Whispers - Limits Transparency / Shadowbans

Hi Guys - Previous discussions on whispers and the rate limits bots need to abide within were not very transparent. As a result we saw a number of bots that allow users to interact with them through whispers getting shadowbanned.

The workaround for this issue was a white-listing process which has been working for almost a year now. Bot banned from Whispers?!

Recently, the whitelisting process has ended (Form posted by Xangold is closed) and support have said they are not adding new whitelists Bot stopped sending whispers. Not sure if shadowbanned or code deprecated

So the problem is back where bot developers don’t have transparency on what the limits, bots are being shadow banned and we are not able to whitelist new accounts, creating increasing frustration for streamers who want to keep the chat experience positive by moving bot queries to the whisper system.

Please can we get some solution where we can minimise this frustration?

Thanks!

The good thing would be to get a JTV whisper when being close to the limit, or with a server/whisper tag subject like
@type=WhisperLimit;current=45;max=50;reset-at=943753496736934
Or even JTV IRC server sending the remaining ratio in USERSTATE after a message sent, by whisper or not.

I am also awaiting for a clear answer from devs, let’s hope for a simple solution from them

Replies concerning rate limits don’t work well as you might have exceeded it by the time you get the reply

Re: whitelist. We are still whitelisting. We have internal criteria when determining eligibility for the whitelist. Our internal criteria center around the bot being a proven good actor, number and quality of messages sent, and security of the bot account. If you don’t meet the criteria, you won’t be put on the whitelist. Realistically, you shouldn’t be requesting whitelist access until you’ve run into problems at scale.

It’s highly unlikely we’ll document a hard limit on Whispers simply because bad actors would ride the line with spam.

Can support say if we “don’t meet the criteria”?

I created bot for my favorite streamers, it uses special format which requires whispers:

  • Don’t flooding in streamer’s chat and send unimportant messages to whispers (we don’t need to reply on !help command in their chat)
  • Respond to basic commands in whispers (like !8ball, why user can’t play with it, it’s very cool thing)
  • Be very responsible (means reply to message in whisper, while there’s cooldown in streamer’s chat)
  • Give only requested information, nothing other

So, whispers it’s very important part for my bot. But recently (about two weeks ago) it got shadowbanned from sending whispers to users, who never received bot’s replies in whispers. I still can send whispers on site using bot’s account, but real bot can’t reply on them.

Your support says absolutely nothing to my requests (they just ignored) and you just making me think badly of you (sorry, but we all the people and we have emotes).

I don’t exclude, that it can be library I using for my bot - tmi.js. But. After sending whisper bot gets whispers event on two different clients with their message, but receiver don’t seeing it. So I think it’s shadowban ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Sorry for mistakes in text

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I want to support the person above me is also not satisfied with the situation in which I can not use the official opening functionality (IRC chat bot). Excuse me, of course, but if things will not change, I personally go away with Twitch. Whisper is a very important thing for my bot, I think many will agree with me. Take care of this problem, please

@DaFri-Nochiterov What is your bot’s name? I can look it up. If you can send whispers and others can see them on the site, you shouldn’t be shadowbanned. Your users may have this option turned on:

@Xambey The officially supported way to integrate with IRC is through PRIVMSG and chat. All of that is publicly documented on dev.twitch.tv/docs.

BlackSilverBot. Nope, this option is not enabled by people I asked for test !help command, which does sending messages in whispers. My bot still can send messages to users, which received messages from it before this incident.

Are they sending the !help as a whisper to the bot or in a public chat? Mixing mediums is poor UX.

Whisper via irc looks PRIVMSG #jtv :/w username messag. Just why that group server to send my posts are not all clients. You can check my bot, please? (DudelkaBot) P.S My bot sends messages to a whisper, when requested in the general chat. For example! !help, the answer is too big to write it in the general chat. I think the person above mean something like

My bot was shadowbanned from sending whispers. It was sending, on average, less than 1 message per minute to my own account. I was using the whispers as a new chatters alert for a small channel.

Will it ever be unbanned? How can I apply to be whitelisted? The bot’s name is “wood_croft”.

I believe they last 24 hours. You can request whitelisting here: https://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/emails/new

I’m sorry but…

I also sent a report to a support and have not received a reply.And what should I do? My bot needs a whisper. :confused:

You know. I got response from your support and they just referenced me to this forum. VERY HELPFUL, thanks!!!

Actually, that absolutely not solves problem with ban from whispers. By ‘shadowban’ I meant: no notices, no disconnects, nothing at all. Just whispers don’t go to users, on server side. You really hate us (developers) so much? As I got by your ignore on this situation - yes.

Don’t you wanna say anything or you’ll continue to ignore?

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I Support you! And in general I agree with you, ignoring the problem - not an option!

It’s worth noting the staff that usually monitor this forum are at GDC, so they are gonna be slow to reply.

The primary problem with whispers is not the amount we send but the fact that we either send unsolicited whispers (the bot starts the conversation) or most of what the bot says is identical to it’s previous message. So it’s tripping the filters.

Sure taking stuff outta chat is great coz it’s repetitve spam. Should it go to whispers? Probably not, as again same problem.

You’ll get more mileage if you users whisper the bot and the bot replies to the whisper, that if the bot replies to a chat command with a whisper [citation needeed]

hm… Sorry, that fit. I have tried to do so, it does not help. The server simply ignore messages for most users.Also, personally, my boat has a limit on the number of responses per minute whisper, spam removed

Move whatever you are responding with to a website or other solution, take it out of chat completely since chat doesn’t meet your needs. Got a currency that needs to be checked, build a website for your community. Just an idea.

I think so too, but do not think it right that a whisper functionality does not work correctly. If I write a message with :/w in a chat with a bot account, the whisper messages comes. Sorry, but among you there are people who have access to the server logs of the group? It would be interesting to know where my requests are lost: 3

It works correctly. The problem is identifying spam to prevent people getting frauded or hacked or virused.

We are just getting caught in the cross fire right now as the spam detection tools are getting adjusted/revised/improved.

And currently theres a lot more arseholes trying to screw the Twitch userbase, that there is legitimate developers building bots.