That is an excellent point. There really is a line between discussing/debating the appropriateness of a node and ad-hominem. Personally, I feel DrHyde's response to ptum's original complaint very closely tread the line to an ad-hominem attack, especially in light of the rather calm and articulate objection by ptum.

More generally, I would tend to agree that simple decorum should keep someone from insulting another who has just calmly objected to one's own comments. I'm curious, would you consider such rude behavior worthy of more than just a downvote?