Sometimes it's in the eye of the storm that you realize you need to adjust your sails.

The last few days have been a bit tumultuous. Running a business that focuses on the people means you literally have to focus on the people. Now, without a good PR team at our side, it leaves us in the position to communicate efficiently with respect and for a larger vision of the future.

We love to hash things out and get to the bottom of any issue, and we don't fear confrontation. After all, confrontation is only a conversation you'd rather not be having.

So, as we digest the conflicts of the last few days, we came to the realization that in order to keep maturing as a community and business we have to be willing to change for the better.

The first change we made was in regards to our Discord rules page. It was brought to our attention that we had nothing in place to protect our members from discrimination.

To be completely honest, this had never occurred to us. One of our first rules is kindness. We do realize now though, that it very important for the peace of mind of anyone new coming our way. And on the plus side, it protects us as well.

Here are all the current Discord community rules.

1. No inappropriate language or content. Keep it family friendly. Seems subjective, but items found will be deleted. Multiple times will lead to banning.

2. No spamming. Help keep our community clean and clear from spamming and abuse. This includes link dropping. Please report if you notice an issue.

3. In case you don't know who runs this place, our focus is on kindness. I encourage you to be kind.

4. Ideas and feedback. If a community grows, it is because of the people. Please be involved and make this amazing.

5. Rules are subject to change.

6. The Inner Blocks is a community for all humans. There will be no tolerance for discrimination based on religion, sex, politics, culture, location, or any other hot button issue that divides people. Different views and conversation is encouraged. Discrimination will be banned. Please see rule #3

We are a self reliant community that is focused on each individuals want and drive to do for themselves. Let us encourage each other as we share our own adventures, learn new skills, meet new people, and build blocks.

The beauty of our Discord channel is that it is completely voluntary. It serves as a place to gather, talk and to receive updates on how the Inner Blocks' dApp is doing.

Another bit of information I would like to address is the foundation of Inner Blocks, meaning is the Inner Blocks built on a foundation of faith?

This came into question these last few days, and if one person is wondering, then there might be more.

The answer to that is...not intentionally. We, Stacie D and the Yeti or also known as @freedomtowrite and @freedompoint, view ourselves as devotees of Christ.

What that means for us is, we pray through our decisions...including the decision to start Inner Blocks. It also means that we follow Jesus's teachings, and we love everyone. We are not exclusive. We do not discriminate. Our faith may leak into our dApp or into the Discord server via love, kindness and respect for all humans. It's an undeniable presence.

The beautiful part of being human and freedom of speech, is the ability to speak openly about whatever you believe. We encourage all individuals to speak freely and feel welcomed.

We do not believe that content should censored, or one belief put above another.

Lastly, the biggest change we are putting into place is going from an open Discord server to a private Discord server. We will no longer be handing out the invitation freely, and have changed the settings to prevent open invitations.

As we looked around at all the successful STEEM businesses, something was very obvious...they are particular about who they surround themselves with.

We recognize that there needs to be a balance in relationships. We need individuals that are insightful, knowledgeable, willing to work as a team, and most of all, share the vision of the Inner Blocks.

We have not kicked or banned anyone as we didn't feel that was necessary. However, we will be keeping a closer eye.

Everyone's opinion matters, it's the delivery that counts.

If you are a member and feel someone would be a good fit, please DM us on Discord. If you are not a member, but would like to be, you are more than welcome to DM us, or leave a comment below.

Moving up and moving on.

Now that we have addressed what some may have considered to be negative issues surrounding our community, we are moving up and moving on.

Looking forward there are great changes coming to the Inner Blocks. Currently, our developer @jasonbu has just finished the Hivemind API for the dApp. He and his team are now working on Keychain, layout and small features.

When the updates are further along, we will be changing the name and account from The Inner Blocks to Inner Blocks. We will have a fresh relaunch that will include a contest where we will be giving away a 2018 Steem Silver Round!

We are currently developing a Discord based voting bot that will help the Inner Blocks curators to support a wider range of creators and content.

As most know, not every step forward is a giant leap, but every step counts. We are pushing forward to refine our team, our tactics and our ability to encourage and support great content creators and content.

Thank you so much for taking time to read all of these changes and updates. We excited to see the future!

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