Malbec said:
You think there has been heavy-handed censorship on this site? If so, I strongly disagree. There are certainly guidelines to COC that are primarily self-monitored by the posters using the flag function. These free forums are mostly non-moderated beyond that. In fact, it's my understanding that without multiple flags of a post, it's sheer happenstance if ownership catches violations of COC.
It's a very sticky wicket allowing a free-wheeling forum. Surely you remember the fake posts planted here in 2016 that were used as contrived independent confirmation by Texas Monthly.
I didn't say heavy handed (though during the Briles mess there absolutely was some heavy-handed censorship; there's a longer digression there I won't take at the moment). In general, it is incredibly light, but it is more than at Bfans (which was basically zero), and it may increase the closer you get to certain Baylor subjects. As far as resulting quality, the free football board here isn't even a shadow of the old Bfans free football board, at least as I remember it.
The entire circle of the transactions here is interesting. I mean, did they really want a free board? If so, you knew what you were going to get. All you had to do was look at Bfans and what was going on over there. If that is undesirable (and what we have now is a less-vigorous version of that), then why was it acquired? Just to gain some measure of control and have the option of shutting it down? Or did they actually think they wanted a free board and are now surprised at what they got?
Admittedly, I'm pretty close to a free speech maximalist, always have been. But our problem in 2016 wasn't a few posts on a message board. It was the abject failure of Baylor's leadership to handle any measure of PR, largely because they were (i) too busy fighting with each other and (ii) paralyzed by their fear of twitter and third-tier journalists.