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Some users have been suspended from chat for long periods of time. CMs are justifying such long suspensions by saying chat isn't the main feature of the site. This is true to a certain extent, but not 100% true.

Lots of times, we fall into long discussion in comments these users (which is unavoidable at times) and chat comes to the rescue. Here, chat serves like a main feature of the site because comments aren't meant for discussion.

Now, some of the users who have been suspended from chat are old users with a high reputation who are highly active on the site. So, it is likely that we can encounter a comment discussion with those users in the future.

What to do then? Should I continue that discussion in comments until it has a conclusion and then move it to chat? Or, should we allow them for limited access to chat (access to only comments turned into a chat room, that's also for limited time)?

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    Having discussion about the post in comments sound fine but using comments as chat replacement is not fine.
    – Ankit Sharma
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 5:15
  • @Cliquey Did I say anything about chat replacement?
    – Dr. Doom
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 5:16
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    Open an off-site chat room. Google Hangouts, Slack - there should be more than one alternative.
    – Gallifreyan
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 8:33
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    I seem to recall people who were suspended from chat getting into even more hot water for using comments as an end-run around the chat suspension.
    – phantom42
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 13:12
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    don't get suspended from chat - seems simple enough : \ - see the Mos Eisley meta for 'this is why we can't have nice things' convo
    – NKCampbell
    Commented May 24, 2017 at 16:21

1 Answer 1

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Mainly, no

Comments are not for discussion. That’s why we can flag comments as, for example, “too chatty.”

You can respond to questions and statements that users make about the question itself, but even then, if a conversation gets too long, it should be moved to chat. The fact that banned users won’t be able to follow you there may be a bit inconvenient, but chat-banned users being unable to access chat is a feature, not a bug.

As for allowing chat-banned users limited access to chat, that’s not something that moderators on this site should generally do, even if they can (which may not be the case). This holds double when a user has been banned by the CMs. If you think this would be a good feature to have overall, it might be worth bringing up on the main meta.

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    Moderators can suspend or unsuspend a user from all of chat, but cannot allow a user only limited access to chat. It's all or nothing.
    – Null Mod
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 14:27

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