Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-24376429-20140412002355/@comment-4665292-20140416122001

I don't even know what to say. Personally, I feel like the chat was the one thing that made this site feel like a community that anyone was welcome to join; it had a sense of homeliness, like this was more than the countless other horror literature sites out there. Without it, there's definitely a much less friendly atmosphere as people can't directly interact with one another (as easily).

As for "drama"... really? Sure, people can be asshats and I know I've been a sort of a douchedalf myself in the chat from time to time, but how is that a reason to shut it down? Anyone who thinks the chat pulled out the worst in people should just skim through this thread and, well, realise that that's not true by a long shot. I'm biased, I know, since I only pop by once in a while and couldn't have gotten the big picture of whatever outrageous mess happened to cause the chat to be closed (assuming there was a mess), but people were generally a lot nicer to one another in the chat than on the forums.

I mean, most of the "hostility" around was in no way serious, and the only reason the chat went downhill is because of the strictness of the rules; as far as I can recall, there wasn't any (or at least a lot less) of the so-called "drama" before last year, and most of it began only after more and more rules were made to stop people from insulting one another. The problem was that the rules were enforced even when someone was clearly joking or when the offensive words weren't used in an offensive context!

Also, saying that the chat kept people away from writing is only half true; for the other half (including myself), it served as a motivator when one was needed; a place to ask opinions, exchange ideas, that sorta stuff. I know I'm only speaking for myself as a meaningless member of this site, but overall the chat had many more positive things about it than negative ones.