As requested, link to a post where I asked for note explanation and was told that it was excessively “dripping with sarcasm.”. I chose not to fight city hall on that, but I find that rationale to be over-the-top.
I see some improvement in that area. I’ve seen more troll banning than in the past, and almost none that I disagree with. But I feel like, along with that, there’s also a trend toward overpolicing the margins of civility.
Personally, I experience more disruption from sealions, attention-seekers, and chronic threadshitters, than the occasional unkind word. I feel like the latter is getting overpoliced simply because it’s more clear-cut and thus more defensible. But… while an unkind word can be policed if it progresses to a slapfight, a well-rested sealion can run a thread to ten pages just by endlessly politely asking for yet a slightly better cite while harrumphing about others being impolite.