So... let me go out on a limb here and say that I entirely agree with ajpl. Said a lot of stuff that I've thought as well. I do think that moderators should take context into account when enforcing rules. What's more, I know for a fact that they do all the time. Because of the rule to keep discussion civil.

Let me say up front, I support removing comments because people are not being civil. This isn't what I'm trying to get at here.

If you look in the rules, for /r/boardgames, there is no rule that says a person must keep discussion civil. Anyone who has their comment removed because they were not being civil would not know they were breaking a rule.

On the main page of the wiki, there's a bullet point that simply says "Keep discussion civil" that links to this. Upon reading that, it seems the real issue wasn't that people weren't being civil, but they were talking about off-topic shit re:Penny Arcade. So it seems like venturing off the topic of board games is a no-no. Fair enough.

But here we have a rule that's not in the rules and not appropriately explained. What does it mean to be civil? Where's the line between friendly ribbing and outright nastiness? Is a your-mom joke being civil?

On one hand, moderators want to rule by the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law for simplicity's sake. But the keep-discussion-civil rule is vague and impossible to appropriately pin down for this purpose. It comes down to one thing.

I know it when I see it. Context is everything.

Of course, I'm not blessed with the insight of what goes on behind the curtain, but am hard pressed to imagine how stopping to consider context and the spirit of the rule amounts to any extra work that would prove to be unduly taxing on a volunteer team.

I feel this moderation policy is heavy-handed at best and alienating at worst.

So let me just post this little exchange. Here is a user who was burned by this policy. A user who posted games they just bought, but having already played them posted their thoughts on every single one. Was it a haul post? Sure. Was it an example of why haul posts are rightfully banned? No. This person was needlessly frustrated and delt with unsympathetically. A person brand new to this hobby and super excited to be a part of the community who might have been granted some consideration of context. It might have even been an opportunity for a mod to slap on their green cap and say "Hey, this looks like a haul post, but it's actually not really because you are actually prompting some discussion! Welcome to the hobby!"

This would be a major shift if moderation philosophy and not one that I think would happen soon if at all. But I do think ajpl is right on this one.