Blog
Essays on TikTok LIVE and interactive data atlases — the guides, the breakdowns, and the data behind them, in one feed.
EssayA Sticker That Keeps Evolving
Some creators design fan-club stickers for individual viewers — one person each. What if the sticker kept evolving after it was made? A prototype for activity-driven sticker evolution, measured at the size chat actually shows it.
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EssayTikTok LIVE: A Nightly Routine
TikTok logged 12,607 rooms I watched in a year. I stopped in 1,815 of them. The gap between those numbers is the whole story: how an evening on TikTok LIVE actually goes, and how it narrowed from a search into a habit.
EssayA Year in Coins
Every day of the run, the climb to Level 39 and how long each level took, the roster, how concentrated it was, the shelf, the rhythm and the record book — one year of TikTok gifting, end to end.
EssayLeague Tiers Explained
Fragments, leagues, and the one number you can't see — plus a live look at who's winning each tier and how to actually climb.
AtlasA Watch Atlas
The other side of the screen — every live stream opened, every comment said.
AtlasA Go-Live Atlas
The other side of the camera — every time user2 hit Go LIVE, and the crew behind it.
AtlasA Gift Atlas
Every coin user2 ever sent on TikTok Live — the streamers, the gifts, the run.
EssayRebuilding the 'Live Now' Notification
How to rethink the "Live Now" notification and make Discord a portal for your stream.
EssayA Gift Atlas: Inside 8 Million TikTok Coins
An interactive portrait of my full TikTok gifting history: 8 million coins, 10,315 gifts, and the people, hours, and streaks that defined the run.
EssayMilestones, Achievements, and Roles
On the art of merit-based community management — and why three concerns that look alike should never be collapsed into one.
EssayThe Ultimate Guide to TikTok Live Power-Ups
How to use Power-Ups effectively to maximize your gifting impact.
EssayShould You Combo Your Coins?
Expected value, variance, and when the consensus advice about gift strategy is wrong.
Coming soonEleven Roles for a TikTok LIVE Discord
A complete, opinionated role set for a streamer's server: four families, eleven roles, one visible at a time — and a list of everything deliberately left out.
Coming soonOn TikTok LIVE and Priced Affection: To Whom It May Concern
A year and a half and more than $80,000 in gifts inside TikTok LIVE, and what the ledger turned out to be measuring. On parasocial relationships, priced affection, and the uncomfortable discovery that the one-sidedness ran both ways.
Coming soonAre Power-Ups truly random?
An analysis of how power-ups are distributed at the end of TikTok LIVE battles.
Coming soonLiveHub: Live analytics and real-time engagement, reimagined
A new home for live analytics, real-time engagement, and the kind of community memory that usually disappears the moment a stream ends.