Yellow stuff.
I appreciate your saying so. At the end of the day we're all trying to make the game fun.
That said, you dodged the main point I was getting at. Not only can I not see how those two different lines of logic are connected (that is, criticizing gameplay to pointing out poor word choice), I still do not see why it isn't an insult. Criticism can still be insulting, true or not. It's in the delivery; in this case, the delivery was exceptionally poor and frankly, unnecessary given the ways IC to deal with it. People make mistakes, part of the beauty of BM is that anyone, at any time, can screw up that perfect plan you've been cooking for months or years. Talk to my good friend Merlin: He's probably the one I've seen hit that wall the most, and I still kick myself for screwing up his last one, despite it playing out according to my character.
Yes, to answer your question it's possible for criticism to also be insulting. In this case, I don't think the OOC msgs were offensive or damaging enough so as to require punitive intervention from above. I think the game is best served when interventions from above are rare and reserved for the most serious instances. I can think of a few quick examples: e.g. attacking someone's RL race, religion, nationality, family, intelligence etc. There may also be a case to be made for intervening when it's a pattern of offences even though they're relatively minor, but that's not the case that's being made here.
