Eh, the part about your pre-join discussion is irrelevant as any given community may well have more restrictive standards than the instance, and it's a benefit that admins not intervene in cases that aren't egregious and/or in violation of instance policies.

That being said, I think you got it right, a 2 hour ban is so borderline as anything at all, that it doesn't merit much of anything here. It was definitely unnecessary, but it's so minor that calling it power tripping seems dubious.

Has the mod in question said anything about the temp ban beyond what's shown? That's just personal curiosity more than anything relevant, tbh.

My take? If the action of a single mod is "chilling" your use of the rest of the instance, that's a you thing entirely.

Yeah, the action was unnecessary, but it was also effectively meaningless, so it's one of those things you just shrug off and move on while blocking the community.

Edit: leaving this up for context with the rest of the thread, but I missed a very important fact, that this was an admin action, not a mod action on a community. Ignore the fuck out of this drivel, please.