Is Microsoft censoring comments related to git Pull requests or blocking access to discussions?
No. But people resposible for a given repository can do so. The same is true in YouTube comments, and in many other places.
I think that Bitcoin node runners should be able to comment on Pull requests that are considered important to the state of the network.
How would you know, if someone is running a node, or is that person just pretending to do so? There is no need to even store the whole chain, to remain compatible with the network, and be indistinguishable from a regular full node. For example, if you would drop some data, which is never accessed, then it could remain unnoticed for quite long time (also because even if someone is doing Initial Blockchain Download, everything is not downloaded from your node, but it is done in parallel from several nodes).
I discovered I was Shadowed Banned.
In the modern Internet, it is normal to be shadowbanned. For that reason, I am logged out most of the time, and logged in, only to post things. Also because a lot of sites are tracking their users, and by being logged out, you can often see more subtle details here and there, which are hidden if you are logged in, and placed in some kind of informational bubble.
In my opinion Shadow Banning is a perverse and insidious attack on freedom of speech.
Well, this is just one more reason to have alternative accounts, and to be logged out, most of the time. Some people wonder, why I have so many accounts, but the truth is, that it is not just "good for privacy". It becomes essential for knowing, what is going on, and what are true intentions of many people. Also, after reaching a higher level in some community (for example being Legendary here), it is a good idea to post something as a Newbie, or some low-ranked member, just to see, if people still judge the content, or if they are lazy, and just merit something, because of the author.
After about 80+ captcha try's on two different computers using two different browsers and two different Operating Systems I kept receiving the same "Unable to verify your captcha response" error message over and over.
What about IP address? Was it the same, or different? Your fingerprint consists of a lot of things. And if you use Tor Browser, it also has some kind of fingerprint: it is possible to mark it as "a traffic from Tor", if you don't use bridges. And note that typing speed, mouse moves, and other factors are also in use, because simple captcha images are just too easy for bots, and too hard for humans. Fortunately, sites like bitcointalk can allow you to skip captcha, if you succeed once.
I am not sure if Gitlab will be an adequate replacement, but it should probably be considered.
There is a better way. A separate blockchain for cloud storage could be better. Imagine a signet, where blocks could be signed by anyone, and where you can freely choose the set of public keys you want to follow. In this way, it would be possible to switch from one group to another, without changing the whole system, just by ignoring some public keys, and picking a new ones, based on the content they signed.
In general, git as a system is distributed enough, to be put in a blockchain-based environment. Every commit has some parent, and all changes form a chain of diffs, that could be signed by the authors. Many things are possible, just nobody wrote the software for that (yet). I guess, it could be even compatible with centralized git servers, with some additional effort.
By the way: the discussion about Ordinals is quite hot, but it doesn't have to be. You can find out, what could be the consequences of blocking that kind of transactions, if you read more about UTXO flood, and other consequences. There are much worse things, than what we have today. Also because, as long as people are focused on Ordinals, they could be later removed in one shot, if you use a trick, that could act like OP_CHECKDATASIG on any committed data, with delayed validation. And there are more tricks under the hood, so it is good to keep those spammers in their current positions, to remove their spam later in a single move.
