well, did i end up splitting the thread? hm!
anyway, i totally reject what you're angling for. we do not need a new rule for this. every mod ruling is not setting a new permanent precedent. we do not need rules on top of rules, rules for each new circumstance as it occurs, we do not need to project this current ruling onto other future circumstances it may overlap with but not completely match, we do not need more and more delineation and categorization into finer and finer units the tenets of acceptable behavior or the resulting punishments, we do not need CLAW digging and sifting and poring through and over our rules for loopholes, for exploits, for permission to urge people toward suicide, for special "depression" exemptions, so that we can all work for CLAW, to satisfy CLAW, that our rules are completely and entirely and unrealistically "objective" so as to meet his ever probing, always exacting, completely ridiculous standards. because this is life. this is how life works.