I agree that ultimately the forum reflects the joint will of both YC the company and its users. For instance, a bird-watching forum might have a a strict ban on

I agree that ultimately the forum reflects the joint will of both YC the company and its users. For instance, a bird-watching forum might have a a strict ban on anything not related to birds, while the YC ban on politics is softer. What I don't like at all is people abusing flagging. You can flag any new article with ~4 votes, so less than a handful of active users can shape what we end up discussing.