We’re sorry to hear that Reddit decided to discontinue r/pan, but we’re excited that you’re thinking about growing your community here! This blog post is a very quick overview of what you can expect on YouNow, and what some of the big differences are from r/pan. If you want to dive in deeper, please visit younow 101 here: YouNow 101 – YouNow Support.
First big difference: viewer counts vs likes
On Reddit, you’re pretty used to seeing really, really large viewer counts. While there are some streamers on YouNow who regularly get thousands of viewers, our app is all about forming connections with your community. That’s why you’ll see a lot of broadcasts with 20 -100 viewers in our trending categories on our home screens: we want people in your broadcasts who are really into you, and are actively engaging with you. r/pan was much more of a one-way performance for you than you’ll find on YouNow, where the norm is a lot of interaction with your fans.
As a result, it’s a lot easier to measure your success here in ‘likes’ than in viewer count. Likes are what you receive when someone gives you a gift using one of our in-app currencies, bars or pearls. The more likes you have, the more people are into what you’re doing!
Second big difference: subreddits vs hashtags & descriptions
Subreddits are an awesome way to separate various interests, and all of us at YouNow have our favorite subreddits. However, we’ve found that strict category lines don’t let our creators flourish the way they deserve – as a result, we let you choose hashtags to choose what viewers will find in your broadcast, as well as let you write a short description telling people what you’re doing today. This lets us show someone broadcasting about fitness right next to a gamer on one side and a make-up artist on the other, because fans here tend not to be easily put into one bucket.
Third big difference: RPAN Studio vs OBS (or not)
On Reddit, a lot of streamers use RPAN studio, which is pretty similar to the open-source tool OBS that we support. OBS is free to use and you can view the full setup guide here. However, you don’t need to use any tool as long as your phone or computer has a camera – just push the go-live button and follow the 3 easy steps to getting your broadcast out there. If you’re a professional streamer, you’re probably familiar with OBS already; if not, don’t worry about it! We also have a free add-on tool for OBS streamers called streamnow.pro that lets people use more advanced streaming tools, similar to what you might find on Streamlabs (which we also support!).
Fourth big difference: Making money!
Many people want to make money from streaming, and YouNow is one of the few places where it’s actually possible to do so without millions of fans. We are a 100% community-supported platform, which means you get paid when someone buys a gift for you with gold bars they paid for, or subscribe to you. This is way different than what you might find on Twitch or other platforms, where most of the money broadcasters earn comes from ads.
On other platforms, you are rewarded for how long someone watches your stream (and the resulting ads they watch). Here, you’re rewarded for how engaged someone is with your stream – they don’t necessarily need to be in there a long time for you to earn. So bring it! Make sure you talk to people in chat, bring them on stage with you via our guesting feature, and more! All of that engagement helps you build your community, and usually results in them supporting you as well.
Streamers here are in two big buckets – partners, who have generally been on the platform a while and earn up to 60% revenue share, and non-partners, who earn less of a revenue share. Everyone earns something, though!
Fifth big difference: Moderation
Moderation on Reddit is a bit different than here: we have paid, professional moderators that roam through broadcasts and look for violations of Trust and Safety, and the community can call a moderator at any time through our flagging functionality. The moderators here aren’t police – they are more like proctors in school. We rely on our community to uphold our standards, and moderators come in only when there’s an issue.
A few things that will result in you getting banned here immediately (not a comprehensive list):
Porn or nudity
Hate speech – this isn’t Twitter or Twitch
Being underage
Soliciting sex, drugs, or something else illegal
Committing fraud
Most of the time, our moderators will give you a warning if you’re breaking the rules. Our goal isn’t to ban or suspend you – it’s to make sure that everyone is kind and respectful to each other, the same as we’d like to see in the non-internet real world.
And that’s about it! Hope you have a great time here, and be sure to fan up EJ_YouNow and JonBrodsky so you get community updates and can join our lives! Thanks!
Looking for more streaming advice and want to learn about YouNow from the pros? Be sure to also check out our YouNow mentors:
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