You are using words and phrases that are not applicable to a private forum. Freedom of speech does not exist in a private forum, because a private forum does not have a Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech. These forums have a set of rules that dictate what can, and cannot happen on the forums. Anyone posting on the forums has agreed to that set of rules, including yourself. Also, there is no censorship on the forums; censorship pertains to governments putting a bridle on speech and expression; it has nothing to do with private entities like these forums. What we have here is moderation, and moderation is done on the basis of the rules you agree to. You may not agree with the moderation, but there is no recourse; there is no higher court, there is no higher judge, the buck stops with the moderators and the administrators.
Don't like it? Your presence or participation is not mandated. I personally have been here for as long as you have, and I have been an administrator or moderator for almost the entire time. I have removed uglier topics than this, and I have removed less ugly topics than this, and I don't regret any of my decisions as of yet. That includes this particular one.
Also, do not forget that administrators and moderators have actual busy day jobs, which sometimes causes an absence of moderation just when a topic explodes into political diatribe or interpersonal nastiness or even downright trolling. Sometimes the moderators and administrators come back to the forums and see four or five pages full of stuff that needs to be moderated, but is almost inextricably linked, quoted, and cross-referenced, and cannot be pulled apart into a neat and readable topic. Topics like that are removed because they are a blot on the forums and don't serve a wider purpose. Our rules, our call, our energy, our time.
You are certainly free to air your grievances on other media, like Reddit, or Mastodon... frankly, we don't care, and from the pushback you're getting there, we're guessing: nor does anyone else.
This is, and has always been, a technical forum for discussion about all things FreeBSD, and as soon as a discussion diverges into territory that is covered by the rules, it either gets moderated or it gets removed. That includes topics that start out well and perfectly acceptable, but explode into a shouting match within a matter of hours, with moderators or administrators simply missing the time and energy to reverse that trainwreck.
Nothing new here, and it will not change. The forums are governed by the rules and the rules are executed by administrators and moderators. We all generally moderate at arm's length and try not to get too intrusive, but in this case that was not to be. This time, it happened to you, other times it didn't.
You can exercise all the freedom of speech you want on your own medium,
https://vermaden.wordpress.com/, a medium that all of the administrators and moderators actually enjoy and appreciate; a medium that we even import into the forums into the Blogs and Newsfeeds section. Thank you for those efforts. Almost all of that stuff is technical discussion of FreeBSD, exactly the stuff we are looking for, and we hope to be posting that for as long as you supply it. Some of your articles were not posted on the forums, or retroactively removed, because they contained something we did not want on the forums. That is the freedom that we have.
Accept and move on, or move out.
By the way, this topic is locked because we are not going to get into meta discussions.
