ChatStory: Narrative-Based Live Streaming Chatroom to intervene trolling

Abstract

Existing methods of moderation on live streaming platforms usually consist of a combination of volunteer moderators selected by the streamer and technical interventions like bots. This places the onus of moderation in the hands of a few selected individuals and the tools that they wish to employ to moderate the chat, but does not create opportunities for the general viewers to take ownership of their live stream viewing experience. This study is a first-attempt at exploring the ways in which viewers can be used to assist existing moderation tools through the use of an ambient narrative-based tool that can be leveraged by streamers, moderators and viewers as a novel way to help the viewers take charge of the interactions occurring in the IRC chat channel. By creating StoryMod, a tool that reflects the atmosphere of the chatroom based on the comments being sent, viewers can control and be responsible for the atmosphere of the chatroom (reflected by the state of the narrative) by sending positive messages in response to trolls or other negative comments. Findings from this initial exploration into 'viewer-based moderation' support the utility of this tool, with results suggesting that the presence of StoryMod encourages positive chat behaviour in viewers, while increasing their emotional and attentional engagement with the chat channel and augmenting their sense of belonging to that particular community. The online demo can be found here and the code repository here.