Polls and audience interaction

Four panels on the right rail of the studio turn a broadcast into a conversation: Polls, Comments, Audience, and Private Chat. This page covers all four.

Polls

A poll is a question with between two and six answers. People watching on your own site tap an answer, and the running result is drawn onto the video itself, so everyone watching sees where the room landed.

Writing a poll

You can write polls whenever you like, days before the show. Only asking one needs a live broadcast.

1. In the studio, open the Polls panel.
2. Click New poll.
3. Type the Question.
4. Fill in at least two Options. Click Add an option for more, up to six. The X next to an option removes it.
5. Click Save poll.

The poll joins the list on that panel and stays with your stream setup, so the same question is there for every show you run from it.

Asking it

1. Go live.
2. Open the Polls panel and find the question.
3. Click Ask it.

The poll appears beside the video for people watching on your site, and the question with its running percentages appears in the top-right of the stage. The card in your panel gets a highlighted border and its status changes to Live.

Click Close voting when you've had enough answers. The result stays on screen for a moment and voting stops. Click Ask again to run the same question later.

What each side sees

• On your own site: the question with its answers as buttons. Once someone votes (or once you close the poll), the buttons become bars with percentages, and their own choice is marked. Each person votes once.
• On external channels: the question and the running percentages, drawn into the picture. They can see the outcome but have no way to answer.
• In the studio: the same numbers your audience is looking at, updating as votes land.

Asking the same question twice

Every asking keeps its own count. Ask a question in March and again in June and you get two separate results, and the March recording keeps March's numbers. Reusing a question never starts from where it left off.

Deleting a poll

Click the bin icon on a poll card. You can't delete a poll while it's live, so close voting first.

Comments

The Comments panel is your live inbox from the audience. Messages from people watching on your site land here as they're posted, and you can answer, pin, or put them on screen.

• Put a comment on stage. Click it, and it appears on the stage as a card in your stream's colours. Click it again to take it off.
• Pin a comment. Click the pin icon. It sticks to the top of the comment list, both for you and for everyone watching on your site. Good for the answer to a question that keeps coming back, or a house rule.
• Reply as the host. Type in the box at the bottom and press Enter.
• Refresh. Click the refresh icon at the top of the panel to re-pull the list if you think you've missed something.

Auto replies

Auto replies are short pre-written messages that save you typing the same thing all night. They live with your account, so the library carries across every broadcast.

1. In the Comments panel, click the Manage Replies icon.
2. Type a message in the field at the top and click Add, or press Enter.
3. Use the pencil to edit an existing reply and the bin to delete one.
4. Tick Select for broadcast on each reply you want in play for this show.
5. Close the dialog and switch the Auto Reply toggle on in the panel header.

Switch the toggle off at any point to stop. You can change which replies are ticked mid-show without turning the whole thing off.

The unread dot

A small red dot appears on the Comments and Private Chat icons when something new has arrived while you were on another panel. Open the panel and the dot clears itself. There's nothing to dismiss and no counter to keep on top of: it only ever means "there is something here you haven't seen".

The Audience panel

Open Audience to see who's watching on your own site. It fills in once you go live, and keeps itself up to date while the show runs, so you can watch people arrive.

Each person shows their name, their email, the event they're attending if the broadcast is linked to one, and the ticket they hold.

Inviting a fan on stage

Click Invite to Stage on anyone in the list. TribeNest emails them a link to join your studio as a participant, and they arrive on the same pre-join screen your co-hosts use.

This is how you run a live Q&A, a listener spot, or a call-in segment without setting anything up in advance.

Private chat

Private Chat is a back-channel for the people in the studio: you, your co-hosts, and your guests. Your audience never sees it and it never reaches the stream.

Type a message and press Enter. Use it for the things you'd whisper: "wrap this up", "play the next clip", "your mic has dropped". Guests get this panel too, so a guest can flag a problem without saying it out loud.

Where to go next

• Not in the studio yet? Start with going live.
• Style the poll and comment cards from overlays and scenes.
• Gate the show for ticket-holders with events.