I think people are overreacting... One thing is Theymos banning XT related talk when that matters for Bitcoin, another is deleting spam.
I was a mod on a manga/anime related website with +150000 members and managed on of the sections with the most activity. The crowd was different, meaning content couldn't be +18, but still, if something didn't contribute to a conversation, was just to raise post count, etc, it was considered as spam. Members who talked trash and weren't polite, meaning if someone said a "fuck you", etc, it was considered rude and people would get warnings.
You had yellow and red warnings. Once you reached X red/yellow warnings you would be banned.
It was done and is still being done since 2008.
Why do people keep insisting on the fact that if a useless post is deleted, that is considered censorship? Why is trying to keep the forum clean weed related businesses (attention this is different from a discussion) considered censorship? I don't get it, I just don't get it.
Tbh the forum tools suck around here. Pretty bad. We don't even have that basic system (that i'm aware of) so moderating kind of becomes a binary option. You either ban or you don't. You either delete or you don't. With a warning system implemented you would see the history of this or that member and according to the warnings he already had or if they were recent, he would be punished accordingly.
Problem is mod tasking is not done right in these communities. Half the threads in bitcointalk should be deleted and same thing for members who pump coins and constantly bash others. However I'm mostly certain if someone did that, that person would be considered a cryptoHitler or something. It's not about censorship or not, it's about keeping the place clean and civilized for discussion. That's why most crypto forum suck and you can't have a proper discussion. Because mod duties are not performed correctly and becasue everything is perceived as censorship.
tldr;
on one side, forum tools are useless and can't be used for proper mod duties (that i'm aware of)
on the other side, people complain a lot and can't separate censorship from keeping a place clean and where you can have a proper discussion
That is the reason why bitcointalk is the horrible thing it is now.
Spam: stands for Stupid Pointless Annoying Material/Message.
There's just a tremendous amount of Spam and Flame on all crypto forums and mods do nothing about it. When they do they are accused of censorship LOL. Censorship is an attempt of blocking a possible discussion. Blocking spam and flame is not censorship. I bet you would see a migration from all more "intelligent" so to speak kind of people to a forum where that doesn't happen. Maybe that's what's happening on the new bitcoin forum where all AMAs are hosted now.
Bitcointalk is already hated and known for it's childish threads and members. Eventually if you do nothing you might end up like that.
Now it's your choice to make your forum a place to have a proper discussion or a place to have fun. Of course it can be both but you can have fun without spam, flame, or discussions that are not appropriate. Bitcointalk is known for trolls. Now, do you want your forum to be the same? Sure we're pretty far away from that, but I'm just giving food for thought. It's about creating a "brand" if you want to call it that way. To be known as a civilized community where you can have all kinds of awesome discussions without trolls, flame and spam. That is NOT censorship.
It's also about learning how to distinguish friends and fun from "work". In what I deem a fair mod duty (again, this is my opinion) Tuck would already have potential warnings for Spam. TonyK would have many for not being that polite. NewMine would have been banned many times temporarily, etc. That doesn't make those people useless. Tuck and Tony post interesting and useful stuff, however they can still do it without the rudeness or spam like type of posts. You get me?
Lots of times on the forum I mentioned, people I actually liked and was friend of would be banned. I would set warnings for them, etc. Because they weren't following the rules. It's not because I like this or that person or even if that person is the most intelligent and visionary with great ideas... everyone is subject to the same type of rules.
Now it's up to you to find this tyrannical or prefer everyone to do what they please and turn a place you like into something like Bitcointalk. If BitShares is ever known for that you will never be taken seriously. Look at NxT. The amount of trolls there gave that community a bit of a fame.. even though they still have all kind of smart people there.