The thread was posted by someone who was looking for help setting up a decentralized network in Cameroon, a country which recently had protests with possible human-rights violations, and whose government shut down Internet access in certain regions of the country in an act of censorship.

I initially locked the thread, which had < 50 upvotes at the time (if memory serves), because I felt there were more appropriate subreddits like /r/darknetplan and /r/AskNetsec, and because the post had attracted a large number of low-effort comments. I admit to only casually reading the OP before making the decision to lock down the post.

I sincerely apologize... both as a moderator and as a person. The decision to lock the thread was made solely on my own without consulting the rest of the mod team, and without looking for additional info that would have prevented me from making this poor decision. I unlocked thread less than 30 mins later, after some users stepped forward and appealed my decision over modmail.

I started moderating this sub over two years ago. I had just been through a stressful and emotionally draining job search, and set out to make AskEngineers a forum where people like me could get the help they needed — both with technical questions, and with how to navigate their professional careers as I did (and still do). And although I have to enforce the rules and often do so unilaterally, I consider myself a just another user like the rest of you, simply with some extra responsibilities. Unfortunately it's easy for me to forget over time why I started doing this in the first place, and the backlash I received after locking that thread is a reminder that the purpose of AskEngineers is to help people. I'll try harder not to forget that.

The truth is that this place is nothing without you, the community. That's why I want to point out one final thing: out of the 50 comment downvotes I received for my bad moderator actions, only three people stepped forward to say something. Everyone here should thank /u/ld43233, /u/my_recycle_away, and /u/Zagaroth for caring enough to call me out on my shit.

This is why I always tell you guys to message us if you ever have any concerns. One thing I've always wanted more of from this community since I started doing this is more feedback on how we're doing, and how we can improve AskEngineers.

I will never, ever ban, mute, or otherwise take action against any of you for speaking out against moderator decisions... because as I've shown, we're only human and we will make mistakes, and I'm counting on all of you to tell us when we've fucked up.

That's all. Carry on, and as always, please message us if you have any concerns, or simply leave a comment below.

edit: clarity