This is indeed a free forum that allows open discussion. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of this community. However, there is no use in having a forum that we cannot conduct open discussion in as a result of mass spamming, thus a 50 post restriction was put in place to ensure that the main boards remain as spam-free as possible. The captcha was put in place to defeat bots employed by the spammers to plaster spam in as many places as they could with no effort. Once you reach 50 posts you will be free to engage in any discussion that interests you - as freely and openly as you wish - in any forum. Libertas