Board Thread:Chat Discussion/@comment-5590118-20141120182446/@comment-1196539-20141121163739

For all the people saying that fewer rules will result in fewer instances of unacceptable behavior, I have to ask:

What is your suggestion, specifically, for what be done when this behavior DOES happen? Because "more relaxed moderation" is synonymous with misbehavior being addressed less often, and isn't a very concrete solution.

The root problem is the chat's culture, and it's one that's been around for a long, long time. There's a sense of community in the chat that, frankly, if it's causing people to get defensive when new people or people from other wikis enter, or think that rude behavior is okay, is more a problem than it is of benefit. While I agree that more stringent enforcement of rules does not solve this problem of culture, at the very least it treats the symptoms. Easing back and leaving people to their own devices cures neither the disease nor its symptoms.

At the very end of the day, the problem here is people. And unfortunately, there are few things harder than changing people.