It's from a time before StackOverflow (and StackExchange at large) got very ridged with all the rules. Back then, there were a lot of "fun" questions and answers, including the infamous "What is the best comment in source code you have ever encountered?"[1]

Some old timers might remember those days... SO was a much more fun place back then. Now it's rife with down-voters, close-voters and hostile-towards-newbie folks.

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/184618/what-is-the-best-...

The post was locked because it had received hundreds of flags and comments complaining that the post was broken -- even with the moderator note at the bottom -- and several edits trying to "fix" the post. See https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/250099#comment637_2...

My point is that the comment should be deleted altogether as it's more of a personal rant than a serious answer.

You'll fit in extremely well as a moderator on today's StackExchange.

I'm not saying that these should be the rules.

Only that so long as they be the rules, they should be consistently enforced.

To be fair, "law doesn't work backwards" is an estabilished legal principle.

At this point, it is a cultural artifact.