Here’s a little guide:

• Threats of banning, having unpopular views, being mean, uncivil discussion <-- Not against the law. “Free speech” discussion doesn’t apply. Just two parties having a disagreement.
• Assault, legit harassment, libel, doxxing, etc <-- Against the law and you can be arrested/fined/sued. “Free speech” discussion applies, but in the case of these, the government has indicated that the speech is not protected under free speech. It’s about the government enforcing which speech is allowed and what is not.

In the cases presented:

• What OP talked about in the initial post was not a free speech issue. The government isn’t involved unless a law was broken, which I don’t think it has.
• What you’re talking about here regarding harassment/doxxing IS a free speech issue because the law will stop the harasser and technically infringe on their right to “speak.” However, in this case, at least in the US judicial system has said that harassment falls outside of the allowable speech covered under the law and so it’s okay for the government to infringe on that right for this case.

Does that make sense?

Your free speech is not violated when someone disagrees with you. Your free speech is violated when the government stops you from speaking your mind. “Bullying” may be not nice, but it’s not a free speech issue. That’s just two people having a disagreement in an uncivilized manner.

Well said. It is so frustrating when people don’t understand that people disagreeing with them does not mean their freedom of speech is being violated.

Even the banning example, which is commonly pointed to as violating freedom of speech, is typically (not saying it is always) used when the user is breaking civility rules or rules established by the community which the user assented to by participating in the community discourse.

It is fine to do both. If you have a point to make that hasn’t been made about a subject, you are allowed to make it.

But people should know that commenting on something should add something to the conversation, otherwise you should indeed just use your up votes. Like how supreme court uses concurrences. “I agree, but for different reasons.”

Wait til they release their paper on water. You’ll be shocked.

I’m liking it, but there is a lot of work left to do there. I joined today and replicated the small server I run for video game nights with my friends. That part all worked; channels, roles, voice. but the application layer seems to need the most attention. iOS is not there yet and Android needs notification integration. The desktop client has a memory leak. I hope it gets there, but it will be a tough sell to normie friends who can’t handle rough edges. The self hosted version is also behind on the release so it takes some effort to get working (looking to do this but I don’t know if I have the chops to make it work as is)

The bones are there though and hope they get an influx of help given the writing on the wall about Discords imminent continued enshittification.

So discord users will feel right at home.