It would have been nice if Ric had mention why his thread had been edited, as per our PM discussion last night.
In short the rule was brought a while back due to several 'fledging' forums using AOC as great place to attempt to poach members from, either by incessantly posting links to the forum/club or by using the PM system to "alert members that there was somewhere better to go". This included this forum amongst others, as a couple of members openly admitted to doing do.
There is no problem with posting a link directly to a thread with contains the answer to a specific question (which is mentioned in the rules), but what Ric posted wasn't which is why it got deleted: as does anything of a similar vein posted by anyone else when is intended 'advertise' another Non-VOBA forum. You have another couple of members doing the same and their posts get edited/deleted too.
All forums have rules that you agree to when you sign up and it's for members to read and abide by them, in the same way I abide by the rules when I visit here.
I hope that explains the situation