The problem is the unfairness of moderation. It would be one thing if you committed to free speech and allowed anything to go. That would allow lots of awful stuff, but there’s a principle there and everyone could equally say what they wanted. At least it would be fair.
But what actually happens is you allow some people to say want they want under the idea that you allow free discourse, and then ban those who object. I got banned for “race baiting” which is a formulation that in itself takes a position: it’s a right wing idea that talking about racism or identifying it is the problem (“baiting”) because racism doesn’t exist. My crime? Your fave Coevett was in a thread about Farah and he and another poster went back and forth about dirty “illegals” overrunning Europe with crime and their violent cultures and how they couldn’t wait to move to a white country like Russia. I (an immigrant myself) said, “lol at all these people without skills who think the color of their skin qualifies them to move.” They reported ME for attacking THEM (all these is plural and not directed at one person) and I got a ban for 3 days. Another time, a man threatened to castrate me and I said “why are you obsessed with my dick” (I’m a woman and don’t have a dick) and I got banned. He did not. This kind of thing happens every time you respond to people being disgusting and racist. But most of the time when I report posts as you suggest, you don’t do anything - see the regular “black crime” threads, but you know damn well if I started a thread of white criminals you’d delete it.
So my experience of moderation is, you allow people to be blatantly racist and insulting but if you speak back to them, you get kicked out. Like I said, I’d be cool with allowing everything and everyone just handles their business - it’s not like I haven’t spent my whole life dealing with racist trolls in actual real life - but allowing one group of people to be as disgusting as possible while banning and insulting those who object really shows who you are.
Plus, you say to write you if we disagree with the ban and you either ignore it , or say “what they said was bad but you shouldn’t have responded” while maintaining the ban.
The inconsistency and unfairness is what’s infuriating. And if your mods are the same people making racist posts, how does that work? If your mods think it’s “race baiting” to identify racism but see nothing wrong with racist posts, how is “just report the posts” supposed to work when they’re not capable or willing to recognize it?
Obviously I’m on the opposite side of those complaining they can’t be “funny” any more but in both cases, it’s the lack of clear consistent policy based on the whims of an anonymous moderation staff that is the problem.