🦉 BarnOwlLive Moderator Guide: The Live News System
Welcome to the new BarnOwlLive News System! As a Moderator or SuperUser, you now have the power to push breaking news from the YouTube chat directly to the BarnOwl.live website. Additionally, people on the YouTube live streams can retrieve the very latest news by using the new !News command.
When you log a sighting, a fun event, or an important milestone such as “The first egg has now hatched today (Date)”, it instantly updates the Scrolling News Ticker and the News Log Table on the website for all our viewers to see. It also immediately updates the bot so YouTube chat users can retrieve the news. Here is everything you need to know to use it!
📝 How to Log News
Whenever something exciting happens on the stream, simply use the !save command followed by your news bite.
The best part? The systrem automatically knows which camera you are watching. You do not need to type the name of the stream! The system will automatically tag your news with the correct channel.
For Example:
- If you are chatting on the TawnyCam stream and type: !save Izzy just brought in a bird for the owlets to eat today! 👉 The website will automatically display: [TAWNYCAM] Izzy just brought in a bird for the owlets to eat today!
- If you are chatting on the Guest-Nest stream and type: !save The Mandarin Duck laid her 8th egg! 👉 The website will automatically display: [GUEST-NEST] The Mandarin Duck laid her 8th egg!
Once you hit enter, the bot will reply with a ✅ in the chat to let you know the news was successfully pushed to the live website.
💡 The Golden Rules for Great News Bites
Because this text will be scrolling across the screen on the website’s ticker, keeping it clean and readable is key!
- Keep it under 200 characters long: Try to keep your news to one or two sentences. Long paragraphs are hard to read on a scrolling ticker, and YouTube can only show 200 characters in a message.
- Don’t worry about the date, time, or stream name: The software does all the heavy lifting! It automatically timestamps your message and attaches the correct camera name based on where you typed the command.
- Your name is attached: The main News Log table on the website will show exactly which Moderator logged the news, so viewers know who is keeping them updated!
🌍 Where Does the News Go?
The moment you type the command, your news goes to three places:
- The LiveStream News Ticker: Your message will appear in the scrolling red banner on BarnOwl.live, so viewers can see the latest updates immediately.
- The News Log Page: Your message is added to a permanent table on the website that tracks the last 50 news events, so viewers who missed the stream can catch up on the day’s action. News Page
- The YouTube News Database: Your latest news bite is loaded into the chat bot, ready to be called up by viewers at a moment’s notice using the simple !News command.
💬 How Chatters on Youtube Use the!News Command
Not everyone has the website open while they watch the stream, which is exactly why we have the !News command!
- How it works: Any viewer in the YouTube chat can simply type !News at any time.
- What happens: The bot will instantly reply in the chat with the latest news bite saved by the Mod team that is related to that live stream.
- Why it’s helpful: When new viewers join the stream and ask, “What did I miss?” or “Has anything happened today?”, you don’t have to type the answer out over and over. Viewers can just use !News to get caught up instantly!
🛠️ Oops, I made a mistake!
Did you make a typo? Did you accidentally hit enter too early? Don’t panic!
There is no “delete” command for chat, but fixing it is incredibly easy. Just let the Stream Admin know you made a typo. They can easily open the master log behind the scenes, fix your spelling mistake or delete the accidental line, and type!SyncNews to instantly push the corrected version to the website and the bot.
*** Thank you for helping us keep the BarnOwlLive community up to date! 🦉🇬🇧