Chat

Every stream has a chat beside it. It shows how many people are watching, and you can reply to a message to quote who you answer. Its streamer, the moderators they name and the admins keep it civil (see Moderating).

Who can write

• Signed-in viewers can always write.
• Viewers without an account can write when the streamer allows it (Let viewers without an account chat, in the streamer's settings). They get a stable, readable name instead of all being "viewer".
• People from another instance -- signed in here with their account from there, or writing from their own instance on a stream from here -- can write when the two instances exchange chat. Otherwise they read along.

Names

Somebody from this instance is shown by their name, alice. Somebody from anywhere else carries it, the way the fediverse writes it: @bob@other.example, and their name and picture go to their profile on their own instance. So nobody from elsewhere can look like a person from here who happens to share their name.

Messages are limited in length and in how fast one person can send them, so a flood slows down instead of taking over.

Moderating

A stream's chat is moderated by its streamer, by moderators the streamer names, and by the instance's admins.

Naming moderators (streamers): Settings → Chat rules → Moderators. Add somebody by the name their profile has here, and remove them the same way. Moderators can delete messages, time people out and ban them. They cannot act on you, on an admin, or on each other.

In the chat, a moderator sees a small ⋯ menu on every message:

• Delete message -- it disappears for everyone watching, including people watching from another instance.
• Time out for 10 minutes, an hour or a day -- the author cannot write until then, and is told until when.
• Ban from this chat -- the author cannot write here until somebody lifts the ban. A ban is for this chat only.

Who you ban is read from the message, so the menu works the same for everyone who can write:

• Somebody from another instance stays banned however they come back: signed in here, or writing from their own instance.
• A viewer without an account is banned for that browser tab only: a new tab gets a new name. To keep viewers without an account out, turn off Let viewers without an account chat in the same settings.
• A bot cannot be banned: revoke its app password instead.

Settings → Chat rules also lists the bans and timeouts in force, each with Lift, and a moderation log: who did what, with the start of each deleted message, kept for 90 days.

Chat bots

A streamer can connect a bot -- a Discord bridge, a command bot, an overlay -- to their own chat.

1. Settings → App passwords, choose Post in my chat (a bot), then Create new and give it a label. Copy the password; it is shown once.
2. The bot sends messages with POST /api/v1/channels/<channel id>/messages and the header Authorization: Bearer <password>, and can read recent history with GET /api/v1/channels/<channel id>/messages. Your channel id is under the choice.

A bot password can post to your channel's chat and nothing else. It is listed with your other app passwords, with when it was last used, and revoking it there stops the bot at once. Bot tokens made before are there too, and keep working.