The AuctionTalk forum rules are posted on the first page you come to where it is actually possible to post something. When you register to post in the forums, you are immediatly taken to a page that contains the rules link. We saw no need to place the link on every page throughout the site, since the Forums are approximately 5% of the total site content. Placing links to site "houskeeping" pages, like privacy policy, rules of use, and so forth, is an Internet convention.

Regarding the eBay forums, you are right and I am wrong. Apparently, a major change has taken place recently that I was not aware of. The message box on the left says "Welcome to the NEW Community Help Forum, hosted by eBay Community Support Staff." I was not aware of this change.

I suspect that because this forum is specific to community support staff and issues, the rules are different within this one board. I suspect the old rules still apply to the General Discussion and category specific Boards, since I've seen threads deleted as recently as a week ago. But, I will accept that it appears that eBay will allow specific auctions and buyers and sellers to be discussed without their knowledge. And that appears to be a new rule, and if I happen to disagree with it, I will take it up with eBay and leave it at that.