If the message starts with !, we remove it from the beginning of the message here. This means that message.strip() in line 121 will remove any whitespace which was between the ! and the message: 

Thus, "! command" will be parsed as !command. This might introduce cute bugs later, but it's really undefined behavior as to whether ! <space> <valid bang command> should be parsed or not. If anything, it might be useful for disambiguating whether !thing is a built-in command or a !learn, since !learn commands won't act the same with a space in them.