Introduction

DLive has announced a couple of new campaigns this week, one of them being 'Better DLive Survey', to gather feedback from its users and implement it into improving the platform. The questions being asked are: “How do you decide a stream is good or not? What do you think about DLive and how can DLive improve?” as well as a brief explanation on why all of us started using the platform. As a user of DLive who has thoroughly enjoyed being part of the new platform, I am more than happy to give it a review and offer my opinions on what I like and what I believe could be improved.

How do you decide a stream is good or not?

Many factors go into deciding whether I like a stream or not. Firstly and possibly the most important, I have to be drawn in to it in the first place. A good thumbnail does go a long way. As a gamer who mainly watches gaming streams, I like to see at least some effort into personalizing the thumbnail as opposed to just uploading an image of the game from google image search. When looking for a stream to watch, if someone has put some effort into a thumnail and personalized it to themselves it is a sign to me that their stream will be of higher quality and more enjoyable than someone's who has just uploaded a default image.

I will give an example of what I mean:

Here is the default image for a game I play regularly: "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" taken off google images. I use this image as the base for my PUBG thumbnails.

Now here is the same image with my own personal touches added to it (this is one of my PUBG thumbnails I have actually used in one of my streams). Any one can make a thumbnail, you don't need expensive image editing tools to do so. I don't own any expensive editing software myself, I just use Microsoft Paint! It doesn't need to be over the top and cluttered (you can over do it!) just add a couple of unique touches, for example your steemit username, put in the @dlive logo to support them and maybe a picture of yourself or a cartoon you like, just don't over clutter it.

Have an engaging title!

Make sure to use a title that will make people want to come and look at your stream. For me, if I just put "PUBG stream" I would not have much success. For me my most popular streams are when I use a catchy title and tag other dlivers I'm playing with.

Take advantage of dlivelabs

Another quality that helps me judge whether or not I enjoy a stream is seeing the neat features/overlays provided by dlivelabs such as the vote alert and follower alert. As a viewer its cool to see your name pop up on the stream and acts as an incentive to upvote/follow, and as a streamer its nice to see when people upvote and follow so you are able to thank them for viewing and supporting your stream.

Engage with your audiance!!

The main aspect for me enjoying a stream is a streamer who activley engages with their audiance i.e answers their comments, asks questions of their own such as "what would you like to see?", "would you like a certain song played in the background?" or "how was your day?" etc.. It is a much better experience when you feel like you are a part of the stream as opposed to just watching.

What do you think about DLive and how can DLive improve?

What I like

The community. I LOVE the community. Getting to be a part of DLive in it beginning stages has been a joy. Everyone from dlive themselves showing their support to their streamers by upvoting quality posts, to the streamers themselves such as @uhatgaming @kassixo @treflo and @realseb to name just a few who have helped me to get off the ground with my streams and offered sound advice on how to improve the quality of my videos has been fantastic! Being able to play games alongside these guys as well has been awesome. The dlive community has welcomed me with open arms and I will reciprocate to newcomers.

I love how much easier it is to enter as a brand new streamer and be welcomed and supported on this platform as opposed to similar platforms out there where you are only appreciated if you have been with them for a long time and have a lot of subscdribers/followers.

I love how @dlive listens to its users as is shown in their response to feedback about mobile optimization. Users and asked for better mobile optimization on dlive and DLive delivered!

How can DLive improve?

As the platform is in its early stages, their are still a few things being worked on. Here a just a few things that I would like to see on DLive:

• Disappearing streams - This is one of the main things I as well as others have noticed. Sometimes after streaming for a while a stream will disappear from DLive and the only way to access it is through steemit on the users page.
• More server locations! I know that this will happen with time but as a Kiwi, uploading to servers in the U.S I am unable to sustain the same bitrates as other streamers in the U.S.
• Pausing - lagging streams. This may also be a server issue but I have noticed with mine, as well as others streams that after watching for a few minutes the stream occasionally freezes and can usually only resume playback with a page refresh.
• Lengthy set-up process - Encoder Authentication: each time before starting a stream there is quite a lengthy process before beginning the stream as the server url, key and password changes each time. Also the process to beginning the stream is not super intuitive as you have to post and begin your stream on dlive before actually starting to stream with obs.
• Accurate viewer count: the viewer count seems to be inaccurate. Whenever a viewer joins my stream it goes up by one which is fine. However if they leave the count stays the same and if they join back it goes back up again by one. Also If I refresh the page when my stream or an others freezes, the active viewer count increases.

Why I started streaming on DLive and my future with DLive

I have always wanted to stream but have felt like I would have no success with the older platforms that are out there. Having streamed in the past to only one viewer (myself..) I thought maybe the ship had sailed. Then I found out about dlive and being that two of my main interests are cryptocurrencies and gaming, it felt like a match made in heaven.
After only a couple of streams I had played games with some of the most successful dlivers and had posts upvoted by DLive themsleves!

I am streaming gaming and love to collaborate and game with other DLive users. I love streaming while gaming as it adds a layer to it where I can interact with like-minded people as well as people with different opinions from all over the world while doing it on a platform that supports its users like DLive does.

I have said on stream that I see DLive as an investment and something that I believe in. I believe it has so much potential and I'm here for the long haul. Whatever extra income I can make from DLive will go towards purchasing gear that will further the quality of my streams - i.e. better mic, webcam, PC parts etc...

In conclusion I am super excited to be a part of this new and rapidly growing community where everyone is included and has a chance to shine, even the little guy. I love how responsive and supportive DLive has been in listening to users feedback in the past and present in order to keep developing and optimizing this awesome decentralized platform.

Cheers!

Jrungi :)