The Official Twitch FAQ

Here it is, the official—and long overdue—Twitch FAQ sheet. Got a question about who we are, what we do and why? It’s probably answered here. This is a first draft, so if there’s anything unclear or just plain missing, let me know…

What is this place?

There are two answers for this, one short and one long.

The short version is that Twitch is a film news / review / discussion site that pays particular attention to independent, cult, foreign and genre film.

The long version is that Twitch is a site run by film fans who are interested in digging a little bit deeper and chasing a little farther to find a hidden gem. We don’t believe that the arthouse and the grindhouse are mutually exclusive, nor does the fact that we love our weird little independent films prevent us from dipping into the Hollywood pool from time to time. We are fans writing about the things that interest us and the content will thus inevitably mirror the diversity and range of our tastes.

Do I need to register to post comments or in the forum?

Yes, you must be a registered member in order to post comments and to post in the forum.  It’s all about keeping things as spam-free as possible. We need to make sure that the people trying to post are real, live, actual people and not spam-bots before allowing them on.  Signing up for a member account is free and easy—click here to get started.

What’s the difference between the main site and the forum?

All stories on the main site are posted by a small core group of contributors. Anyone is free to comment on them, but everything starts with ‘official’ Twitch writers. The forum is meant to be a place where you can dictate the flow of things purely on your own.

Hey! What happened to my comment?

Well, if something’s gone missing there are only two reasons. It may have been eaten by the Evil Technology God. With all these ones and zeros floating around things do get lost from time to time. If not that, we probably erased it.

Twitch maintains a fairly strict no flaming policy both on the main site and in the forums. We’ve never had a flame war here and that’s something we’re proud of. If you want to disagree with someone’s ideas or opinions feel free to do so and do so loudly, but the moment you start making the disagreement personal and making comments about the person rather than the idea then you’ve gone to far. We’re a diverse group here and we want to show a degree of respect to all points of view.

Hey! What happened to the forums?

As part of our upgrade, we switched to using a different forum software.  Unfortunately, this means that old forums will no longer used and that you’ll have to re-register (see above).  However, we have not deleted the old forums—you can still find them here.  However, they are there merely for archival purposes.  All of the discussion from now on will take place in the new forums.

What Happened to Your Story on [insert story here]?

Oh, it’s still here. We post a lot and each story consumes bandwidth every time the page is loaded, so to spare our resources we currently have the site set to display only three days worth of posts on the front page. Things stay available on the site forever, though, and there are a few ways to find them.

1) We’ve got a new and improved search form in the right hand column, as well as an advanced search here.

2) You can browse through our archives by date, by genre, and by region.

Dig around a bit and you’ll find what you’re looking for. We do recommend that you come back to the site daily so as not to miss anything, though. We post a lot. All the time.  You can also subscribe to one of our newsfeeds to keep updated on the latest posts.

Can I use the stories I find here one my own site?

Absolutely, yes. We hope to foster a community of like-minded people and are more than happy to share our resources with others but with two conditions.

The first thing we ask is that you include a proper link back to us as your news source if you use material that originated here. We spend a lot of time working on the site and it is very frustrating to see hours of work copied and pasted somewhere else with no acknowledgement of the effort that went into it in the first place. We do, of course, hold to that same policy ourselves: if we find a bit of news through someone else’s site we will provide links back to our original source.

And second, keep it within reason: you want to link in to a story or two here and there, that’s fine. You want to reproduce the entire site word for word, that’s not fine. You’d think that would go without saying, but you’d be wrong ...

What can I do to help?

Lots. Here are some suggestions:

1) Be active. Get involved posting comments on the main site and get involved in the forum. The more the merrier.

2) Help spread the word. Know people that might be interested in what we do around here? Let them know we exist. This is still a fairly young site and word of mouth is the best way to move things along. If you’re repeated information you picked up here on other forums, include a link back. Links mean traffic and improved Google rankings which boost the numbers further and numbers mean legitimacy in the eyes of the PR people we have to go through to land interviews and screenings.

3) Tell us stuff! Found something you think Twitch readers will dig? Let us know. We’ll probably post it and, if so, we’ll be sure to credit you for the information.

4) Hey look! There are ads and affiliate search forms over in the right hand column! Use them. They pay the bills.

Are you looking for more writers?

Always. We’ve got a few areas of weakness that we’d really like to fill so if you are able to fill them we’d love to hear from you. We can always use more people with knowledge of different regions and multiple language skills. If we don’t cover a particular region that you’re interested in it’s far more likely that this is because we’re completely ignorant than that we’re not interested: we just don’t have the time or the skills to dig everything up. If you see an area where we’re lacking where you can help fill a gap, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line.

Who Are You People?

There are lots of us.  Click here to see all of the site’s authors, and what they’ve written.

How can I find out what that cool image is at the top of the page?

Ah, the lovely randomized mastheads… We’ve got hundreds of them.  But rather than refresh the site to try and see them all, you can browse through all of our mastheads here. If you’ve got a suggestion for something that would look good up there we’d love to hear it ... drop a note via our contact form.

Do you keep a central list of movie trailers somewhere?

The closest we have to a central trailer list is our “Trailer Alerts” section.  However, we can’t guarantee that all of the trailers you’ll find there will work.

Why do I sometimes get strange gibberish or “alien language” notices in your posts?

We post film titles and often star names in their original language whenever we can which can sometimes confuse browsers that only have the English language packs installed. I recommend going to Windows Update and downloading the Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean and Russian language packs. That should keep you in good stead around here.

I’d like to browse the site at work, but sometimes you post material that isn’t work-safe.  What can I do?  I MUST have my Twitch fix!

Registered members of Twitch can choose between “safe for work” and “not safe for work” versions of the site.  If you have an account, click on the “Edit your profile” link at the top of the page, then click on “Edit Profile” under “Personal Settings”.  Here, you can update your personal information, as well as choose which version of the site you’d like to see.

If you don’t have an account, click here to get started.