You can click "connected users" to open and close the list of users. You can click the plus and minus icons above the video player to make the video player bigger or smaller.

There hasn't been much of a need for moderation in Blorptube's history — the rules basically amount to "don't be a chud, a dick, or otherwise inaproppriate" — but should the need arise, just write "stalin" in the chat or send stalin a private message by clicking stalin's username in the user list. Stalin's Hexbear username is @wombat@hexbear.net if you need that; @Grebgreb@hexbear.net or i_gargle_good is also a Blorptube moderator, in fact Blorptube's webmaster. Blorptube also has a few other moderators who commonly join watch parties.

For moderation purposes, Blorptube users must also have Hexbear accounts and might be asked to confirm this.

Blorptube has many in-jokes, which regulars will gladly explain.

The first time you log into Blorptube's Visual Cuisine room, you'll be asked to accept a script. All this script does is show a message when you enter the room, it's nothing to worry about.

It's strongly recommended to use a VPN when visiting Blorptube, because many of the videos shown on Blorptube are hosted on TankieTube — which uses P2P technology that might expose your IP address (by extent your hometown and ISP) to other users if you don't use a VPN.

The link to Blorptube's chatroom used for watch parties is blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

You can type emotes in the chat either by clicking "emote list" below the chatbox, or by typing a colon, the starting letters of the emote name, and hitting the tab key until the correct emoji shows up.

You can disable the video player in the "playback" section of the options menu.

You can find shows and movies through torrents or the Internet Archive. If it doesn't come with subtitles, try opensubtitles.com. Any subtitles are welcome, but ideally you should have SDH subtitles available as an option. Since the chat is near-exclusively in English anyways, you generally don't need to bother with non-English subtitles, but like, feel free to.

imdb.com and doesthedogdie.com can be a good starting point for content warnings, but if that isn't available, you might be able to use tvtropes.org, or skimming plot descriptions or even the movie/show itself to identify potential content warnings.

Whether you want to show an English dub is your own choice. Dubs can make it easier for partygoers to follow along on the show while reading the chat, however some users very strongly dislike dubs for aesthetic or artistic reasons. You can use audiovault.net to find audio description tracks as well, which can also help users follow along on the show and chat simultaneously, but this requires an account, and some users strongly disfavor the idea of listening to AD. Both dubbing and AD would be non-issues if PeerTube/TankieTube supported multiple audio tracks.

There is not much interest in SL interpretation, not that PeerTube supports multiple video tracks, anyways.

If you intend to organize, say, a language immersion watch party, find-and-replace "English" in this section with the respective language.

If you yourself are unwilling or unable to personally upload the content you want to show, you can find someone else who can upload it for you. @Grebgreb@hexbear.net and @AernaLingus@hexbear.net have done this for me. @tithonis@hexbear.net and @AntifaSuperWombat@hexbear.net have also contributed original subtitles for previously-unsubtitled content, so if you can't find any subs for what you want to show, consider hitting them up.

The amount of time you should reserve for your watch party should be about one-third longer than the runtime of the thing you're showing, to account for pee breaks, starting delays, or other eventual delays, without cutting too much (if at all) into other organizers' time. This is to say, if you want to show something about 40 minutes long, reserve 1 hour for your watch party; 60 minutes of content gets a 1½ hour watch party; 2 hours of content gets a 3 hour watch party.

It is customary for watch parties to start ~15 minutes after their listed time, sometimes earlier and sometimes even later. This means you shouldn't worry too much about cutting into other organizers' time. However, if the chat is still dead half an hour after your watch party's listed time, you might want to edit your announcement post to advance the listed time by one hour; make sure to notify the taglist about this. If your watch party is on a weekday, and you aren't sure how much interest there is in the thing you're showing, you might therefore want to reserve an hour longer than the "one-third rule" of the previous paragraph suggests.

When choosing a listed time for your watch party, you should go for a "round number", i.e. :00 or :30. Since most partygoers are based in Europe and Abya Yala ("the Americas"), consider whether the time you're choosing is inconvenient for one group by forcing them to stay up late when they need to wake up early for work, or inconvenient for the other group by coming on right as they're coming home from work. Also, remember daylight savings time, particularly the fact that different countries enter and leave DST at different times.

Although it is customary to start watch parties ~15 minutes after listed time, you as organizer might wish to log on a few minutes before listed time. However, nobody will complain if you're fashionably late to your own watch party.

1. The name of what you'll be showing, and a brief description of it.
2. Where the watch party will be held, i.e. Blorptube, hypothetically somewhere else.
3. A specific time for the watch party, provided in several time zones.
4. Some sort of one-liner or slogan.

I would also recommend attaching a picture to your announcement post for extra visibility.

The post body should ideally include the following:

1. A link to the chatroom (i.e. https://blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine)
2. A warning to use a VPN and have a Hexbear account.
3. A description of what you'll be showing, perhaps including its runtime.
4. Information on accessibility, particularly subtitles and content warnings; you may also wish to specify whether you'll be showing the content dubbed, if applicable; or other information if applicable.

You can of course also add your own personal flair.

You ping users by copy-pasting the taglist in the comments. Very specifically in the comments, mind you: putting the taglist in the announcement post body does NOT work! You need to use the comments.

Your ping comment should ideally include some information about what you're showing and when / how long until the watch party starts. You should avoid sending more than three pings; two-to-three is the ideal. I personally ping once when I make the announcement post (oftentimes ~11 hours before the watch party itself), then once more an hour before listed time, and then one last time 10~15 minutes before listed time.

You do not need special permission from anyone to use the taglist for your watch parties.

You also might want to ask people in the Blorptube chat about the things you want to show, or even make a /c/movies post asking for interest in a potential watch party, to gauge interest before committing to organizing a watch party. You'll also want to consider how easy it is to get a hold of the content in question before gauging interest, and consider how easily viewers can shift their attention between the show and the chat.

If you're showing a series, you might want to keep in mind how much of it you can stomach at a time — if you can only put up with three episodes back to back, there's no point in showing five just to make the most of your time. Don't feel like you have to commit to something, either: if you're getting tired of showing something, or the other partygoers seem to be losing enthusiasm, switch to something else.

If you end up finishing a watch party with some extra time to spare, you might want to have what I call "deadairmat" on hand as something to queue just to pass the time. I have mainly used classic Fireman Sam for this.

When it comes to "peebreakmat", i.e. videos to queue between movies or episodes to give people a chance to stretch their legs, grab snacks, and do their business, you might want to go for something like a music video. And I do mean specifically a music video: just a song with a still image also works, but I personally prefer to have a moving image to look at.