One very important thing to keep in mind was that the issue in the OP was in the Pit, and Colibri was not speaking as a mod, but just as another ordinary user. The Pit has significantly different rules than the rest of the SDMB.
If ITD or any other mod came into a thread that is not in their forum to moderate, and they don’t use any tags or otherwise indicate that they are speaking as a moderator, then assume that they are only speaking as a user and not as a moderator. If we feel that something rises to the level of needing action, we report posts to the mods of other forums, just like you can do. I received a post report from another mod earlier today, as a matter of fact. That’s how we do things.
I personally think your mixed messages issue is only in the Pit, and that forum is a special case. If you believe that the issue exists elsewhere on the SDMB, please feel free to provide some examples of it.
Accusing someone of intentionally posting just to piss off another group is another way of saying trolling. I’m not going to argue semantics with you. Knock off the specific name mentions in this forum. If you want to call someone out by name, the appropriate forum to do that in is The Pit, not ATMB.
A lot of folks in this thread are being brave, considering that posts in ATMB are expected to be reasonably civil towards other board members.
Budget Player Cadet has brought up a valid point for discussion. Let’s focus on that. Let’s all dial back the snippy attitudes and snarkiness and focus on the issue at hand.
I am, against all expectations, inclined to agree with Shodan in that moderators should be discouraged (but not prohibited) from referring to other posters as trolls even when posting without their mod hats on. And while I take the point that there is a difference between accusing a person of a specific instance of “trolling” and accusing someone of being a troll, and that one may troll on occasion (sometimes even inadvertently) without that being the primary purpose of one’s tenure here, if a mod posting as a non-mod is announcing that another poster is breaking the board rules (even only in passing), how should the rest of us take that? Aren’t the mods the ultimate arbiters of who is following the rules? Should the mod report the incident to themselves?
Considering how many times over the years I’ve heard a mod say “I didn’t put my mod hat on, that was just me speaking” or ISTM, that in your example that would be Jr Modding.
I wouldn’t want to see a rule against it, because there might be some instances where it would be appropriate, but I’ve long thought it would be a good idea for the mods to voluntarily refrain from engaging in Pit threads that involve posters on this MB. It’s not something I’m overly concerned about, but I think it would improve things a bit.
On the particular issue of the OP, as others have said, I don’t see it as a big deal. It’s, like, one mod’s opinion. I certainly hope that posters here aren’t banned based on one mod’s opinion. And, someone can troll at times and not be a full-time troll.