It's been a fun ride

Hey everyone. I am writing this post be cause I have come to a decision that pretty much is the end of something I have been doing since 2018.

I am no longer going to be a live streamer.

I haven't come to this decision lightly. Actually it has been in my thoughts for awhile now. Before I get to my reasons, I kind of want to go down memory lane as best as I can remember.

How it started

From what I could remember, I knew about people live streaming game play to sites like justin.tv (later Twitch) and Beem.io (later Mixer). At the time I really didn't understand what the fascination was about watching someone you didn't know playing a game live. So I just never really thought much about it anymore.

Then I joined Steem.

I saw a video on Youtube by a creator called Ivan on Tech and he did a video about a social media blockchain called Steem. I found it really interesting and was just starting my journey into crypto. So I signed up for and account with the user name @dudeontheweb , which was (and currently) my user name on Twitter (now X).

I really got into exploring the content on Steemit.com. I did a lot of reading and absorbing of content that was posted. And learning how the whole ecosystem worked.

That is where I started discovering various communities with various interests posting on Steem about the subjects that they were passionate about.

Then I found DLive

Honestly, for the life of me I can't remember exactly how I found out about @dlive. I learned it was a live streaming service that used Steem's reward/upvote system to reward live streamers on their platform. So I decided to check it out to see what it was all about.

At the time I , again, wasn't really interested in watching gameplay, but what I did see was streamers doing other things besides gaming. One person was creating artwork. And there were others who were just chatting with their audience.

One of those streamers was @ericwilson. He was sitting in the attic of his house , in a big old pinkish looking recliner just chatting about how his day went. This I thought was pretty cool. I thought he was pretty cool. I then became one of his followers and chatting with him on many of his streams.

He was my inspiration to get into live streaming. Thank you Eric!

Then I thought "Hey I think I could give this live streaming a shot.."

So I went to YouTube to learn what I needed to start streaming. I watched and read a ton of tutorials. At the time I had a laptop that wasn't capable of live streaming , so I started off with my cellphone.

Not going to lie, it was rough. I had no clue what I was doing. I basically just started talking to no viewers for about a week. I did 2 hours of just me talking to myself. But I tried to think that there were viewers there.

Eventually I upgraded my PC and began to stream like a regular streamer. Still not very well, but I was getting a few viewers.

Then @vimm came on the scene. So I was then splitting time between both Dlive and vimm. For a short time I was using a restream service where I was streaming to both services. That wasn't really working so I just did separate streams to both.

Dlive did eventually move away from the Steem blockchain and went on to do there own thing with their , now failed LINO blockchain. At the time I decided to concentrate my streaming efforts to Dlive and occasionally stream to Vimm. But I did watch quite a few streams on vimm and participated in chats.

Dlive is still around, but the whole crash and burn of the LINO testnet and subsequent sale of the platform to Justin Sun had really soured a lot of people on Dlive. Quite a few of the streamers I was friends with and had associated with had moved to Mixer. I also made the move, yet still was doing occasional streams on Vimm.

Then Mixer shutdown. I then tried YouTube , Twitch, Trovo, Glimesh and a few others.

That's when I stuck with Vimm for the remainder of my time streaming. Vimm was always there.

Logos

After Vimm

Now with the absence of Vimm, I decided to stream to YouTube. I even made a post about it.

I have done one single stream there since Vimm's closure.

Why I'm no longer streaming

At the time, I felt I was just going to continue on like nothing really happened. I would just have to make a few adjustments and move on. Well, I wasn't feeling it. Not in the least. It wasn't the same. I'm not going to lie, the starch got taken out of my when Vimm closed it's doors. The thing is, I could always count on Vimm being there. Maybe I was naïve thinking that, since I've seen other streaming platform go by the waist side. Now that we are at this point in time, I have decided that I'm done being a regular streamer.

Honestly I may fire up OBS and do a few one off streams here and there. But as far as doing regular streams, that is over for me. I don't have the desire to do that any longer.

Could I return to streaming in the future? Anything is possible.

Thanks and shoutouts

There have been many many people who I have met and have had a profound effect on my life IRL. Even though I have not met any of these people in person, they have a special place in my heart.

@ericwilson , @shawnsporter , @themuttartist , @johnspalding , @calimeatwagon , @tonyrumble , @cryptotrippin , Heaven Kitchen, @twingatz , @jynxi , Solgnir and many others that are just too numerous to name here. If your don't see you name here, don't be upset with me, I love and appreciate all of you.

What next?

Yeah. Exactly. What is next for ole Dudeontheweb. Well I would like to start writing more. Hopefully here on Hive. But I really have no clue. After the last few years, I just take every day as they come. I just know that this chapter of online life is at an end. And I feel good about it. I need to move on and find something new.

I'm good with my decision.

It's been a hell of a ride and I have met a lot of great people while being a live streamer. I look back and really still can't believe an introvert like myself, would expose myself for the whole world to see me, be myself , chatting, playing games, listening to music, watching videos and whatever else, and actually tune in to watch.

Thanks to all of you who supported me over the last 6 years. I love you all!

Thanks for watching!