Well, here’s part of the problem. Regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the moderation, it could have been worded with less personal gall. This form of moderation only stirs things up rather than cools things off. It could have been worded:
*I recently warned you not to insult or make jabs at another user in Cafe Society and here you’re doing it again outside of The Pit and off topic. For now this is an official warning but further action may happen dependent upon review of the moderation team.*See, no need to use ‘knock it off’ or ‘snark’ or ‘[you were] a jerk’ or explicit threats of being banned.
All righty then.
As much as I dislike twix’s moderating, in this case I see the logic. NT was clearly taking a swipe at JOSH.
What I don’t get is why it wasn’t a ‘tone it down’ note instead. Also, I hate her smug nastiness. Was it really necessary to talk down to NT as if he was a six year old? And did she really need to announce to the board his posting privileges were under review. Usually when a mod mentions that, it to warn a poster that if their posting style continues that will be the consequence. Twix uses it as a public dressing down. Very unprofessional.
To answer the OP; has twix finally jumped the shark? No, that happened long ago.
Well, technically you left out the hyphen. 
Not to turn this into a mod pile-on, but you forgot the hyphen.
Seconded. I’ve fallen victim to this myself.
Mods are off their game lately.
Apparently so am I.
No, that’s moderating. She she was warning him for being a jerk - something we’ve been doing here since around 1999, I think. Once in a while you do see posters complain that it’s unfair the mods get to call them jerks, but it’s a little late in the game to call that snark. She explained that the poster had been mod-noted for similar behavior a few days ago and had done it again, so this time he was getting a warning. The bit about his posting privileges wasn’t snark either. This poster has received a couple of warnings lately and needs to improve his behavior.
Malacandra actually didn’t say anything about circling the wagons- I think Ellen Cherry assumed he did because that meaningless accusation is obligatory in ATMB threads.
I too was taken aback when I saw that warning, and it seems to me that although it is a plausible inference that Nunzio Tavulari’s remark was intended as a jab at James Otto Sweet Heart, it is far from being a certainty. JOSH was not in the thread, and it seems perfectly possible that Nunzio was snarking against other James Otto fans that he has come across, perhaps in “real life”. It seems that the man does attract adoring female fans.
I wonder if Twickster’s overreaction was influenced by the fact that JOSH is undergoing a pretty rigorous pitting at the moment. However, that pit thread has nothing to do with JOSH’s feelings about Mr Otto, and Nunzio Tavulari has not participated in it.
Now I’m waiting for Marley to “do the right thing” and marry me, since he took my hyphen and all…
From the OP:
sends up smoke signal and watches the wheeled tepees carefully
I took that to mean circling the wagons, ymmv.
I didn’t deny she did anything wrong, elbows. I said that if he had a question about her moderating he could ask it without the jabs. There is nothing snarky about a moderator saying someone’s posting privileges are under review — it’s just a statement of fact. Someone accumulates some warnings and we confer and decide if they should be counseled, suspended or banned. Also saying someone was a jerk was in the course of moderating. “Being a jerk” is one of the rules we are able to cite when moderating.
When I said “It seems to me” I was trying to let you know how I saw it, which is what Darth Panda asked.
As a moderator I try to keep discussions civil, point out when people are being insulting, and note or warn people as needed when they deviate from the rules. That is what I started to do in this thread … tell Malacandra that his framing of the question was not acceptable to another poster, or to a moderator. I was in no way getting “all worked up.”
I’m not sure why that’s confusing, but I am listening to others’ points of view!
Well, pfft, I got a phone call and I see Marley already addressed most of this. But to clarify one point, I did think tepees etc. meant “circling the wagons.”
My imagination has failed me.
I realize there’s some room for debate about whether the reference was to James Otto or the poster who is a James Otto fan, but James Otto Sweet Heart has been here for a few months and attracted enough attention - an ATMB thread about her signoff, a Pitting or two - that it was a pretty reasonable interpretation. By way of example:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15938014&highlight=otto#post15938014
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15888029&highlight=otto#post15888029
So it’s getting to be kind of a meme. I don’t think anyone on this board had ever mentioned Mr. Otto before that poster arrived.
Mentioned? Before she arrived I doubt anyone had even heard of him.
I’ve no wish to see Ellen dealt with unfairly on this one: that is exactly what I meant about the wheeled tepees. We can argue back and forth about whether wagons do get circled around here, but the humorous figure of speech I was using meant just what Ellen thought it meant.
So the underlying question is: what makes referencing an inchoate board meme unacceptable? It seems that there’s a tendency— primarily but not exclusively twickster’s— to employ a very broad definition of “insult” or “jab” in forums outside the Pit. One that includes any mildly wry or teasing comment, even if not meant spitefully-- comments we should as adults be able to bear and share without collapsing into sobs, and (IMHO) comments that give this board its color and make it a less boring place.
The Pit is supposed to be used for “beefs with other posters,” which is fine. Not everything is a “beef” just because it addresses or refers to another poster. I think we need to lighten up.
Yeah, they don’t like us to modify quotes, so when you did that, as soon as it was noticed it was. . . dead on arrival!
The real question is when, if ever, the other mods could even entertain the possibility, that there could be something to, what so many of the villagers, have been saying, for so long?
There are times when it surely seems, to the villagers, the answer is never! It feels dismissive, is all.
Ba-dum-TSS!