I come here just about every day (though my frequency of posting does admittedly decrease during the summer and I become more of a lurker -- sorry, work and sun increase <--> internet use decreases). As many others have said so eloquently, Interact, and the way the development team "interacts" with the user community is the single biggest reason that MC is the best Media Management application there is, and is the reason I am a dedicated user.
I do think, as some others do, that the moderation can sometimes feel heavyhanded. It certainly has never, and probably wouldn't ever be something that would anger me for longer than it would take me to walk away from the computer, though. I can understand that the forum has a purpose and mission and that moderation is needed. If it were me, I would probably just replace a deleted or modified posting with a note explaining that it was deleted/modified due to <blank>. This is usually done, but not always. Despite my paranoid leanings, I've always been inclined to give the management here the benefit of the doubt that any omissions of this are simple omissions and not done with malicious intent.
That being said, I would also point out that this forum is the single most civil forum I have ever been involved with, and I believe that some of the credit for that goes to the "tight-ship" mentality that it is run with. People do believe passionately here, but personal attacks are extremely rare, and I am constantly amazed with the understanding and civility that "noobs" are treated with here. I'm not afraid to encourage people who I refer to MC to become a part of the forum and post questions. I guess it would be best to say that I have mixed feelings on that aspect of Interact, and I think JimH's suggestion of a separate "OT and Freewheeling" forum could help a bit, and the transparent moderation (always noting changes) would go a huge way towards preventing recurrences of the "trouble" and mending hurt feelings.
Again, though, I've got to say for me, even with no changes, I can't really see any of it ever bothering me enough to influence my use of Interact, despite my extremely strong feelings about freedom of speech. It's the management's right to run their forum however they see fit, and our right not to use it (and complain elsewhere) if we don't like it. It certainly doesn't
rise to this level, after all...