Quoting from the announcement of these rules in early 2009. I mention the date because I’m emphasizing the pointlessness of arguing about this rule at this point. It’s not getting changed. Underlining is mine:
I didn’t warn you for criticizing the moderation. I warned you for personal insults: you mocked Left Hand of Dorkness for being up on his high horse and then called him “priggish” a couple of times (and said the same about me). I didn’t even warn you the first time. You kept doing it after I told you you needed to stop making insulting comments, and when you didn’t, you got a formal warning. To boot, you said that Left Hand of Dorkness and I were both prigs, which confirmed your choice of words was insulting despite your insistence that it isn’t. (I also showed you a dictionary definition to clear it up.) That was one warning. A little later you criticized Left Hand of Dorkness again by saying he had no sense of humor, and took himself too seriously. All of that is insulting, and since I’d told you a handful of times to stop it because this isn’t the Pit, I warned you again. Eventually I did tell you both to stop posting about this issue in the other thread because it was off-topic. I had to repeat that a couple of times, but I didn’t warn you for it.
It’s too late to do anything about this now because oversimplifying history is fun, but the rule was never about one insult of one mod. That’s how a few people chose to remember it. But yes, there was a notion that perhaps volunteering to moderate a message board is not an invitation for unlimited recreational abuse. If people have actual questions or problems with the way the board is modded, they can ask about it in this forum.
I think you’re quoting something TubaDiva said recently, not something Ed Zotti said about the change in Pit/ATMB rules in 2009.