I am here to discuss and hope there is a lot of free speech to be had

Welcome, Excalibur, to the monkey house.

Wada ya want!

...I mean, welcome. Welcome to ratskeps!

I want to be able to discuss things out in the open, that kind of thing

Excalibur wrote:I am here to discuss and hope there is a lot of free speech to be had

Welcome! It's a private forum so free speech doesn't exactly apply but you're allowed to say pretty much all you want within the confinements of the FUA.

all forums are private so are you saying that free speech in just a govt decision?

It's a right afforded by the state that doesn't apply to private settings.

it may not apply , but do you think it should, otherwise how can a proper debate be conducted?

By going somewhere it does apply.

ah yes, but nearly everyone and all forums say that, so effectively free speech is barred in general

barred by stealth iow

Excalibur wrote:it may not apply , but do you think it should, otherwise how can a proper debate be conducted?

It's not like you're not free to say what you want. It's just that no private forum is obligated to give you a stage for everything. Let's say you were a rampant neo Nazi and all you wanted was to glorify Hitler around here. If think we both agree that the board's owner should reserve the right to kick you out.
But you can still voice most opinions around here and only if you engage on hardcore trolling will it get you banned.

Excalibur wrote:ah yes, but nearly everyone and all forums say that, so effectively free speech is barred in general

barred by stealth iow

Only absolute free speech, which is rare in most Western countries anyway, see things like hate speech and incitement to violence.
If you'd care to take a look at the FUA, you'll see the limits here are pretty reasonable.

In my experience, the only people whose first contribution to a new forum is to express worries about being banned are those who have a reason to be worried about being banned. Just saying.

so do you think I could get banned for expressing a worry about getting banned?

Excalibur wrote:so do you think I could get banned for expressing a worry about getting banned?

That's not what he said, is it? There's rules. You know, the ones you read when you signed up?

Excalibur wrote:so do you think I could get banned for expressing a worry about getting banned?

Obviously not. I thought OliverK made a good point, something that occurred to me as well. Have you been banned from any forums?

would I be banned from here if I'd been banned from any other forums?

Excalibur wrote:would I be banned from here if I'd been banned from any other forums?

No.

Excalibur wrote:would I be banned from here if I'd been banned from any other forums?

It wouldn't be grounds to ban you in its own right no. But, you might want to consider why you were banned elsewhere and reflect on how you avoid that happening to you here.

would I be banned for opposing mass immigration of refugees for instance?