I don't want the Lounge killed. If we decided it was in the best interest of Bluelight for The Lounge to die, it would be dead without any pussyfooting around. In fact, whenever the idea is brought up in private discussion the owners and the admin staff all agree that The Lounge is an important part of the site despite its idiosyncrasies.
Historically, TL has been a special place where people can post socially and joke around in a forum where drugs aren't being discussed. That's been very important to people who wanted to stay connected to friends but also want to distance themselves from substance, and for those who just grew out of their "drug phase." We want this to continue.
We take full responsibility for the fact that the changes made to the lounge were done prematurely and without sufficient transparency to those affected. This wasn’t on purpose, but an oversight. Due to the holidays, most of us weren’t aware that the changes had been made. Now that we are, we are committed to fixing things and would like to engage the TL mods to find the best solution -- a permanent solution that fixes all issues related to the lounge, permanently.
That all said, I am in complete agreement with those who feel the use of racist and homophobic slurs has become unacceptable. Really, I'm shocked that Bluelighters actually want to use those types of epithets at all. At the end of the day, such inflammatory and unenlightened language does hurt people, whether it is the intention of the post or not, and it's not somehow intrinsic or essential to the culture of the lounge. If this truly bothers some of you, I don't know what to say. I'd rather have you be a wee bit upset than have to explain to our gay or ethnic members that "it's just who we are," because it isn't who we are. We can fuck around all we want, and I enjoy dumb and immature humor more than most, but we need to hold ourselves to a bare minimum standard that at least tells people "despite all the joking, we're a progressive community that doesn't discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, race or color."
It's New Year's Eve today, so I would ask that you all please be patient and we will do our best to remedy the situation as soon as possible. Lounge mods, if you'd like to talk to me directly, I welcome you to PM me directly and we can set up a time to chat online or talk live. I'd love to get to know you and I think you'll find I'm easy to talk to, understanding and accommodating of your perspectives.