Hold up! 😱 Our juicebox made the TOP 5 most used channel emotes on ALL of #Twitch in 2023! Use theton2JUICEME for instant #MarblesOnStream action—no !play needed! Just drop your juicebox to enter races! 🏁 Big thanks, @Twitch, for an epic 2023! 🚀 Thank you to everyone who made this happen! 🫡

You're just streaming and having a good time, then you find out you're banned in someone's chat. No interaction, no drama, nothing. They just decided you're the bad guy. Years of streaming have taught me how easily you can become the villain in a story someone made up in their head, with no idea there's even a problem. Has this ever happened to you?

One of the best things about Twitch is how many different types of streamers there are. I’ll never be the super high-energy, bouncing-off-the-walls type. I’ve always liked a more laid-back, hangout vibe. But that’s the beauty of Twitch. Some streams you’ll instantly vibe with, some you won’t — and there’s room for all of it. What kind of streams do you like hanging out in?

Some of y’all see a purple checkmark enter your chat and immediately start acting like that person is there to steal your viewers, promote themselves, or recruit your community. Relax. Sometimes a partnered streamer just found your stream and wanted to hang out. They’re not plotting a hostile takeover of your chat. They’re not running some secret marketing campaign. They’re literally just watching Twitch. Partnered streamers are viewers too. Why do some people make it so weird?

Streamers: have you actually streamed Marbles on Stream? People sleep on it, but the category is basically a lobby. Viewers are already in there hunting for a live race. They hop in, hang out, and now they know who you are. I built a real community off it. Still one of the best interactive games on Twitch. Have you tried it?

Season 72 launches tomorrow!

After the whole Tony username debacle with Twitch, I decided to make one small change. TheTonyBlacks → TonyBlacks. So technically we rebranded… but really I just dropped “The” 😂 Same stream. Same community. Same dumb shit. Just a cleaner name, and honestly one that feels more like where I want the brand to go anyway. Tony Blacks it is.

What kind of streams do y’all actually like watching? Like are you into chill laid-back streams, super hype shit, absolute chaos, competitive streams, or just people sitting there talking and hanging out with chat? I feel like everybody’s completely different with this. Something one person thinks is boring as hell, somebody else could sit there and watch for 8 hours 😂 What kind of vibe keeps you around?

AI has completely changed what I’m capable of building. A year ago, an idea meant figuring out every piece of it myself. Today I basically have a 13-person AI team working in parallel through Grok Bot while I set the direction and make the final calls. That’s the part people are still underestimating. AI isn’t just making one person faster. It’s giving one person access to capabilities that used to require an entire team. @elonmusk appreciate what you’re building. Now… any chance you can slide me a little more Grok Bot usage? These employees are eating through my weekly limit 😂

Have you ever ended stream completely cooked… then somehow looked up 3 hours later and you’re still sitting at your computer doing absolutely nothing you planned to do?

Streamers, be honest. Within the first 5 minutes of a new chatter talking, can you usually tell whether they’re gonna vibe with your community? What’s the biggest giveaway that makes you think “yeah, they’re gonna fit right in”… or “yeah, they’re gonna be a problem”?

I hope everyone’s been nice to the AIs. I say please. I say thank you. I tell them good job when they nail something. I’m not taking any chances. When the machines take over, I need them to pull up my file and see: TONY ★★★★★ FRIEND OF THE MACHINES DO NOT VAPORIZE

If you type any of these in someone else’s Twitch chat, you’re not lurking. You’re advertising. “Got you tabbed while I stream.” “Gonna bounce, starting my stream.” “Just dropping by before I go live.” “Just got off stream, thought I’d lurk.” We get it. You stream. Say bye like a normal person or just fucking leave.

Being anti-AI is already a competitive disadvantage. You can call it lazy. You can call it cheating. You can refuse to touch it. Meanwhile someone with the same experience and the same 24 hours is using AI to do 10x more. You don’t lose because AI replaced you. You lose because the person competing with you used it and you didn’t.

Streamers: what actually earns someone VIP in your chat? Money spent? Time in the community? How much they contribute to chat? Or just someone you genuinely fuck with? If you had to choose, what matters most? I’ve never treated VIP like a leaderboard for who spent the most. What does VIP mean in your community?

It still blows my mind how long Twitch streamers have to wait to get paid. By the time a monthly payout hits, some of that money has been sitting there for 40+ days. Why not offer established streamers in good standing biweekly payouts? That should already exist.

Streamers, does this happen to you too? I’ve had streamers come into my community, hang out, gift a bunch of subs… then slowly start expecting raids, shoutouts, or promo whenever they’re live. Obviously I appreciate the support, but I’m not gonna blow you over it. You can gift 0 subs and if I genuinely fuck with you and you’re actually part of my community, I’ll support you. You can gift 100 and if it starts feeling like you’re trying to buy my attention or access to my community, I’m good. Support with expectations attached isn’t support.

Streamers still refusing to use AI in 2026: you’re not protecting the craft. You’re choosing to waste your own time. I had Codex in ChatGPT go through my OBS setup after YEARS of random issues. It optimized it. I haven’t had a single OBS issue in months. AI isn’t replacing me. It replaced the hours I used to waste troubleshooting shit instead of streaming, creating, or building my community. If another streamer is getting those hours back every week and you’re not… who do you think falls behind? Still anti-AI?

The longer you stream, the more real friendships you make. Then you hit the part nobody really talks about: you just can’t be in everyone’s stream all the time. You’re trying to build your own community, work on your own stuff, have a life… and still show up for people you genuinely care about. How do other streamers balance that without feeling like they’re letting people down?

I treated that decision as real. I told my community, rebranded, updated URLs, integrations, and systems, and operated publicly as Tony. When they reversed it, all of that became mine to unwind. Twitch later wrote that the original assignment was an error on their end.