[>BKA< T Wrecks]

Yeah, this was a totally superfluous warning. Instead of warning directly and then taking back the warning, a simple question "How do you mean this?" would have been sufficient. If he had answered "Where can I download a cracked version" - remind him of the rules, and, since he hasn't been around for a long time, tell him that things like this will earn him a warning. And if he had answered "I wanna know more about it, maybe d/l a beta", just give him the link and that's it.

Just as a side note: I consider this thread to be a better example of what Aspirin called "spamming" (wild crossposts, jokes, coder holy wars, trolls, offtopic remarks, thread 'hijacking') than many a thread in the offtopic section, especially since someone was asking for help and his problems hadn't been totally resolved before the 'spamming' started. The premature warning is just another link in that chain.

With regard to the most fundamental guidelines of forum moderation, I absolutely agree with Exilibur. And I think that in the same way as a society must adhere to certain rules, the rules can be adapted to a particular society. The "no politics" rule is a good example: A community capable of discussing about controversial political topics so peacefully doesn't need a prohibition of political discussions. A reminder or warning to treat political affairs with utmost care would be sufficient here IMHO.

But I also agree with what KWo said about moderators / Council members: Maybe it would be better if we could agree on certain moderation guidelines, and one reasonable guideline IMO would be to alert other moddies and never warn before consulting others unless the case is 100% clear, of course.

Back to the example KWo mentioned: If he had asked: "Where can I find a crack?" -> Warning (unless he's newbie). But when in doubt, it would be better to PM other moddies (or thread in the moddies' hideout) and ask the member in question for clarification.

It's not that important to execute our rules as quickly as possible, it's important to use them as wisely and as appropriately as possible - if it's at the expense of some hours or two lines of text to sort things out, fine.