Username: Tidy
Channel: https://dlive.tv/tidy
Hi! Many of you know me as the staff member of DLive, my current position is “Head of DLive Community (English).
I wanted to write this story, because I too was a streamer, partnered with other sites, sponsored etc etc etc.. here is my story!
I started making Video Content back in 2013 playing Minecraft. My passion was Minecraft… but then quickly turned into Horror gameplay.
Using an old PC, a $4.00 headset and Windows Movie Maker, I began my journey into YouTube.
I loved receiving comments from my small, but active community and decided that I fancied more of a “Live” environment.
Getting Started with Live Streaming
In 2014 I started my first live stream on Twitch and played DayZ. Starting a live stream with 0 live viewers is very daunting, and very discouraging. I sat for weeks without getting any constant viewership. At the end of every stream, If I had grown 1 follower (or more)… I used to write it in a little free diary that was sent to me haha.
DayZ was my “go to” game, and every stream was DayZ, with more DayZ thrown in. I always felt that sticking to 1 type of game can be risky, but based on the hundreds of videos I watched and articles I read – it was a great way to build up a core community.
Over time, my viewership went from 1-2, to 40-50, to 60 – 80, whilst playing DayZ every single stream.
I always tried to mix things up with events such as:
- Follower Friday
- Pink Hats Only
- Pink Shoes Only
- Team A vs Team B
- Stream Snipers Welcome
Still to this day, I speak with a lot of people from my core community (TeamTidy), and some even now stream at DLive.
The key is to keep enjoying yourself and never give up.
Quick Tip: If you are growing your community by playing 1 game – try and throw in a completely random game every week. It’s a great way to break things up. The last thing you want to do is burn out of a game.
Partnership
Towards the end of 2014, I decided to move my stream over to another streaming platform “Hitbox” where I was officially partnered and began my journey as a “Partnered Streamer”. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before there were issues with the website and I moved to Beam (now Mixer) – where I became partnered again (and still am to this date).
My channel at Mixer grew quite fast and my chat was inundated with XBOX users whilst I streamed 4 hours a day, 6 days a week.
I became partnered with XSplit, Streamlabs and Humble Bundle.. however, even though I would have high view counts whilst being featured on XBOX consoles all over the world… I always felt like something was missing.
In January 2018, I received a random DM on Discord from a person I used to stream with (from 2014!) asking if I’d heard of DLive.io.
This is where my real Streaming Journey Began
The site as we have now on DLive is nothing like it was back in 2018. The chat room was just comments, the streaming servers were powered by Wowza, we had 0 moderation tools and the only way to “earn” was to receive an upvote from the DLive staff or community.
I still continued to stream at Mixer, but at night, I would hop on to DLive and have a secret stream (I didn’t even tell my moderators). I started to have the buzz for every new viewer I would get, the passion for streaming came flooding back, and that was all because of DLive.
After a few weeks of streaming secretly to DLive, I started to write my own alerts (THIS IS SPARTAAA!). I have always written my own alerts, bots, full on chat games (anybody remember the TWET Invasion?), I enjoy coding, and enjoy having something that is personal to me.
It wasn’t long before users on DLive started asking “where do I get your alerts from?”, which is why I started to write TidyLabs – I never thought many would actually use it – currently at 20,000 users!
First Version of Tidylabs
DLive Community Team
In May 2018, I was invited to join the DLive Community Team. My role was to help users in Discord, help with the Support Tickets and provide solutions to any problems users might have.
I always enjoyed helping others, there is an incredible amount of satisfaction in solving problems.
Head of DLive Community (English)
In December of 2018, I received a phone call from Charles (DLive’s Founder) offering me the above position, my jaw dropped and I accepted with no hesitation at all.
My position was to ensure that the DLive Community is taken care of, to help and support all content creators large or small.
What makes DLive Special?
I get asked this a lot, and the number 1 reason for me personally is… Community. I’ve been on all the streaming sites and although they offer a fantastic live streaming platform.. they always start to drift away from their core values…community.
I feel the best way that I can describe DLive, is by offering a comparison to the major platforms:
YouTube = Google
Mixer = Microsoft
Twitch = Amazon
DLive = Community
I am (and forever will be) incredibly grateful for what other platforms have done for me, I have nothing but respect for them and the streamers that use those services.
However, DLive is something incredibly special and unique.
DLive changed my life and it can yours too.
Director of Streaming Operations at DLive Entertainment
