The policy about not allowing cheating discussions in the main forum has existed since the site began 18 years ago.
The Cheating Forum club does provide a place for such discussions.
It is annoying to have posts blocked. I agree. I have had the experience.
However, it seems unavoidable if you are going to enforce a policy of not allowing cheating discussions in the main forum.
When a moderator closes a thread do they follow a prescribed process first and/or log the thread closure? On several occasions recently l have been replying to discussion only to discover when I try to post my comment that the thread has been closed by a moderator and I've wasted my time. The mere mention of dishonest play on these boards and a conversation is instantly locked with a direction to join a club.
Members here, especially paid subscription members should not be forced to join a club in order to discuss dishonest play nor should moderators be locking threads on a whim. It is unbelievably unprofessional and does absolutely nothing to promote discussion around making online chess safer and fairer.
In a post closed earlier today the closure notes from a moderator were:
"The perception of cheating levels is orders of magnitude more than the actual amount".
and then:
"The site closed more than 100,000 accounts in January for fair play violations ".
I don't think the moderator realises how ridiculous they sound with contradictory templates like that.