I am not @What_Exit of course, but I very much agree it wasn’t the best. As has been discussed umpteen times here in ATMB, we moderators can’t see your intentions when posting.
So when I look at just the truncated bit (I have checking in that thread periodically though) one plain reading (not the only one) is that you have the appearance of putting words in another posters mouth, and describing their feelings and intents to them, in a quite negative way.
That’s very personal, and can easily come across as an attack. Now, we do this all the time to off board personages, but we do expect more careful treatment of our fellow posters.
A second point - again, speaking for myself, when I come to the point where I’m issuing a Formal mod note to Calm down because things are getting too personal/too close to attacking the poster, it’s because in all honestly it’s actually stepped over the line. It’s to calm the thread down because it’s already going out of control.
So it’s a NOTE because I don’t want to give out warnings in the immediate future if it doesn’t calm down. Again - we’re at the point of having to step in, even if we’re choosing to keep it to just a note.
To further emphasize this, and put it in context of the specific thread and moderation in question, please note that @What_Exit was serious enough about this to give the thread a one-hour time out to cool the tensions. This is, and should be, a sign of how seriously he was taking it.
For the last point, about hiding the whole post, or just the first part of it is more a style/time thing than any given SOP. Trying to hide just a part of a post, while still keeping the rest of it in context can be very challenging.
Especially when it comes to posters like the both of us who write BOOKS when we post. When a mod is trying to head off the continuance of an ongoing issue, sometimes speed becomes more important than a light touch.
So, to sum up (said book) I -do- think you got too personal, and too close to attacking the poster, but I don’t think it was your intent. I think it happened in a thread that was already heated, and had been moderated for just that issue 10 hours and three posts earlier, ONE of which was the poster in question dropping out.
I believe that WE is actually giving you credit for the poorly chosen phrasing and timing because he didn’t end up giving you the warning.
Enough of a book from me, I’m sure everyone else will weigh in eventually.