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Upon review, I found it confusing and somewhat silly that we had separate Codes of Conduct for the site and Discord, so I've combined the two into one joint Code of Conduct, which can be found here. Feel free to review, though you shouldn't find any of it unfamiliar.

Additionally, the Discord rules have been updated (and heavily simplified). These can be found here.

This felt like it should be a separate post because it's somewhat unrelated to the above:

The moderation staff is ceding full control of the #debate channel on the Discord server to Makaze. They will be the sole arbiter of corrective action within that space. They cannot ban you from the server at large, but they CAN remove your access to that channel.

(yes, I'm serious)

We're making the following changes to our policy with regards to communicating with users who make reports, in an effort to increase transparency.

From now on, whenever a report you make is closed out, you'll be contacted by a moderator, who will inform you whether or not any action was taken. Please note: in this case, "action" can mean anything from a brief talking-to to a ban, and in the interest of privacy it's unlikely that the exact degree of action will be expounded on (though I'm hoping the latter case would be evident enough on its own). In the event that no action is taken, we'll do our best to briefly explain why - again, within the bounds of the reported user's privacy.

Ideally, this does a couple of things. It lets you guys know about how long it takes for something to get handled, it lets you know that things ARE being handled, and in the case that no action is taken, it should help clarify where we personally see the "line" on behavior to be. Please note that this is not necessarily an invitation to argue about where the line should be, but simply an attempt to show where it is.

Additionally, whenever you make a report by contacting an individual moderator rather than using the forum's report system, you'll be contacted by a separate moderator within 24 hours to let you know that your report has been received. This is simply intended to provide an additional layer of accountability on our end - nobody wants to get left thinking their report's been flushed down the toilet.

The line between not shaming people for their actions and letting others know what's going on is a fairly tricky one to walk, but it's the belief of the staff that we've been overcorrecting on the side of clamming up. This may not completely clear up the black box, but it's my hope that it's moving towards a lighter shade of gray.