> I used to be a fan of the idea of places with absolute free speech. The problem is that repeatedly, in practice, these places suck

So public places sucks? I like being able to talk about whatever I want when I walk around with friends, if someone tells me I have to go home to talk about that it would suck.

Since this works in public I don't see why it couldn't work online. All you need is anti harassment policies etc just like in reality, not anti speech.