Hate speech is prohibited on GeekShed. The official definition is included in the Terms of Service, which you agree to when you connect to GeekShed:

1. Hate Speech
   1. You may not use any language defined as Hate Speech, which includes–but is not limited to–text or actions that are any of the following:
      1. Demeaning in any manner.
      2. Harmful.
      3. An attack on religion, race, or sexual orientation.

What’s the difference between hateful comments and hate speech?

Hate speech attacks someone (or a group of people) based on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, culture, religion, nationality, or other characteristic. It may use abusive or belittling language or communicate bigoted or defamatory ideas.

Hate speech does not include statements like “I hate you” or “You are a troll.” Those are hateful or mean comments. It’s poor netiquette (or bad manners) to say rude or mean things to someone, but it’s not against the network rules. Network staff will not ban someone for mean comments.

What can I do if someone is using hate speech?

If network staff are already active in the channel, just wait a minute for staff to handle the situation. If a couple of minutes pass and nothing happens, alert the staff member.

If no staff member is in the channel, please come to #help and report the incident to network staff. You will need to provide logs of the incident in most cases before staff acts.

How do I alert staff?

Okay, listen up. This part is important. Do NOT repeat the hate speech in another channel to report it. You may accidentally be banned yourself if you do.

Here’s the right way to alert staff: “Hi. I need help. SomeBadUser is using hate speech in #channel.” Of course, you need to use the user’s real nick and the actual channel. When a staff member replies, they may ask you to PM what the person said or to share the log of what happened with Pastebin.

Can I do anything about hateful, mean comments?

Yes you can! If you are a moderator (hop or op) in the channel, you can kick or ban the person. You can also use an extended ban to silence the person. If it’s a channel you own, you can include a rule against hateful comments as well.

If the person is sending private messages or you’re not a moderator, use the /IGNORE command. Check your client documentation for details on how it works. Generally, the syntax is this: /IGNORE nick (for instance, /IGNORE SomeBadUser).

—Posted by tengrrl