Posts concerning say, Meade vs. Celestron or off-axis vs. side-by-side auto guiding tend to be bounded by the physical properties of the hardware, software or techniques that are being discussed. Generally, these posts seem to regulate themselves and remain healthy for their duration.
When the subject matter is much more open, I have noticed, not just on this forum, that there is a greater risk of the topic morphing into several different forms depending on what a particular poster feels is important to them at the time of their post. Just going from memory, these types of post can become quite unpleasant or even toxic, very quickly.
Given that this Forum is owned and operated by Mike, Terry and a small band of helpers, I can sympathise with their need to manage the Forum in a manner that meets their own needs in terms of the hobby and their goals and objectives, whilst providing them with some peace of mind and protection for them and their families from whatever they decide is unwelcome.
Once more going from memory (flawed and self-selective unfortunately), the more controversial topics appear to only involve a small number of posters, not the majority of Forum members. So, if such a post is deemed by the management team to be not suited to the “character” of this Forum as defined by them, and the topics of these types of posts appear to only involve or meet the needs of a small number of members, then it seems likely that they will become locked as they appear to unfurl in a predictable pattern. I think that it is quite unfair and unreasonable to attribute heavy handed censorship to the management team under these circumstances.
I personally try to stay away from these topics because I lack the formal training of detached and accurate debating, a deep understanding of the correct use and meaning of language and also have a somewhat unreliable separation between writing unbiased “truths” versus posting flawed reasoning, poor understanding or just shouting out loud.
Oh well, that’s got that off my chest!
Cheers
Dennis