caster and he gives great support to everyone he meets or from a viewer who streams on Beam like johnnyrags because he supports me on Twitch too and still comes to my broadcasts, but I have not gotten any good feelings from everyone else who moved to Beam from Twitch or streams on Beam. The integrity isn't there for me.

In fact, my experience with broadcasters from Beam can be summed up in one experience that I will not publicly release due to the personal nature of it. The blatant disregard for terms of services from one platform to another and the lack of consideration for a person can go a long way in destroying meaningful relationships. I have yet to recreate a deep meaningful relationship with anyone who made the move from Twitch to broadcast on Beam. For many people, it is one sided: You either support people on Beam or support people on Twitch but it can't be both. That is not how I see it.

Support is support. 

I support people on Beam. I support people on Twitch. I build those networking bridges so we can all be successful in our goals and so we can support each other. I don't want to say "Quid Pro Quo" cause that feels selfish, but it is a selfish environment when it comes to broadcasting. I give support by retweeting your tweets and by quietly lurking. I support you on Beam or Twitch if you come into my channel and I give you a shoutout. I have shouted out both Beam and Twitch broadcasters but I still find it hard creating any kind of feeling of "community" on Beam from my experiences with it, so I don't move... yet.

Not until I feel like I am ready to and my community is ready to.

Not until I feel like there is a good place for me and for the flock on Beam for success and acceptance.