The majority (if not all) the posts in question were from 2015, which is before the rule was implemented...
AFAIK the rule has been in effect for much longer than it was included in the "unofficial list of rules" thread. There's a reason why there's "unofficial" in its name (and why it was made created a few years after the forum was founded) - it's my own personal effort of compiling as many rules in as compact of a format as possible.
...and I believe the forum generally has a policy against ex-post-facto laws/rules/regulations. Theymos has also said that occasionally posting successive posts when the posts are substantial and the person is not participating in a paid sig campaign is allowed. I am not currently participating in a paid sig deal and don’t believe I was when most of the posts in question were posted.
Fair point though in the wide majority of cases I've seen, consecutive posts were either merged or outright deleted.
Some of the posts were made in threads such as
this one, in which the person who I was responding to had deleted their posts and as such the posts the posts did not violate the rule in question, even if applied retroactively as the rule is posting multiple posts in a row are not allowed, and multiple posts were not posted in a row. This is clear because the posts were quoting other posts that were removed.
If posts become consecutive due to deletion of another user's posts, in practice they're usually merged as well.
It appears that someone was implementing a script that uses flawed logic. Even without access to all deleted posts, you could easily see the posts were not posted in violation of the rule.
It isn't in violation according to your interpretation of the rules. It was according to mine (see rule 23 in
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.0), which I base on what I've observed other moderators do when encountering consecutive posts or old bumps over the years.
Also, most of the threads in question are very old and are not active (they are 5 years old). I really don’t see a good reason to be going back this far to remove posts you believe violate this rule (using flawed logic).
Had no one reported your posts, I'd agree. I didn't dig those topics and posts up myself, someone reported them.
A few short weeks ago humble #RussiaCoin has also fallen foul of mprp's heavy hand with more than 10% of all of our post having been deleted. The Russiacoin thread was started June 7 2015 and 43 of our posts in
our own thread having been deleted by mprp
all the way back to 2015 in the one thread. Some but not all of our posts have been rolled into one post here and there, but others were deleted without clear reason. When I tried to ask mr.mprp to explain why he didn't even issue warning he said its not his job to warn, just delete posts for being multiple posts. There have been some other threads in the weeks that followed
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5241332.msg54323822#msg54323822 is one about many people's posts being deleted without warning.
Most of what I've said about Quickseller's concerns applies to your case as well. The deleted posts were probably bumps (or "update"-like bump posts that were either low value or duplicating content) or part of a row of consecutive posts where the content was duplicated or low value. When it comes to warnings about consecutive posts or old bumps, those are just merged or deleted - warnings are for ongoing behavior, not past infractions. If every mod had to warn the user to clean up himself, moderation would screech to a standstill.
I can not recall just now who said it, but someone in one of the other posts said something about us lower down the ranks are having their posts deleted to prevent them from gaining ranks. I had 359 posts, now I only have 316 - a few posts were weeks apart, so it now looks like there was no activity in the #RussiaCoin thread for many months which is a blow to the stomach since our coins were lost in both Cryptopia and Tradesatoshi (run by the same people FYI)
If your "rank" was gained through posts that break the forum's rules, you don't deserve that rank.
The mods in the other threads will tell you they all have different opinions about what does and does not get deleted.
IIRC theymos doesn't believe in definitive rule lists so a lot of moderation decisions are left to moderators with different interpretations of forum policy.
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Frankly, pretty much any report on posts that are 5 years old should be marked as bad. There is no reason why action should be taken on posts this old in nearly all cases. If you are going back this far to report posts, you are either trying to create trouble or are trying to pad your stats.
I don't mark reports as bad unless, according to my interpretation of the rules, the posts in question doesn't require any action since it doesn't break any forum rule that I can perceive with the information provided in the report.
@Quickseller and @RussiaCoinDotInfo, if you believe I was wrong in merging your old posts (and / or deleting old bumps), feel free to appeal my decision to theymos. I am far from infallible and maybe your interpretation is right and mine is wrong. If theymos decides to reverse my decision, I'll gladly adjust how I handle reports on old consecutive posts and old undeleted bumps.