For the past few years, I have taken a laid-back approach to moderation in #lounge, the network lobby. The main rationale for this is that I wanted to foster a chat where individual opinions are able to be expressed, whether we all agreed with them or not. Unfortunately, this resulted in a slow but steady rise in the general toxicity that was being expressed in the channel. It began with the use of 4Chan terminology and mannerisms, and it expanded all the way to blatant racism. The lounge was never a place for users to empty their toxic behavior, and I will not stand for it. Racism masquerading as "opinions" is still just that -- racism.
The post of this post is not to name any particular or group of users as the culprit. It is to simply announce the changes and give a little reasoning behind it. I hope this puts a lot of minds at ease, as I understand that some felt like this was acceptable behavior. It was never acceptable behavior.
As a result of what has occurred in the #lounge, I have updated the channel's rules, which are listed and kept up to date on the #lounge wiki page. For those who want a quick sentence instead of clicking the link, basically, the rules state to be excellent to one another, and racism and/or hate speech is explicitly not allowed.
This update leaves #lounge as a more moderated channel, but I would like to still keep things as laid-back as possible. However, if the toxicity rises again, I will once again step in to tighten the rules. The lounge (as well as the network) is a place where everyone should feel safe and welcome. If you feel that you have a situation that is contrary to this, please reach out.
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