I can’t find the original post, apparently, a deleted thread will even be purged for those with moderator access after some time. No idea why it would have been deleted since we would normally just close a thread if it started to get off-topic or unruly.
What I have been able to gather from the posts I did read around/about it is that it was specifically discussing spam. Someone seems to copy/pasted some of the post, which reading it, sounds like me… so let me quote that here…
So once more, to be clear, speaking about non-Trade subjects in the Trade channel does not violate our chat policies .
With that said, and to reiterate what the GM told you, each chat channel is designed for the purpose of the title of the channel. So Trade Chat taking place in the Trade channel is the suggested use of that channel. If you are discussing other subjects in the channel, other players on your realm can consider those unwanted messages as spam. They may report it as such and therefore the penalties associated with spam may be applied to the person reported.
So considering the author of the quoted post is me, I can absolutely reaffirm that it did not say that chat must adhere to the category of the channel.
While chat taking place in a channel that is contrary to the channel’s category is not against policy, we do allow realms a certain amount of leeway to make determinations on what they may consider spam. If reported, a person may be squelched. In many cases that will be overturned upon review, but it is possible that we will uphold the action based on the content of the chat. It depends on the situation.