First off, I want to say that we appreciate all of the time people have invested here over the years. We have some great posters who have contributed to a lot of interesting discussions. With that said, I want to share a couple of (gentle) reminders.
This is a privately owned and operated site, made freely available to all participants. It is first and foremost a football site. We don't exist for the purpose of political discussion, and we're not your free speech platform. The Open has been provided as a convenience where football fans can discuss other topics, mostly politics, as it turns out. And for the most part, we've been pretty loose on moderation over the years.
Frank and I made a joint decision to shut things down for awhile. This isn't our day job, and we live our own busy lives outside of the site. If things here become too burdensome on us personally, we reserve the right to take a break. And we did. There was no calculated decision to silence people, limit free speech, etc. Things had reached a crescendo due to the political environment, and we were worn out.
How to avoid having this happen again? Listen to the mods (Mark, Kyle, Frank). If we ask you to tone things down or to stop a particular behavior, please be cooperative. None of us want to be babysitting grown men on an internet chat, and being ignored gets tiring. The "Oh yeah no problem!" responses followed by repeated behavior is particularly frustrating. I'm not looking to boot anyone off the forum; many of you have been here for years, and like you, I've enjoyed reading the discussions. But we don't want this to be a free for all, either.