Hi, I've been a Neuro-sama lurker since early January 2023, so I've been around the community for a while. It's had a lot of highs and lows, but right now it seems like everyone in the community is taking crazy pills, and I feel like I'm in the minority when I say that it needs to chill out. There's a lot of stuff that just seems outright embarrassing for the community to be participating in, and no-one seems to want to call it out, so I'm willing to play devil's advocate and say what I think needs to be said. That said, I'm open to discussion and opinions, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Let's have an open discussion.

"The Swarm Has Arrived!"

Neuro is a popular VTuber, and the stream has regularly appeared in Streamcharts' Top 10 Most Watched Female Streamer or Top 10 Most Watched VTuber lists. She's also an AI, making her a novelty in the general VTuber space. Therefore, it's not uncommon for other VTubers or streamers/YouTubers in general to react to them for easy content. But does the community really need to flood their comments section with the most low effort, childish phrases? "The Swarm has arrived", "Swarm beacon activated!", etc come off as really embarrassing, especially considering the size of the community at this point. I don't know of any other VTuber community out there that announces themselves in a comment section like this, and it just kills regular discussion of Neuro when someone wants to talk about her, especially if the person reacting is new and wants to know more. It's just a bad way to make a first impression. I may be a minority in this case, but it just makes the community seem immature at best, and downright stupid at worst.

Twitch Chat Pigeons

Most VTubers, and streamers in general, have a common-sense rule. "Do not bring up other VTubers/streamers on stream unless I mention it first". (Here's an example in Kiara's rules) It's pretty obvious that it's extremely rude to burst into someone else's Twitch Chat or YouTube livestream to start chatting about someone else. (On Japanese streams, viewers that do this are called Carrier Pigeons, if I remember correctly.) It doesn't make the streamer want to stop talking or doing what they're doing to join your chat, they just tend to ignore you or call you out. Any casual Anny viewer knows that the chat can't go five minutes without someone mentioning Vedal's name, no matter what the discussion is. She's called it out many times, but keeps happening, whether it was because "Neuro's flying over your house" when they were playing Flight Sim, or "Vedal is looking for you" during the drunk Euro Truck streams. Even if it's not a rule, can it at least be considered basic respect? I might be preaching to the choir here.

The Vedal Thirst

(To preface this, I'm a programmer by trade.) It's extremely common for programmers to be introverted, bad at communication, and outright try to avoid being a marketer or promoter of the product they've made. The ones that do tend to be nervous when speaking publicly or don't come across very well. There's a few famous examples of this, like Sean Murray from Hello Games. Even Alex was just a disembodied voice before he started streaming as a Void-guy thing. All this is to say that Vedal clearly doesn't want to be on stream that much. He's stated multiple times about his intention to automate as much of the stream as possible (like getting Neuro to make schedules) so he can fade into the background, or that he never intended to be a VTuber in the first place. Hell, the interview with Layna suggested that he wants to retire to work on other projects at some point. I won't speak for him, I'm only repeating what he's said prior, but it seems like his public presence won't be forever. So why are people trying to ruin a good thing by thirsting after him so much? It feels extremely weird and disrespectful for someone who didn't even want to be on stream in the first place to be treated like a sex object. Whether it's weird fan art or edits on YouTube, or people reacting to his back in an extremely uncomfortable way, it just feels like it's getting out of hand. Vedal is a real person behind the screen, even if Neuro isn't. (Obviously Vedal can call people out himself if he actually feels weirded out by it, but as a viewer, I can't help but feel second-hand embarrassment when I see it.)