The main post at issue was this one:
I don’t think that’s merely colorful language or exaggeration intended to illustrate a point. It’s just disgusting, and I don’t see it as having a place in any kind of halfway serious discussion. I don’t think the only difference between GD and Elections and the Pit is that you can add “And you’re stupid” to the end of that post. There can be plenty of sarcasm and harsh criticism in GD and Elections, but there has to be a limit to the amount of sheer invective you can dump on someone else. That’s especially true when the invective is barely related to the thread topic. I would also expect a post like that to get an angry response from almost any conservative and many liberals and become a distraction and a topic of discussion in itself. We’ve had good debates in the Pit, but the comment is more in line with the kind of venting you get in a lot of Pit threads than something I expect to see in a debate forum.
To their credit, Inigo Montoya and silenus understood where I was coming from with that mod note and I think the thread has gotten back on track.