This is what drove me nuts. HN doesn't at all claim to be a free-speech area. And that's fine. In fact, I'd argue that it's a great way to keep everyone focused

This is what drove me nuts. HN doesn't at all claim to be a free-speech area. And that's fine. In fact, I'd argue that it's a great way to keep everyone focused, and helps keep the trolls out. But I've never seen anywhere that HN claims to be about free speech. Reddit claimed that title for a long time, even when they were clearly censoring things. Feel free to tell people to fuck off. There's nothing wrong with doing that on your private site. But don't turn around and tell people you are a free-speech site while doing so.