I would imagine that although the character of individual mods MAY have an influence on the threshold, they do tend to have a lot of that rare attribute: "COMMON SENSE"
It is often very obvious when somebody is crossing the fine line between being obnoxious and being a total arse...however, they have to take into account past history as well..has somebody snapped a reply at a comment that would normally be out of character for them, or have they always been picking for a fight?
If you think OUR mods are sometimes a bit heavy handed, I suggest you go have a peek at the TDU forums at ATARI..the mods there are VERY strict...insta-bans just for questioning the dedication of the developers...jeez, if we had the Atari mods here, there wouldnt be anybody left on the forum!!!