Comment on #devart by moonbeam13
I think the idea of a "cliquish" room is far better for places that aren't the very first stop a large amount of potential new chatters make on dAmn. 
The problem is, there's cliques in every room. Anytime you get a lot of people joining a place, be it forums or chatrooms or anything, certain "unspoken rules" will arise and lead to a "club". I don't see that ever changing or even being a bad thing. People just need to realize that, and stay if they like, or find another room if it's not their style.
That's true to some degree, but just how much there's a "clique" is up for debate. A clique is implying closedness and unfriendlyness, but there are always going to be regulars who are friendly with each other at the very least, and yes, there often will be unspoken rules, which is not necessarily a bad thing either.
Sort of odd how devart (and most channels) are run. Gotta love that odd social construct 
All in all, aside from some toning down of the insta-rip on new users, I think most of how devart has run in the past is pretty fine. But who knows. Maybe things will be better now.
All in all, aside from some toning down of the insta-rip on new users, I think most of how devart has run in the past is pretty fine. But who knows. Maybe things will be better now.
I notice that the less active the moderation is, the more true it is, and that goes for anywhere on the website. Users without the power to directly interfere with objectionable activities with the power a moderator or admin has end up going to lengths like what we've seen in #devart a lot to make up for the lack of influence they otherwise have. I think the best solution the majority of times, however, is to just allow the moderation and administration to make people no longer feel that such things are so necessary to keep the environment of the room the way they want it and to also address unreasonable expectations; of course, without overexerting their influence.
Yeah I think that's the problem, really: We've developed ways to self-moderate without the powers to do so and have turned into impatient bitches since moderation has been so lacking over the years. So hopefully, with more concrete moderation, we can lay off the nastiness or whatever and things can calm down a bit.