Gettings chat history of a users' channels

[hieifcb]

I have a simple idea: I have a client where I can login as a Twitch user and then I fetch all channels, for each channel I want to get the chat logs.
I searched around and it seems that this feature is not supported yet, besides a 3rd party rechat api that is unreliable.
So twitch does not store the chat logs anywhere, or let’s say it’s not fetchable from the Twitch API?

My plan B is to create a bot for each channel and fetch chat messages and store them myself. Do you guys think this is a good idea? Or does someone got any other suggestion?

[Dist]

@hieifcb

So twitch does not store the chat logs anywhere, or let’s say it’s not fetchable from the Twitch API?

There are no documented endpoints for retrieving chat history, so if you want to have chatlogs for a channel your’ll have to connect to chat and store those messages yourself.

[BarryCarlyon]

@hieifcb

Do you guys think this is a good idea?

No.

Please opt out all channels I work with from your collection efforts/

Doing this also err’s close to breaking the rules of the dev agreement (running bots in other peoples channels without permission and collecting and storing data longer than 24 hours/is needed)

[Dgc2002]

Edit: I forgot to “reply to” your post so I’m trying again.

The part of the Developer Agreement you seem to be referencing doesn’t apply here. That section is titled:

Inappropriate & Appropriate Commercial Uses

This sounds like personal use to me.

[Dist]

• Only retain chat logs as necessary for the operation of Your Services or to improve Your Services; do not do so for the purpose of creating public databases, or, in general, to collect information about Twitch’s end users.

Depending on what your use case for collecting chat logs are, you may be in violation for that if you’re creating a public database. The chat logs will also be collecting information about end users unless you make everything anonymous.

Also, again depending on use case, this may apply to you:

Twitch will consider authorizing you to use the Twitch APIs to engage in the following activities only after entering into a separate agreement and running through an approval process:

• Marketing - services used by marketers or their customers for marketing campaigns, campaign analysis, or anything similar.
• Research - educational and noncommercial projects that examine trends over specific time periods.

So if your chat logs are for marketing or research (which includes noncommerial projects so it sounds like that may include you), you would need to contact Twitch and enter into a specific agreement to cover that.

Also, Twitch ID’s likely count as an “Online Identifier”, and thus personal information according to the GDPR. As such to comply with the GDPR you would need to obtain consent, as well as document information on how users and channels can have their data removed from your database should they no longer wish to consent at a later date. If you’re collecting all this data without any consent at all, or even warning that data is being collected, stored, and used in some way, then again that’s potentially a violation of the GDPR.

As always, Wheaton’s Law applies here too. If people don’t want you to gather their data and chat logs, just don’t. It’s a pretty bad way to go about things to just go harvesting peoples data, so just make whatever service you are planning Opt-In so only channels that want your service will have data collected by it.

Note: I’m not a legal expert so have not been speaking with any legal certainty here.

[BarryCarlyon]

+1 to what Dist has said

@Dgc2002

Inappropriate & Appropriate Commercial Uses

Personal use doesn’t stop it possibly being inappropriate

@Dgc2002

Edit: I forgot to “reply to” your post so I’m trying again.

There is no specific need to hit reply to, I monitor the forums for new posts/replies to threads. Forgetting to Reply To (which isn’t needed) deleting a post and making another just wastes your time.