I do not the part where a poster who has been pounced in an obvious rude/hateful manner is supposed to contact Joe to let him know it's offensive to them.

Name-calling is obvious and so are a lot of other insults.
Sending a pm to Joe feels like tattling..and tattling can tend to bring more hateful behavior toward the 'whiner' in the future.

Maybe if Joe (or other moderator)sees posts that seem offensive, they could contact the person who has been slammed, but I think behavior would improve dramatically with a more consistent policy that covers all of us equally without requiring us to tattle.

Joe has a big job and some of the things that pop up occasionally are no doubt hair-pullingly overwhelming..because they're a tangle with no clear outline.
I think Joe's task would get easier if he could sort of slowly ease out of being our Babysitter and become more of a Defender.

Most of us want peaceful, pleasant interaction.
Some of us are intimidated by fangs and poison..
All of us are capable of behaving appropriately.

Sorry for the rambly post.
I think what I'm saying is that it would be nice to see a shift from "Do Not Feed the Trolls" to trolls and troublemakers being kept from eating us. If I'm not a troll, I'm not sure it's reasonable to make me responsible for them.