Board Thread:Community Voting/@comment-25101892-20150426202408/@comment-4257955-20150427004604

1: Well, basically A, but see below.

And for the second vote, I'm conflicted. As Harold said, things need to be evaluated on a case-to-case basis. There are times a kick causes chat to erupt à la "that kick was unjustified" "dude why did you kick" "that was completely unfair". Warnings are generally the best way to work toward a peaceful conclusion. But, in some situations I've observed, a prompt kick can actually bring about a peaceful conclusion quicker. It's very fluid, as sometimes chat will argue over the validity of a warning, and other times it will argue over the validity of a kick. It seems pointless to try and harness this quirk. I think mods are better off being skilled enough in conflict management to know if a kick is better in a frantic situation or if warnings are better in a long-winded situation, or whatever the situation necessitates at that time. So, neutral?

Also, my A (?) vote for the first question plays into this. If someone were warned twice already, then a kick would be a reasonable course of action. Otherwise, the person causing the issue would continue to cause the issue if the mods on chat were unsure about whether to warn or kick the user. Kicking (generally) snaps the user back to reality: the reality that their behavior should desist lest the mods resort to banning. Kicking off the bat is what usually exacerbates problems, turning the initial chat snafu into a double chat snafu. Yet again, however, sometimes an immdiate kick can solve a crisis without stretching it into a long-winded affair filled with bitter arguing and a cornucopia of warnings.

This doesn't happen so often. Why are there bitter arguments over something as silly as a forced refresh of an online chat? The answer is chat cliques. There are many cliques on LMBW. There's the atheist clique, the liberal clique, the conservative clique, the Christian clique, the LGBT* clique, the anime clique, the anti-anime clique, the pro-MBs clique, the anti-MBs clique, the pro-Brickimedia clique, the anti-Brickimedia clique...so many cliques. Many of us are in them. Many of us are in several. These cliques don't manifest themselves prominently unless if they're stressed in chat situations. Too often will I see people team up behind someone in their friend group that they will defend until the bitter end if they're kicked or warned for something they see to be unfair. This even happens in simple arguments over non-moderator related ordeals. People here will mock and insult and tear into other people here over anything if they're riled up enough. This translates into violently wild problems at times. Group mentalities are quite harmful. Now, this isn't solely why there are chat problems. People have biases against certain users and certain mods here. There are even cliques for these biases as well! I want all of us to step back and reexamine this though.

This is a wiki. A simple online community. People are different than you, and that's okay. People think differently from you, and that's okay. There are more worthwhile things to do than arguing over kicks and warnings and opinions and beliefs on the chat here. Insults are flung so easily at each other. We're desensitized toward all of this strife because it's so recurrent here. It seems none of us really learn from any of the conflicts that happen on chat here. Because the problems crop up again and again and again. It's tiring and saddening and quite sobering to experience, to observe. I'm asking you all humbly to see how you act and behave with one another. And I want you all to please see these little things as they are: little things. We argue so much over kicks and warnings and all of that stuff, and it really needs to stop. I know I'm asking a lot here, but I love you all a lot, and this place means a lot to me, and it's hard coming here somedays knowing that sooner or later something will blow up on chat and people will take their sides and defend those sides until someone gets banned. So I humbly request that we all see what we're doing to each other, to ourselves, and to do our best to improve, to coexist, to love.

Sorry, I really got off on a tangent here. I needed to let out these sentiments. This is only a community vote, after all. Carry on.