Board Thread:Moderation Desk/@comment-644222-20150815034345/@comment-4681356-20150815174858

Hello, Sasheen/Victori:

Well first off, I find the idea that everyone involved in a conversation is at fault for what individuals say especially absurd. If I go into a bar with my buddy and we start yelling racial slurs, every patron of the bar isn't at fault; my buddy and I are at fault.

This rule should not be taken as the sum of what was wrong with what resulted in yesterday's bans. There was a lot wrong with that situation, and we shouldn't discuss it further; it is under close watch and investigation, and you'll see some of the other things that are wrong treated when the wikia staff publishes a complete rule-set, addressing things like meta-gaming, god-moding, and especially using the wikia to force people to interact with someone to which they've expressed the desire to simply be left alone.

Though we won't discuss yesterday's bans, we can discuss the rationale behind this rule, which I am appalled that even a few people, even if they are the friends of the disaffected, may be against. I thought hating racism was like hating rotten eggs. We can try to make it out to be like this is the wikia staff trying to become big brother or something and institute bans for hate speech wide-open, but the fact is the wikia staff has no such interest. All of us are busy people leading successful guilds; we have no desire to police everything that every wikia users say.

Obviously each situation is to be judged with best discretion according to its severity and notoriety. Thank God, there are very few situations this notorious, severe, or plain-as-day hate speech. Since my seven or so years on the server, there has only been one or perhaps two cases that I know of where this rule needed to be applied (where it actually might have some efficacy).

You don't have to worry about the wikia staff looking for the next drama bomb to kick out folks (or indeed, listening to those who might be looking for it). We have no time, no desire, not to mention our own minds and good judgment, and our own objective: the betterment of the wikia and the server. We were (and still are) in a situation where we could do something about hate speech, and we have a moral obligation to stick by our decision because it still might yet do some good.