A Twitch moderator helps a streamer ensure a respectful, enjoyable, and engaging experience for streaming, chatting, and viewing at all times.
Therefore, a moderator plays a vital role in the Twitch community and mod team, alongside VIPs and Editors. Moderators monitor your chat while you are streaming.
If you were wondering how to become a Twitch mod, here are our tips:
1. Get familiar with the mod’s responsibilities,
2. Create a positive atmosphere,
3. Be reliable, genuine, and present,
4. Engage with the Twitch community,
5. Try to resolve the issue before banning someone,
6. Promote your broadcaster on social media as well,
7. Ask for feedback from a broadcaster,
8. Set chat rules,
9. Learn mod commands and how to use mod preferences,
10. Manage polls and predictions,
11. Delete offensive posts and spam messages.
Continue reading to discover how these tips can assist you in becoming a Twitch mod.
Table of Contents
How to Be a Twitch Moderator
As a Twitch moderator, you must collaborate and communicate with the broadcaster regarding the type of atmosphere you wish to create and establish some key parameters to which you will adhere.
You will see a green sword icon next to your name, allowing you to identify other moderators in the same manner.
If you want to be an invaluable asset and excel as a new mod, here are the best practices to adopt.
1. Get Acquainted
You don’t simply assume a new role by instinct and hope for the best, do you? You need to conduct some research on what the role of a Twitch mod entails, watch tutorials, and read articles.
You must adhere to the Community Guidelines and familiarize yourself with some basic mod commands. These commands will assist you in streamlining your workload.
Understanding the responsibilities of Twitch mods will boost your confidence in your role, reducing feelings of insecurity and hesitation.
Twitch mod – responsibilities:
2. Be Kind and Helpful
As a good moderator, your role is to foster an atmosphere of respect and positivity when users begin chatting. You must set a positive example for others to follow. Treat everyone with respect and offer assistance and encouragement to all members when necessary.
3. Be Reliable
Demonstrate to the broadcaster that they can depend on you to monitor the stream effectively, allowing them to focus solely on the content. As a Twitch mod, your responsibility is to ensure a positive and enjoyable experience for streaming, chatting, and viewing.
However, if the stream is excessively long, it is acceptable to take a brief break to grab a snack or make a coffee. This is easier when there are not many people interacting, but much more challenging if the stream is crowded and lively.
4. Be Genuine
A good moderator does not show off, does not try too hard to impress everyone, and does not consider themselves better than other users. It simply means that others trust you, so be authentic. Allow them to get to know the real you, including your characteristics and interests.
5. Always Be Present
Always monitor the chat to stay informed about ongoing interactions. This includes addressing and responding appropriately to rude behavior, demonstrating that you recognize stream members, and encouraging them to utilize stream commands by using them yourself.
6. Avoid Simply Banning Chat Members
A good channel moderator does not merely timeout and ban users. If other members observe that you are consistently banning users, they will begin to question your integrity and perceive it as an abuse of power.
Instead, attempt to resolve issues by steering the conversation away from rude topics or by sending them a private message. Start by asking how they are doing, rather than attacking them. Ensure they are aware of the channel and chat rules.
However, if a user is consistently harassing or discriminating against other members in the chat, spamming, ignoring warnings, and promoting themselves, it’s a clear indication that you need to timeout or ban them using the /ban username command.
Understand when to ban a user and when to show them forgiveness.
7. Engage with the Twitch Community
Make an effort to engage with users, introduce intriguing streaming topics, welcome new viewers, motivate them to continue, and set a positive example.
Use insider jokes sparingly, as new viewers may not understand them. Employ language that is familiar and comprehensible to all, avoiding excessive use of emoticons and punctuation marks. Encourage the use of commands.
However, avoid presenting yourself as overly accessible, as this may lead you to take your role less seriously, and the viewers might do the same.
The key is to foster a positive environment where every user feels valued, respected, and important.
8. Obtain the Streamer’s Feedback
The broadcaster’s feedback is the most effective way to enhance your skills as a mod. They will inform you about what you are doing well and what areas require improvement, which you can use for future reference.
9. Avoid Seeking the Limelight
In summary, avoid seeking attention. The emphasis should be on the streamer, and as a streamer, you are an asset, not someone who detracts attention.
Furthermore, do not expect anything in return from the broadcaster or the streaming community. Moderating is a volunteer experience in streaming, so be grateful for it.
10. Promote the Use of Social Media
Remind users to announce their live sessions on social media to enhance the likelihood that other members will notice and join.
Utilize social media to promote your broadcaster’s upcoming streaming events. Social media can also serve as a valuable tool to connect with other Twitch users and discuss various topics.
11. It’s Not Your Fault
Sometimes, the stream may not go as planned. Don’t blame yourself, and don’t view this as your full-time job. Your role is simply to assist the broadcaster in providing a positive streaming experience, but the outcome is not solely in your hands.
Always remember to take care of yourself first; only then can you enthusiastically help others.
12. Build Relationships
Engage in the streams of other chat members and observe the practices of their moderators. This self-reflective experience will help enhance your moderation skills. Additionally, it fosters a stronger connection with other members and increases the chances that they will return.
13. Promote Other Platforms
Expand the community beyond the stream to other platforms, such as a Discord server, as they serve a similar purpose. Connect with other channels and media applications.
Regularly check social media to observe where other streamers attract their audience, whether they are smaller channels or medium-sized ones.
14. Enforce Chat Rules
Your primary responsibility is to ensure that the Twitch chat rules are effectively enforced. This involves fostering an environment that is:
It is not too much to ask for, yet it brings you even more in return. Nothing positive comes from typing mean things to someone, showing disrespect, or discriminating against individuals based on their race, religion, culture, or sexual orientation.
The practices you adopt will also inspire other Twitch mods to perform equally well or highlight active mods if they are making mistakes.
15. Learn Chat Commands
Chat Commands provide a variety of options to manage chat preferences, including setting follower-only or subscriber-only modes, slow mode, and more.
Here is a comprehensive list of chat commands. You can print it out to keep it handy, and by using these commands in the chat, you’ll encourage other viewers or new moderators to utilize them as well.
You will likely encounter a command enclosed in curly brackets on various websites, but you should enter the command without them.
16. Manage Polls
Channel moderators can use the poll command to create and manage polls to gather reactions and preferences from other streamers regarding which game to play next. Other members will then be able to vote and provide valuable feedback in this manner. You can learn how to create and manage polls here.
However, polls are a feature available exclusively to partner or affiliate channels.
17. Manage Predictions
Mods can also make predictions, although this feature is exclusive to Twitch Partners & Affiliates.
Predictions are an enjoyable and valuable tool for engaging the community by establishing an event along with its possible outcomes. Users should make their predictions about the final result before the submission time expires. Those who guess correctly will receive a reward—a share of the Channel Points pool.
This is how you can make predictions on Twitch.
18. Utilize Mod Preferences
Moderation Preferences are valuable tools intended to assist you in managing a Twitch channel smoothly and efficiently, while also reducing your workload. These tools include:
To access the Mod Preferences tool, navigate to your Dashboard > Settings > Moderation.
19. Use Mod View
Channel mods can also utilize Mod View to more easily monitor both the Twitch chat and the stream at the same time. This feature allows you to move or resize widgets and customize the layout to meet your needs.
If you haven’t used this command before, don’t worry. When you click on the Mod View for the first time, a brief tutorial will guide you through the basics of this function. You can access it anytime you need by clicking the What’s New and Feedback icon->Rewatch Tutorial.
This brief guide will help you understand the Mod View function.
Alternatively, you can utilize the Stream Manager available on your dashboard.
20. Remove Offensive Posts
A broadcaster has several options for managing harassment in the chat room, including utilizing the ignore feature, blocking or banning users, employing the timeout feature, or appointing moderators.
Your task is to foster a respectful and safe environment by removing offensive posts from the chat. You can achieve this by timing out or banning users as well.
21. Remove Distracting Spam
The broadcaster should inform you about what they consider to be unnecessary spam. Spam includes lengthy messages, copy-pasted text, links, capitalized paragraphs, repeated punctuation, emoticons, or symbols within the same message, and similar items. Many streamers prefer to avoid this type of spam, and you may be asked to delete messages to keep the chat room free of such content.
22. Communicate with the Broadcaster
Effective communication is essential for being a good moderator. You will need to consult the broadcaster on various matters, including what they consider offensive, how they define spam, and the type of atmosphere they wish to cultivate in their community.
Next, you will strive to achieve that goal. You will eliminate certain messages, encourage active engagement and respect, and similar actions. Clearly define what is acceptable and desirable, as well as what is completely unacceptable.
This is, in essence, a lesson in collaboration and the capacity to follow instructions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do mods get paid on Twitch?
Sounds ideal, I know. But no, mods don’t get paid either by Twitch or by the broadcaster. It is more like a voluntary job, so you have the right to decline or quit at any time. However, if you still choose to be someone’s mod, do a good job or don’t do it at all.
How do I become a moderator?
If you want to get someone to mod you, you need to make other mods and chat members notice you. How do you do that? First, you need to be present. Be present in the streams and chat rooms of the broadcasters you wish to mod you. u003cbru003eu003cbru003eConnect with the community. Write good messages, use commands, and let the broadcaster know you want to be their mod asset. Next, you need a good reputation. Show your kind, friendly, authentic, and respectful side, but don’t fake it. Your personality will shine through and you will be appointed as a mod.
Conclusion
A Twitch moderator serves as your right-hand person during busy streaming events, helping to alleviate pressure. I am confident you will excel in this role if you follow the tips outlined in this article.
Familiarize yourself with basic moderation commands, respond to inquiries, avoid misusing user log data, and ensure that everyone feels respected and safe. This will serve as a model for all moderators to emulate.
Keep in mind that if a user wishes to appoint you as their Twitch mod and you feel they do not share your values, it is perfectly acceptable to decline the role.
It is perfectly acceptable to resign from your role as a moderator if you no longer find it enjoyable or have other priorities. The experience of moderating should be enjoyable, not tiring, boring, or exhausting.
