Well, a couple of reason. For one, the Pit is meant to be the “rules light” forum on the board - which to me means both fewer rules, and a lighter hand in enforcing them. I usually go with a note first, and a warning only if the poster persists. The rules on this board can get a little arcane, and I don’t think it’s entirely fair to expect the posters to remember all the minutia, particularly when you have major changes to the rules between separate forums. Plus, as the place set aside particularly for posters to get in fights, I think we have to give some leeway for people getting their blood up and going a little too far.
It’s also a very minor, largely technical violation of the rule. There was obviously no intent to deceive, and there was no ambiguity about who had written the editorial text. Consider these two alternative posts:
[QUOTE=Poster A]
[QUOTE=Poster X]
<snips lunacy>
[/quote]
That is one of the very best examples I’ve seen of “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Poster A]
[QUOTE=Poster X]
<snip>
[/quote]
What lunacy! That is one of the very best examples I’ve seen of “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
[/QUOTE]
While the first one is a violation of the rules, and the second is not, the distinction between the two is not enough to sustain giving a warning to the first one. The semantic content is identical. By warning the first one, I’d be, in effect, giving someone a warning for improperly formatting their post.
And I’m just not enough of an asshole to do that.
I’m not aware of any situation involving someone getting warned for this specific rule, and claiming that it had been an accident. We don’t warn people for accidentally breaking the rules - but we don’t necessarily always believe people when they say they posted something by accident. Without knowing the specific examples you’re referencing here, I can’t really comment on why they received warnings instead of mod notes.
I dunno, did we? Not everyone reads every thread - particularly in ATMB. And not everybody remembers every thread they’ve read. I’m not going to come down heavier on someone because there’s a thread on another forum that, for all I know, they’ve never even seen.