Since freeper highflight was referring to my post #25 and the person I was corresponding with who also misspelled the name at one point, I think you are incorrect that highflight's comment was directed at post #40.
Regardless, you have now mentioned post #40 and should you have pinged that freeper under the rule you mentioned?
My understanding is that if no names are mentioned and it's not a clear connection to a specific poster, it is not necessary to ping a poster.
Peach,
In the future, I will have my people ping your people.
That would be prudent.
I did ping him when I first brought up the issue. This time I wasn't commenting directly on the post but addressing the claim that "several" people had made that misspelling when in fact #40 was the first (and then echoed by someone else later). I'm not discussing him per se at this time and I'm certainly not insulting him so didn't feel the need to ping him.
A mere reference to a post does not require the ping, but a comment about the poster (making a freudian slip..har har har) in an insulting manner certainly does.