I do have to wonder what exactly spurred this topic. I know it has to be
something.
You are missing one key option:
Give the freedom of the authoritarians to impose restrictions on others, while not applying said regulations for themselves.
The above is reflective of what many leftists are trying to achieve, both here and in various other institutions, such as the education system and colleges.
The forum administration appears to be very libertarian. This is generally in line with my worldview. My experience on this forum has shaped my view that libertarianism is good, but the 'state' needs to wield a modest amount of power. If the 'state' is too weak, a quasi-state will form that will impose restrictions and regulations on citizens without any kind of real accountability. A good example of this would be the major tech social media companies. Social media companies today hold an outsized amount of influence on public discourse, in some cases, the owners want to remain neutral, but in all cases, the employees have their own non-business agenda, and are powerful enough such that they are not held accountable for their decisions. A modest amount of state regulations on social media companies would largely solve this issue.
You're unironically arguing for more government. How do additional regulations promote "more freedom"? Sounds like your preconceptions of what "leftists are trying to achieve" are 100% in line with your own goals. If you want to tell private businesses what they can and cannot do outside of pre-existing law, you are the authoritarian here. Sorry if Parler isn't working out for you but you don't get to dictate what social media companies do just because they don't cater to your (supposed) political ideals.
Here at the forum,
what are the true end goals? (besides those for bounty hunters and everybody else who is here solely to make money). I'd like to think its about maintaining an environment that is conducive to productive conversation about bitcoin, cryptocurrency and the blockchain -- an environment that fosters innovation and ideally a sense of community.
To do this, a balance needs to be found between minimizing the suppression of ideas while making sure the forum is not overrun by spammers, scammers and trolls. If we had no mods this place would be a complete mess! At the same time, heavy handed moderation (which I can't say I've ever experienced much of) is no good either.
So here we are - pretty much same as its always been, plus bounty hunters, lol - so what's the problem exactly, LoyceV? Forgot what we were talking about here, if I ever really knew in the first place.
At least the second most popular poll response is the one that actually makes sense: banning bots.