First, the post with moderation is this one.
Second, can you link to that recent post so we know which one you mean?
Third, I have to agree with the OP. I don’t see ridicule beyond the merest disagreement with the expressed position. It’s not like he made a strawman analogy, or even snerked. Maybe the third sentence could be interpreted a little snerky, but that just leads to the point that since when has this been unacceptable?
In this case, the argument is to understand what the Note even means. There doesn’t seem to be any ridicule, so why is the Note even given? One can’t possibly begin to adjust their behavior if they don’t understand the error.
In general, it can be argued that moderators aren’t everywhere and may not see or be alerted to an issue in a timely fashion. They still need to moderate problem behavior. In this type of case, though, there does need to be a balance between identifying a problem to correct it and calling attention to a part of the conversation that had long passed. If the topic had moved on, it doesn’t seem to have derailed the thread or started a hijack, so bringing it up relatively late doesn’t seem effective at reducing conflict.
Thanks - I just used that method for the link in this post. Cool!