Your recommended feed is based off of videos that you have watched recently, usually in relation to the video you are currently watching. It is likely that you watched at least one video bashing the Freedom! network, and it has continued to haunt you.
The forums are a place for the Freedom! community to congregate and get to know each other. There are many people here who are willing to contribute information to your channel and it's up to you whether or not you use that to help you grow. This forum also has a place where you can semi-openly (restricted access to full members or verified partners) share your videos with the other members of the forum, but as much as people like to share their own stuff, people also don't like to watch other people's stuff.
We have an active and more initiated "community reviews" section dedicated to and only usable by verified Freedom! partners. People are more willing to view channels and tell you what you're doing wrong, but it is best used if you're willing to hand some reviews to other people as well. "Posting Karma" I think it was called at one point.
However, there is a bit of a dark side. There are sometimes clashes of opinions on these forums, most of them end in resolve, others end in distaste in the simple existence of both members. I recently made an enemy out of a forum member (who will remain unnamed) for properly reporting him to moderation. I choose not to make an enemies with him and just ignore him. That brings me onto the rules of the forum.
One of the things that many find unfair is the rather restrictive rules. While they can be rather limiting to the new member, it is very important to do what is right and report those who violate the forum policy. Once you get proper status and understand where to post, you'll come to understand that we have these rules in place as part of an effort to keep the forums a clean and tidy place for all people to come into. Our chat is also a nice place for some to meet up. Although this is where the most of the clashes and shameless advertising happens, it is generally a good place to be when you want to make friends and colleagues out of the strangers that all have one thing in common with you, a YouTube channel.
In review
Pros:
-Generally nice community
-Great place to get tips and tricks
-Reasonably clean and orderly forum.
-Reasonable rules to follow.
-Generally orderly community.
Cons:
-Clashes of opinion < some distasteful guests.
-Intermittent spam bots.
-Ignored posts in content section.
-Seems restrictive in the beginning.
