I think it’s perfectly appropriate for anybody in an interest based community, mod or common user, to question their basic understanding of the subject. Even if the shared topic doesn’t change, its context will — and the question of funding FLOSS development has very much been thrown into the mix again with the xz backdoor.

To be clear, I don’t think there is a way to license your way out of supporting developers. Short of UBI or a FLOSS unionisation that the major tech corps will then need to acknowledge and negotiate standards with — I remain unconvinced. But I don’t need to agree dogmatically with the mod in question to gain from their point of view.

Worse to me are users who do not have the capacity to reflect on their views, and clutch their pearls over “appropriateness” only when challenged on what are essentially beliefs rather than established fact. Add to those the “childish trolls” which make up varying percentages of any forum. With users like this, a good telling off is not only appropriate, it’s necessary.