Build fair play-with-viewers parties

Choose identities and permissions

• A channel owner or permitted moderator chooses the channel and opens Play with viewers at /queues.
• Open viewer page uses /queues/{channel}/{queue-name}. Signed-in participants use their Twitch identity; an unsigned participant can enter a Twitch login as the bounded fallback.
• Moderator controls, entry answers, priorities, private notes and lobby messages are never shown on the public page.

Configure and open the queue

Platform, region, rank, preferred role and every custom entry field are private to moderators even when public participant names are enabled.

1. Select New, set the Command and URL name, Queue name, Game or activity and Party size.
2. Choose Join order or Least recent participation. The viewer page states the resulting fair-selection rule before anyone joins.
3. Set Ready expiry, History retention and Skip/no-show exclusion. Add private entry fields and any required roles in role=count form.
4. Decide whether participant names may be shown publicly, turn Queue open on, save, then inspect Open viewer page at both wide and narrow widths.

Join from the page or chat

• On the viewer page, fill the requested fields and select Join. Check position reports the current place; Leave removes the entry; I'm ready answers an active ready check.
• In chat use !queue [queue], !join [queue] key=value, !leave [queue], !position [queue] and !ready [queue]. The queue name is optional when the channel has only one queue.
• Joining twice keeps one entry. Signed-in Twitch ID is authoritative; normalized-login fallback lets an unsigned viewer participate without creating duplicate public names.

Select and run a party

Moderators can use !queueopen [queue] and !queueclose [queue]. Close the queue while resolving a disputed selection so new joins do not move the visible candidate order.

1. Review Waiting viewers and the visible next-candidate order. Adjust Priority or Private moderator note only when a documented channel rule requires it.
2. Start a Ready check for candidates. Participants must use I'm ready or !ready before Ready expiry; then select Select next party.
3. Use Keep party to retain the current group, Replace one for a single change, or Skip and No-show when someone cannot play. The configured exclusion prevents immediate re-entry after a skip or no-show.
4. Enter the Private lobby message and select Whisper party. Confirm success before starting; never paste a private lobby code into public chat as a fallback.

Recover safely

• If a participant misses Ready expiry, run a new ready check or use Replace one. Use No-show only when the channel's exclusion rule should apply.
• If a whisper fails, verify that the bot connection can whisper and retry Whisper party only after the page reports the failure. Do not reveal the private message publicly.
• If selection cannot satisfy required roles, leave the current party intact, adjust the waiting pool or role requirements and select again.
• History retention removes old participation data after the configured period. Shortening it changes future fairness evidence, so record that channel decision before saving.