# Second warning a bit harsh here? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 2, 2023, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-warning-a-bit-harsh-here/977505 "2023-01-02T04:55:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-warning-a-bit-harsh-here/977505/1 "2023-01-02T04:55:46Z")
> [@Private v public employees](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/private-v-public-employees/977380): > > I’ve been working on a project for the past ten years. The short version is I am trying to reintroduce a nearly extinct subspecies of cutthroat trout - the Greenback cutthroat trout - into streams in Colorado. I am a citizen volunteer with an environmental group in this endeavor. I have to work with the US Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to ever accomplish my goal of getting these trout in the streams. I’m retired but worked my entire life in the private sector as a business own… Not a deep philosophical conundrum on moderation policy or anything, I just thought the second warning to @Mighty_Mouse in this thread was a bit harsh. It hardly seems like the back and forth there was so heated that @Mighty_Mouse couldn’t control themselves and this was plausibly a willful violation. On my version at least the “do not reply to this” box thing is a much less prominent color than Mod instructions in a post. I think it was just a mistake. And @puzzlegal had just replied to a _different_ post post about the donut-eating stereotype, not the offensive one that got Noted and marked Do Not Reply. So the actual _content_ of what @Mighty_Mouse said was no better or worse than @puzzlegal, it was just technically the wrong post to reply to, if you see what I mean. My only warning on here was for insulting someone because I forgot what forum I was in. That was also an unintentional mistake, but the warning was deserved, because if you’re going to insult someone it behooves you to make sure you do it in the right place. Here it’s not as though @Mighty_Mouse actually _said_ anything inappropriate. I don’t think this kind of mistake deserves a warning. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-warning-a-bit-harsh-here/977505/2 "2023-01-02T05:08:00Z")
It was quite careless of me. I missed the mod instruction somehow. But I don’t expect the mods to be able to distinguish between a careless and a deliberate failure to comply with their instructions. That would open them up to accusations of favoritism in who they believe just missed the instruction and who was defying the instruction. Not that I don’t appreciate your support. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-warning-a-bit-harsh-here/977505/3 "2023-01-02T05:20:50Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > And @puzzlegal had just replied to a _different_ post post about the donut-eating stereotype, not the offensive one that got Noted and marked Do Not Reply. Yeah, i goofed. I wrote that before i saw the “do not reply” on a similar post. I probably should have deleted it, given the subsequent actions. And it was kind of piling on. I think my post would have been fine if the topic hadn’t blown up later, but in light of the “later”, it was ill-advised. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-warning-a-bit-harsh-here/977505/4 "2023-01-02T05:27:42Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yeah, i goofed. I wasn’t intending to criticize _you_. I mean, if the thread were staying open at all, discussing the donut-eating stereotype was obviously what it was about at that point. I was just making the point that if @Mighty_Mouse had written exactly what they wrote but as a reply to the _earlier_ post about donut-eaters in the same way you did, there would have been no issue. Which to me makes a minor technical infraction. In other words - it’s not as though the reply was directed at the offensive aspect of the Noted post, telling OP they were being a jerk or something. It was just continuing the broad subject matter - which was not out of bounds. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-warning-a-bit-harsh-here/977505/5 "2023-01-02T14:26:52Z")
Heck, I’m just glad I decided the OP wasn’t worth responding to anymore - even before the mod note. 😃 MM isn’t a habitual troublemaker around here, so not at risk of being banned. Not sure rising to the OP’s bait warranted a warning, but many have discussed that modding is far from an exact science, and I’m not sure a warning in this instance is any kind of big deal.