Bitcoin Talk seems to have changed over the last couple of years. But then I think society has changed as well, so it could well be me that has a different perception. Covid and the imminent economic reset seems to have closed the minds of the population, and I guess thus is the result of fear mongering by governments and bankers. We are now in a strange world where you can't start a speech with the phrase "Good morning ladies and gentlemen", and a political forum is a real minefield today. I wouldn't want to moderate one, unless it could maintain a publicly admitted bias.
I'm drifting away from the forum, as many of my friends seen to have left, or only post on the tech boards. I used to gain pleasure from discussing the situations in various countries, but it seems that too many people are frightened to appear politically incorrect today. Well as a mature, heterosexual, white anglophile, I'm not PC, and I don't respect the mindless and slavish pursuit of public approbation. In the end, it is up ti the members here to post and start threads that make the political board an interesting one, The mods can't prune a bush into an attractive asset if the bush is dead.
This may be a bit off topic but I agree. This place seemed to go through some sort of transition around 2016 where I don’t know if guidance changed or just the community was inundated with spammers and get rich types, but I think a majority of the users still here after 8+ years are more here for nostalgia than anything else. The fact that some users are allowed to harass and spread lies here and that’s fine, but if you have a political opinion differing from a moderator or you are suspected of posting to inflate your post count you’re silenced seems a bit backwards. There was a point when this forum was moderated by rules like “no trolling” but those days are long behind us. While Bitcoin went from the Wild West to a regulated mess, the forum went from a well moderated place to build projects in a supportive environment to the Wild West and the user experience has suffered greatly.