When I took over for Brandon one of the things I wanted to do was make the comment sections more open to discussion and more inviting in general. I haven’t done a good enough job of that, but that ends now.
We want to be inclusive of everyone who wants to discuss Dallas Stars hockey. Hell, the community in general isn’t that large as is so excluding anyone is counterproductive to the cause of growing hockey in Dallas. But in allowing certain elements to remain around many others are driven away and that isn’t something I’m willing to accept anymore.
We’re pretty lenient about things, but there comes a point when our requests to “not be toxic” become just words to be ignored. The vast majority of our readers and community members don’t engage in the toxic behavior, and they aren’t going to have to put up with others doing it consistently anymore. The ones that do, the very few who do, will be removed if an identifiable pattern of behavior is present.
This is supposed to be enjoyable. For those of us who write about the team, most of us are doing this in our free time. I assume most readers spend part of their free time reading what we do as an escape from the everyday also. Escapes aren’t escapes when they’re miserable. So, from now on, we’re going to do a better job of sticking to the consequences outlined when I took over and habitual line-steppers will be dealt with swiftly.
One longtime user has been banned, and we really don’t want to have to do things like that. The ridiculous amount of leniency shown in general is a testament to that fact. But if anyone else wants to continue to engage in toxic behavior of the same sort they risk meeting the same fate.