Twitch Spectating: February 8, 2025

Sometimes chatters say the darndest things. I’m a regular in Rev’s chat, so I’ve seen some shit—but this blew my mind.

I was hanging out in a chat of fewer than 10 when the streamer started reading messages from a chatter seeking advice. This person and their friends had apparently been dealing with a stalker for a few semesters. Harassment is no light matter, and I don’t want to dismiss very real danger—but there were details about this story that felt… off.

For one, the chatter claimed campus police wouldn’t take a report unless their friends made statements in person. But those friends couldn’t leave class because their instructor refused to let them go, telling the chatter to “fuck off” and how they didn’t have time for “such follies of men”.

First, this is college. You can skip a damn class now and again, even if you have a hard-ass for an instructor. One absence to make a police statement shouldn’t tank your entire grade.

Second, who the hell says “such follies of men” in this modern age? I’ve met plenty of self-important assholes prone to lofty talk in college, but this sounds like some purple prose. And what instructor controls the lives of their students—who are expected to exercise grownup obligations at this stage of life—to the point where they can’t file a possibly life-saving report with the police?

Third—and this is the big one—they typed in chat that they were “dealing with the weirdo as I saw him outside my dorm window”. Moments later, they added that a neighbor’s father, who just happened to be bringing food over to her at 11pm, saw the stalker banging on the door and chased him off. Within ten minutes of all this, this chatter mentioned that they and their sorority sisters were heading out for a drink to take the edge off.

The whole thing felt oddly tidy—too streamlined, too narratively convenient. And yet the streamer remained calm, offering advice on how to escalate the case and generally encouraging them to stay safe.

It felt less like someone in real danger and more like someone trying to get attention from a small streamer they respected. If that was the case… there are better ways to feel validated. No matter how many times I see this kind of activity, it’s a mystery to me why people would act like this.

Then there are some mysteries that leave you with a cozy, warm feeling.

Yesterday was the American Heart Association charity stream, which Rev kicked off—sniffling and coughing, yet pushing through like the masochistic trooper he is. I had it on in the background while juggling emails from peers and waiting on feedback for an assignment, occasionally chiming in despite being clueless about the baseball games chosen for the stream.

About an hour before Rev was to set to pass the stream off to the next person, I noticed the donation total was hovering just over $800. I casually mentioned in chat that we should hit $1k. I expected a handful of small donations that would get us close to that amount.

I wasn’t expecting a $500 drop within a few minutes.

The AHA donation form wasn’t linked to Twitch accounts, so anyone could put whatever name they wanted or stay anonymous. I used my Twitch handle, because why not. It was also one less ridiculous name designed to test Rev’s patience, even if he wasn’t reading them out loud. (But if he had been, donations would have been rolling in from the likes of CummyDummy and ArmPitAndFootAppreciator8434045.)

The generous donor used the name Reverend Joe, which is similar to a regular chatter’s handle… except our Rev Joe said it wasn’t him.

Rev heartily thanked “Rev Joe” and chat cheered. Then the moment soon passed, replaced by chants of “We want a batter, not a broken ladder” from Backyard Baseball, but the mystery stuck with me.

Besides the sheer generosity of it, I began wondering and analyzing, as I usually do when interesting things happen around me. Was the nickname a coincidence or intentional? And if it was intentional, was it a reference or some sort? Did they know the original Rev Joe was a regular and was it a nod to him?

Maybe I’m overthinking and this was just an angel having a bit of a laugh while doing a good deed. Or maybe there’s something more to it that I’m not seeing. Either way, it’s an odd but endearing mystery I’ll be puzzling over for a while—and another reason how hanging out in a stream chat can add a tiny bit of wonder to the day.

Speaking of charity streams, a peer in my MLIS program is holding one tonight to benefit raptors (the flying kind, not the extinct kind, because the latter would… that would be dumb). Flynn’s stream might be small, but it’s soothing. I never thought it would be possible to fall asleep to the bloody cries of Dead By Daylight, but somehow he pulls it off.