The @twitch account published a post on Twitter about a new feature or channel ‘Close Friends Only’ and mentioned the handle @closefoosonly at the same time. The main content of the tweet was “Chat! it’s time to check out Close Friends Only.” The tweet was relayed in an instant with negative and critical feedback coming from the users on the platform, who no doubt pointed out the long-standing community dissatisfaction by their comments.
And so, Twitch went ahead and did a little bit of promotion for the feature. Big surprise, huh? They always seem to be around somewhere trying to sell a new feature or a partner channel or whatever. But this time…wow! The responses were really rude. The comments were a little more than just saying they disapproved: it was indeed that the situation had turned into one where every single complaint that people had kept on storing for months just came out. The main tweet was there saying: “Chat! it’s time to check out Close Friends Only.” And the chat, which in this case means actual replies on Twitter, said, “No, it is NOT time.”
The first reason was that a lot of people were very frustrated because Twitch had not mentioned or even acknowledged some kind of hype train record. I, personally, had to do some digging but it turns out that a community of a streamer called “The Swarm” has broken the record for the longest hype train. And the social media people at Twitch didn’t even mention it. So when they sent out this generic promo tweet, gamers like @Deizu0 just yelled, “TWEET SOMETHING ABOUT THE HYPE TRAIN RECORD YOU COWARDS.” Others like @WowAluminum and @FeyrixVT kept repeating the same thing over and over: they just wanted to be acknowledged. That whole thing escalated really fast in the replies, with people saying things like: “maybe if we break it again they will notice” and “They WILL notice.” It’s as if Twitch’s marketing message turned into the complaint box of the community.
Problems kept on arising and that was just one of them. The criticism was much deeper and darker. There were even some replies that brought up serious allegations against the platform. @KingTCasper accused Twitch of “having sexual assaults and pedophiles on the site and being ashamed.” Another user, @TheGman5918 claimed that “@Twitch supports dog abuse, shoplifting, AND its streamers getting assaulted!” I mean… wow. That’s not your everyday “game bad” kind of feedback. That’s some heavy and serious stuff that gamers are throwing back to the company’s face during what was supposed to be a simple announcement.
Then there were users who were plain hostile and dismissive. @bylerfuneralUWU dismissed it as, “super retarded no thanks.” @iNyansan expressed it very simply by just saying, “No, no it is not. Clowns.” The atmosphere was mainly negative. Even the few positive or neutral comments were buried. When @AmanTya83796772 said, “Can’t wait to see what Close Friends Only has to offer!” another user immediately mocked them as “the most vanilla shill I’ve ever seen.” So not only is the feature receiving hate, but also anyone trying to be even slightly optimistic about it gets roasted. This is community self-regulating, but in the most aggressive way.
But it wasn’t all serious drama. There was the usual round of self-promotion spam like @adriantn61 telling Twitch they need better friends and linking to their own Roblox stream. And there were the “weird” inside jokes, like people posting the same clown meme image multiple times saying “3rd time is the charm we thought!” or “ITS FUNNIER THE THIRD TIME”. It’s this weird mixture of real fury, inside community jokes, and spam that makes Twitch’s social media replies a total wild west zone.
So what is “Close Friends Only” even meant to be? The tweet does not provide any elaborate description. It merely puts a tag on an account. Is it a new streaming genre? A subscription level? A social feature? No one in the replies even seems to care what it is because they are too busy using the tweet as a loudspeaker for all their other complaints. The marketing was a failure. It did not generate any buzz for something new but rather became a loudspeaker of all the things the community thinks are wrong with Twitch at the moment—from a lack of recognition for community achievements to much more severe trust and safety issues.
It’s a rather shocking reminder that for large gaming platforms, every communication is a two-way street. You cannot just send a “check this out” message and expect hype. Gamers have long memories and will not hesitate to put a company on the spot, especially at the very public stage.
