Thanks for the warm welcome [The] Traveler!
I actually really like the idea of keeping standards high and keeping the tone civil. There is certainly something to be said for minimizing the amount of noise and chaos caused by no-holds-barred posting, as the excessive noise caused by super informal conversational styles is a good way to drown out valuable information.
In my opinion, Free-speech is more about ideas than word choice, and anyone that feels their freedom of expression is being hampered by a "no cursing" policy would I think benefit from expanding their vocabulary. Any given idea can be expressed in many different ways, and I feel like the more clearly and articulately ideas are expressed, the greater their potential audience and the greater their potential for helping the greatest number of people.
Also, wisdom is undeniably hierarchical and mouthing off to senior forum members or mods is like spitting in an elder's face. Treating people online the same way you would if they were in the room with you is a direction humanity needs to trend towards in my opinion, and considering the knowledge to be gained from actually treating people with respect here, I can't fathom why anyone wouldn't.
Excuse the overtly advocative nature of this post, but I figured the subject was broached so I'd give my honest two cents, (which coincidentally is also a way for me to demonstrate that I understand the code of conduct while also stating that I would likely have been posting within the guidelines even if they didn't exist).
Hopefully my shamelessly trying to prove myself worthy of upgrade sooner rather than later won't be held against me! If so, I apologize!
Anyway, Thanks again for the welcome; I've been a long time passive reader and admirer of the high quality information contained here, and am looking forward to actually at long last taking part in what I feel is an unparalleled resource for teks and valuable discussion!
- OTCJ