Measure for Measure, I get the feeling that Preview is not your friend. 
Can they not ask each other to weigh in on a confusing reference? Can they not use Google? Should a Cafe Society mod even be doling out warnings and notes about a subject with which they’re unfamiliar?
OK, that last one might be expecting too much of the SDMB. But this was not some obscure line of dialogue. It’s probably the most famous bit of extreme profanity to come out of the South Park universe (which, again, was the subject of the thread).
Uh…Ok, sure. We all agree. Mods, you can come and close this up now. whisper…hey everyone, let’s all just let them ‘win’ this one. We got what we came for …whisper
Yet Tom multiple posters had in fact positively acknowledged twixter’s reversal, with only a very few making grudging comments, when Colibri felt the need to chime in with denial of any moderator error being made. It was that uninvolved moderator chiming in with a perspective that evinces a lack of any desire or need to learn from a minor error.
Twixter’s was a simple mistake, a minor mistake, an inconsequential mistake, an understandable mistake. Again,* in the context of that thread* even people like me, who have hardly ever seen the show, should have been able to grok it was a reference. Or at least suspected enough to check before firing. Colibri’s mistake, IMHO, is a much bigger one. But whatever.
(Yes, posters can help moderators who may be monitoring a thread about a subject they know nothing about by making it painfully clear that such is a quote. Lots of ways to do that: [South Park:Terrance and Phillip]…[/SP:TP], so on. But the only one in the thread who needed that was likely the mod. Yes I had to google to see which characters said the phrase. And it took me less than ten seconds.)
If it were a thread about Monty Python and someone posted “Along with Monty Python they have a lot of shows about battered women”, and then someone quoted that and replied “[some highly insulting and not very well known Monty Python line that somehow ties shows about battered women into the assertions being made about Monty Python]” with no explanation, quotation marks or attribution, I would assume the same outcome. Unless by sheer chance the mod happened to be a Python fan and understood the reference.
Oh for fuck’s sake. How is any mod or even all the mods together supposed to be fluent in every stupid pop reference the posters here make. So, no they shouldn’t do any of those things. Posters should be more careful in making it clear when they are posting a line from somewhere that could be misconstrued as an insult. Failing that, there is always this forum to right the wrong.
I want you to fuck your own face!
Apologies, and thanks for the heads up.
Posters should endeavor to avoid creating unnecessary work and judgment calls for the mods. Look, I know that contributors don’t want to step on their own punch line. But as others have pointed out, there are a number of ways of signaling: quotes, italics and quote-boxes are 3.
And complaints about insufficient contrition on the part of moderators who reverse their decisions within 24 hours or 15 posts are just pettiness, unworthy of an ignorance-fighting message board. Contributors: please post more thoughtful, constructive and magnanimous commentary.
We have to be *magnanimous *now? I want a coffee cup too.
Gross, man.
Terrence and Phillip disagree:
– “Shut your fucking face, uncle fucker.”
And that’s how the warned poster could have accomplished a) the intent of the post, b) making sure anyone not a South Park fan knows it wasn’t an insult, and c) not step on the punchline of the joke.
twix didn’t make a mistake, here. The warned poster did. twix doesn’t owe an apology. She only owes a recension of the warning after the context was explained, which she did. Just my humble opinion…
(On preview, I have to mention that I’m just taking that line from your post, MfM because it perfectly says what I was thinking on reading this thread, rather than a comment about your post. The warned post was intended as a joke, the poster didn’t want to step on the punchline, how could it be rewritten so it’s obvious that it’s a joke, without ruining the joke? The above is what I came up with.)
Nobody here is expecting an apology, or at least they shouldn’t be, I just thought the whole thing was hilarious. Moderator makes obvious mistake to anyone reading the thread, mod rescinds warning with some snark which loosely translates “Fine, assholes, I’ll rescind, but remember YOU messed up here, not ME.” I mean, laughing-out-loud. Can’t even admit a simple mistake, huh? I guess not, and we should all just shuffle along.
I know, I know, the poster made the mistake by quoting an obscene line South Park in a thread about obscenity in South Park. Got it.
Holy cats, they are! When did that happen? Learn something new every day, you do.
Just to be clear, I didn’t officially warn anyone. I thought they were fussing and told them to stop hijacking the thread. But, as has been pointed out, they were quoting a song I didn’t know, so I just said sorry and let them laugh at me. 
Just because Twickster has decided to give this poster some slack doesn’t mean she made an initial mistake or error. The mistake/error was made by the poster for not making the parody clear; even within the context of the thread, the post was over the top.
This is ridiculous. People demanding apologies and getting dramatic.
How do you posters expect to be taken seriously when there is a genuine moderator gripe or issue?
You’re discrediting yourselves by making this an obvious game of attack and pile on the moderator.
One can’t help wondering if those exclaiming ‘classy move’ also comment the girl in the drive-thru: ‘Excellent job! You go girl!’ Maybe the janitor mopping the floor in the office building gets a high five along with a ‘smooth moves with the mop, dude!’ or the guy who picks up the garbage and accidentally knocked over the trash and has to pick it up gets ‘Great work, appreciated!’
Your username really fits, doesn’t it? I didn’t see snark in the moderator’s words, but you must have been looking for it.
And I’m one of those Dopers who didn’t realize that was a quote from South Park. If I watch cartoons I prefer something that’s funny.
Plus, you don’t even own a television.
The context should have been clear to anyone short of Stevie Wonder. Incredibly profane post in a thread about profanity on South Park? Gee golly willikers, whatever could THAT be about?
Not getting the context here is like seeing 2+2 and coming up with 22 as an answer.
Not that I think some huge apology is needed. Rescinding the warning is all that was needed on Twickster’s part. But the apologists need to stop acting like the post was somehow lacking context. It wasn’t.
Since the warning was reversed in the middle of page one, there’s no reason this thread needs to continue. I’m closing it.