It still had the context, as evidenced by nearly everyone but the mod picking up on it.
That doesn’t absolve the poster of the responsibility of making the context clear.
Most anyone who clicked on the thread would have understood said context, given its direct relation to the subject matter.
And despite that, it apparently did absolve the poster, as the warning was rescinded.
This is the SDMB where entire threads will be comprised of nothing but puns and pop culture quotes. If I were to open a thread about Monty Python (and I may be the only Doper with no MP familiarity) I would readily assume half of the thread was references and direct quotes that I didn’t get.
After it was made clear that the remark was a quote, which was not indicated in any way in the post. (And as has been noted above, the poster himself has not offered any explanation.)
Yup. Thus it would seem it wasn’t the poster’s responsibility if it was clear from the very context that supposedly didn’t exist. I think the fact that the OP hasn’t needed to clarify has, perhaps ironically, said more about the matter than anyone or anything else has.
Reported as hate speech.
It wasn’t clear from the context alone; it required an explanation.
It was clear from the context of the thread’s subject matter, of the thread, hence why everyone but the mod understood.
Much as the quote Vinyl Turnip just referenced is also clearly not hate speech.
Poster makes odd comment perceived by Mod as personal insult.
Mod issues Warning for insult.
Thread opened to explain context of perceived insult.
Mod rescinds insult.
Multiple uninvolved posters chime in to then insist that the rescinding post was “grudging” and complaining that there was no apology issued.
Next will be the inevitable complaint that the Mods are “circling the wagons,” even though the purpose of the thread was actually addressed in favor of the affected poster.
Next year, I want a raise to two coffee mugs.
It was not clear merely from the thread’s subject matter; it was only clear to someone who had seen the movie in question. If twickster had not, then it would not have been evident.
But there’s no point in arguing this with you further. Suffice it to say, regardless of a thread’s subject matter, it is the responsibility of the poster to make their intention clear. If a post directed at another poster is on the face of it an insult, it’s incumbent on you to make it clear that it is not intended as such. It is not the moderator’s responsibility to know every pop reference, nor to do research try to figure out if it might possibly be such a reference.
All right. But only one will be inscribed:
tomndebb
SDMB
Moderator
The second one will be left blank. 
Twixster did the right thing by reversing her decision. But understandable errors really do not merit apologies.
There’s a lot of whining about moderation in this forum, but rather less about bad form among the SDMB’s contributors. It’s bad form to open a thread in ATMB without a link to the relevant thread. I see no need for Johnny LA to apologize for this, but a correction would be appropriate. Similarly, to post something that could be construed as an insult outside the pit is bad form, as is posting messages that create unnecessary work for the moderators of this board. Don’t get me started with careless punctuation and splelling.
The uneven moderation has always been a problem here. The fact that people haven’t chosen to magically ignore it shouldn’t be surprising or newsworthy.
Twickster is more or less entirely at fault here. In a thread about South Park’s profanity, a poster drops a profanity-laden response that seems completely out of character. It’s not unreasonable to assume it has some deeper meaning relating to the larger thrust of the thread. Checking with the other mods first likely would have avoided this whole mess.
Except that the posters in that thread are pre-selected to have seen the film. The mods are not similarly pre-selected. Is that so hard to understand?
There really wasn’t a mess, though. She dropped the ball, but she rescinded the warning. Who cares if she behaves genuinely contrite, it’s not a big deal, so what who cares, as long as she takes back the warning.
This emotional stuff is what causes us to lose ground when the mods really do fuck up in a profound way. We gotta pick our battles, man. Otherwise when there *is *a situation where they are dropping the ball hard, digging in, circling wagons and refusing to back down, we don’t have the same footing to get them to see it our way.
There really wasn’t a mess, though. She dropped the ball, but she rescinded the warning. Who cares if she behaves genuinely contrite, it’s not a big deal, so what who cares, as long as she takes back the warning.
This emotional stuff is what causes us to lose ground when the mods really do fuck up in a profound way. We gotta pick our battles, man. Otherwise when there *is *a situation where they are dropping the ball hard, digging in, circling wagons and refusing to back down, we don’t have the same footing to get them to see it our way.
(sorry for double post, I messed up trying to quote Justin)
The reason I started this thread is because the arguments against the warning had not been addressed in the original thread. Since such complaints are sometimes never addressed in the thread in question, and since a warning was clearly (to most everyone) not warranted, ATMB is the appropriate place to address the issue. While that specific warning did not affect me personally, I feel that unwarranted moderator actions should be addressed by the community.
In fact, the thread is linked in the OP. The ‘greater-than’ signs after the quoted poster’s names are links to their posts, and thus the thread.
I realize it wasn’t “a mess.” The process used to rescind the warning was pretty painless. But as you said, the mods drop the ball constantly around here and pointing out their errors (and hopefully fixing them) is something we should all be doing.
And when caught in a mistake, they should have the decency to say “I’m sorry, I screwed up” without the snark.
There was no screw up. The poster should have been clear that the post was a quote, and not intended as an insult. The mods can’t be omniscient about pop culture.