I generally take care to make a good OP when I decide to make a thread, giving context, phrasing things in a way that makes sense for new readers, etc. Taking a post that was not intended to stand on its own as its own OP, but formatting it as though the user chose to create that OP themselves is problematic to me. It certainly shouldn’t be done over the specific objections of the person being forced to be the OP. If wanted to create a thread about that topic, I would take more care to craft a better OP than the one that was forced on me.
At the very least, as other posters have said, when you take someone’s post and spin it off into a thread, you should absolute be clear that’s what you’re doing, and that the poster didn’t themselves choose to post it as a new thread. The first words someone reads in that thread should explain that. I wouldn’t have been so angry about it had that happened, because it wouldn’t look like I (carelessly) created my own new discussion.
I stand by my assessment that, while creating a spinoff thread may have been well-intentioned and not punitive, the response here clearly was. If I’m saying that I do not want my post to be used to start a new topic and asking them to please undo that, why remind me that I need to be careful about hijacking, if the refusal to remove that thread was not a punishment? He’s essentially saying “oh you’re unhappy about me creating this new thread in your name? Well that’s what you get for hijacking the other thread”
I’m leaving the original P&E thread because it has become extremely over-moderated and I suspect a good faith post that’s relevant to what the current discussion is but not precisely on topic will get me a warning. Maybe I’ll revive the pit thread on a similar topic as that is likely to be lighter in moderation.
I know moderation is a tough job. It’s uncompensated volunteer work and it’s valuable and people get angry with you when you’re trying to do your best. Every time I get harassed by some power tripping reddit mod I realize how good the moderation here is. I don’t want to disparage the general moderation community on the SDMB. I appreciate that you’re always responsive and usually very reasonable.