Moderating and BBSs

Yeah, I'm a moderator and it's a thankless job. No, I'm not getting paid to do it, I volunteered when I was asked. I'm actually a type of floating mod who can go into any forum and moderate it if it needs be, which is something I do for other mods when they need a break from their own forums. I'm also an official moderator of a forum, along with someone else and that forum can get quite heated sometimes.

Like yesterday. A topic was getting heated, and an admin had posted a cool-it, meant to cool things down. Things were still getting a bit heated over something else, so another mod of a different forum posted a reminder that a cool-it was in effect. A little later on I posted to another poster who was concerned that what she posted might have violated the cool-it (it didn't). Another post further up the thread, in my opinion, skated close with some very distasteful, but not vulgar, euphemisms in it and I mentioned that one as being close and reminded people yet again that there was a cool-it. That poster then went on a tear against me with all sorts of vulgar language, accusing me of baiting him and saying he violated the cool-it, going so far as to report me after his vulgar attack post to me, btw (not that I'm complaining about that, it's his right to report me, even if I didn't do anything wrong). In his report he accused me of saying he violated the cool-it (which I did not, just that it was close).

Anyway, I warned him for that attack on me and the attacks continued, against me and another mod who was simply correcting him about what I'd said. He had accused me several times in the thread of saying he'd violated the cool-it (a warnable offense, btw), calling me a liar and generally telling me and the other mod off in very vulgar language. When she finally simply quoted the relevant passage to clarify, then he went off, changing his tune and still calling us liars, that he did not come 'close' to violating the guidelines.

Now, I'd be willing to admit that I misunderstood his post, which was probably trying to inject humor into the situation, even if there was no indication of such-such as some kind of smilie face or even the words "j/k, it's a joke, something, but there was not, so I erred on the side of caution. However, due to the tear he went on, ironic since the thread was about posters going on a tear, I'm not inclined to say anything else, in fact, I've stepped back and let the administrators and the other mod of the forum handle it.

If he had come back with another post that calmly explained "Hey, I was just injecting some humor into the situation." instead of telling me off in such vulgar language, none of that would have happened. I would have acknowledged it and explained that I found it offensive myself, but not in violation of the cool-it (again). There was no need to go off on me like an atom bomb and not once did I sink to his level when I was explaining his misunderstanding or even when I warned him, yet he continued and continues to berate both me and the mod who came to my defense.

What I'd like to say to him would have me sinking to his level, so I'm not, it's not worth it and he's not worth it. I'll just do the next best thing-create a bad guy character in a story and beat the crap out of him like he's verbally beating the crap out of me for doing my job-my unpaid, volunteer, thankless, but one I enjoy, job.