Third-party developers (TPDs) often turn to online communities for support when they can't get immediate responses from the platform. Twitch, as a leading live streaming platform, attracted many TPDs and formed an online support community on Discord. This study explores TPDs' support practices via mixed method (a topic modeling to identify topics related to support seeking and provision first and a follow-up in-depth qualitative analysis with these topics) and found that: (1) TPDs' support-seeking practices around social, technical, and policy matters are highly dependent on Twitch, and this dependence acts as a form of platform labor; (2) TPDs need to switch between Discord and Twitch regarding seeking and provision, exacerbating TPDs' platform labor; (3) TPDs' flexible role practices reflect the community's flourishing on Discord but require roles to bridge the two platforms and transfer informal support seeking to possible formal support from Twitch. We propose implications for effectively managing support seeking and provision between formal and informal spaces to improve the development of TPDs. We also contribute to community support practice and to platform ecology work in CSCW.

翻译：第三方开发者（TPD）在无法从平台获得即时反馈时，常转向在线社区寻求支持。作为领先的直播平台，Twitch吸引了众多TPD，并在Discord上形成了在线支持社区。本研究通过混合方法（首先使用主题建模识别与支持寻求和支持提供相关的主题，随后对这类主题进行深入的定性分析）探讨了TPD的支持实践，发现：（1）TPD围绕社会、技术及政策议题的支持寻求实践高度依赖Twitch平台，这种依赖性构成了一种平台劳动形式；（2）TPD需要在Discord与Twitch之间切换以完成支持寻求与提供行为，加剧了其平台劳动负担；（3）TPD灵活的角色实践体现了Discord社区的活跃性，但需要建立跨平台角色桥梁，将非正式支持寻求转化为Twitch可能提供的正式支持。我们提出在正式与非正式空间间有效管理支持寻求与提供行为的建议，以促进TPD发展。本研究同时为CSCW领域的社区支持实践和平台生态研究作出贡献。