Alright I actually have time sit down at a computer so I'm going to try my best to explain what happened, starting with a timeline and then answers to various questions I"ve gotten/expect. My IRC logs are split between my laptop/desktop and I'm not allowed to post them anyway so I'm going to operate more or less from memory.
June ~22nd?: Something reminds me Tedward exists (I don't remember what). I realize I have not seen him on pretty much since he got made a trial admin, and even then he only briefly spoke in OOC before logging out. I wonder if that's a pattern, and go log diving. Checking all the days he connected (not many since he got demoted), I find this:
http://pastebin.com/nw8zx3ne. The sole adminhelp he'd answered for the month was "yeah unfortunately" to someone complaining megaphones don't work over intercomms.
The next few days: I try to find out what the terms of Tedward's "trial" are. Nobody ever gives me any answers/is able to tell me. I suspect at this point nobody actually set terms for it, when it would end, etc. Giving up on that, I finally bring up Tedward's connection logs/decide to just treat it like a trial vote. MSO, HBL, and Ikarrus all expressed support for de-admin (is that the right term when a trial ends in failure? I don't really like the word failure for that either, whatever). Sticky says he abstains because "he'd either be a shitty headmin or a shitty friend."
[During this interval Tedward connects 2 more days. On the 27th he actually answers several adminhelps. On the 30th he does the OOC log in/log out again.]
Last night: HG finally shows up and gives the third vote after everyone else is asleep. Being the only one with remote access that is awake, he (attempts) to remove Tedward from the text and then makes the "Removed for inactivity post." In classic /tg/station style this is of course devoid of explanation that this was a trial admin vote (I had to edit in that part), the particulars, etc. Tedward shows up in IRC shortly after, I go to bed while he's speaking to HG.
This morning, post "deadminning": HG managed to only remove Tedward from the basil text so he's still an admin. There is much embarrassment and backpedaling. Quartz attempts to murder our king. MSO decides he's going to have a normal (public) trial vote after all. Tedward admins several rounds and answers a million adminhelps.
ANSWERS
-Why didn't you have a normal public vote?
I believed a vote/feedback thread would be utterly meaningless given he'd not actually been online in the past month, there would be nothing for people to judge.
-Why didn't you warn him?
I thought him being on probation in the first place was the warning. Also given his sharp decline in connections that coincided with him being demoted/him apparently asking Sticky for admin back several times, led me to believe he was not busy or uninterested in adminning, but rather trying to game the punishment by idling a few times (just like HG!). I didn't have any interest in helping him do that. My own biases at play, I guess.
-Why didn't anyone else warn him?
Because adminbus is full of people who are some combination of socially awkward/conflict avoidant/bad at explaining things/friends with Tedward (and yes I list myself among these people). Same reason why nothing ever gets explained properly around here. We're a bunch of nerds.
-What happens now?
We're going to have a public trial admin review and then (another) vote, and this time it will probably be to extend his trial for a month because of the backlash/the fact that he's active post "deadmining"
-Why isn't XYZ admin deadminned for inactivity?
Those admins aren't on probation/on a trial. There is more leeway for people who have made full admin not being here every day.
I was operating under the assumption this was a trial not a normal deadminning (because nobody ever fucking told me what it was). In retrospect, Tedward probably had no idea what the terms were either, so his claim that he didn't know he had to be active isn't really that far fetched. He probably just assumed it was a timeout he had to wait through (though shouldn't the badmin rank have been used?).
-Is HG gonna still be headmin?
I have no idea. It'd be stupid to shoot the messenger over this though, even if he delivered the message poorly (though ironically and amusingly)
tl;dr he failed his "trial" which may not have been a trial and the entire thing was poorly communicated. Mistakes were made and hopefully a clear explanation of why will make some people happier, or at least more understanding of why the mistakes happened.