Is #twitch a good places for software developers to collaborate?

I started streaming on May 5th with a following of 0. Since then I've streamed for 284 hours.

I've made .07c per hour in doing so.

These are my thoughts.

Quick stat recap.

284h 27m streamed
60,746 m watched
0 -138 followers
8 subscriptions
1232 unique viewers
7,043 messages
$22.62 in revenue

At this point I think it's fair to say, I have a few reps in. It's also fair to ask, what does success look like on #twitch?

Revenue?
# of Subs?
Engagement?

Or are there more personal attributes:

Grow your Network?
Conquer a fear?
Learn something?
Hold yourself accountable?

For me starting out, my goals have been more inner personal:

Put in the reps. Streaming is hard.

Holding myself accountable to a schedule.

Become more transparent.

Teach others, while teaching myself.

Grown my network.

But my primary goal has been to really show what's it's like to build software that matters. No hello world shit, we're talking about real software that people use, that's on a sprint schedule, where I damn sure don't have all the answers.

That means we hit the wall of WTF often

I've stream ~ every weekday. I typically stream for 1 - 3 hours although sometimes we've gone 8.

All of the work is open source. The backlog is visible to anyone, we even have open sprint meetings.

My point?

From design to production, it's been streamed.

But is it good? Entertaining? Are people learning?

Based on the numbers and effort put in, I am failing hard. Really hard.

I mean .07c per hour isn't a great wage by any stretch.

Of course revenue wasn't my goal, but I do have to pay the bills too.

But this takes us back to should software developer be streaming on #twitch?

If I am being honest, I'm not sure that my approach is one that yields success. We don't typically watch a painter just paint every stroke, we'd watch a time lapse, or some narrated version.

If every line of code is a brush stroke, we're zoomed in at such a fine detail that the entertainment value erodes.

Ironically the Geeks who do come are *REALLY* engaged and we've both learned a great deal from one another.

So without question there is value there.

Which begs the question, are there just not a lot of software folks on #twitch yet?

Based on some other streams, I'd say there are plenty of folks, I'm just not good at it.

And that's ok too. I know my stream doesn't have all the emotes and polish like the others.

Streaming is hard. It's hard because there are a lot of moving pieces and as a software developer, typically laying down code is a very iterative process, one where it's in your head and "slow".

That doesn't equate to entertainment but I do think there is value in the process.

I find myself asking, is it the wrong medium for my content, or am I in the wrong spot. Maybe a little of both and a little of neither.

Regardless I keep showing up, talking through the process, and trying to help as many as I can along the way.

Should you stream on #twitch?

Well you ultimately need to answer that, but be prepared to put in your reps.

Be prepared to refactor and adjust.

Be prepared to sit in the corner and talk to yourself even when no one is there.

Be prepared to meet people all over the world.