Presenting messages to participants based on neighborhoods

A computer-implemented method for displaying messages to participants in group streaming activities, comprising:

• receiving a message generated by a participant of a plurality of participants by a computing device for distribution to other participants of the plurality of participants in conjunction with a computerized group content streaming event, with the participants being participants in the streaming event, with the participants being computerized components in a computer system, and with the content streaming event comprising sending continuous streaming content to the participants, with the messages being different from the streaming content, wherein a participant of the plurality of participants is associated with a neighborhood of a plurality of neighborhoods for distributing messages from the participants in conjunction with the streaming event, with the messages being different from the streaming content, and each neighborhood includes a subset of the participants of the plurality of participants and does not include all the plurality of participants;
• generating a computer-readable audience for the message based on one or more of the neighborhoods that include the participant that generated the message by the computing device, wherein the audience comprises a subset of participants of the plurality of participants in the streaming event and does not include all the plurality of participants;
• presenting the message to the participants in the generated audience by the computing device in conjunction with the streaming event;
• receiving computerized indications of approval for the presented message by the computing device from participants in the plurality of participants in the streaming event;
• in response to the received indications of approval, adding participants of the plurality of participants in the streaming event to the generated audience by the computing device;
• and
• presenting the message to the added participants by the computing device in conjunction with the streaming event.

A computer system for displaying messages to participants of group streaming activities, comprising:

• at least one computing device;
• and
• a message engine adapted to:
• receive identifiers of a plurality of participants in a computerized group content streaming event, with the participants being computerized components in the computer system, and with the content streaming event comprising sending continuous streaming content to the participants;
• for each participant of the plurality of participants, assign the participant to a position of a plurality of positions of a structure in the computer system, wherein the positions are arranged in a first direction and a second direction around the structure;
• for each participant of the plurality of participants, generate a neighborhood for distributing messages from the participant in conjunction with the streaming event, with the messages being different from the streaming content, wherein each neighborhood comprises a subset of participants of the plurality of participants that includes less than all the plurality of participants, with the generating of the neighborhood for the participant comprising basing selection of participants for inclusion in the neighborhood on proximity of the selected participants to the participant for which the neighborhood is being generated in one or more of the first direction and the second direction around the structure;
• receive a message generated by a participant of the plurality of participants for distribution to other participants of the plurality of participants in conjunction with the streaming event;
• generate a computer-readable audience for the message based on one or more of the neighborhoods that include the participant that generated the message, wherein the audience comprises a subset of participants of the plurality of participants in the streaming event and does not include all the plurality of participants;
• and
• present the message to the participants in the generated audience in conjunction with the streaming event.