Not sure if this is the best way to ask for clarification but since the statement is actively brought forward; what is the basis of "The mentioning of CO-OPs outside ECF is strictly prohibited." It looks like moderators go beyond ECF to general internet content at large in their search for rules adherance.
Actually I think it is more of looking at the website/forum traffic analysis packge that all websites have. They are able to see referring links, so if someone somewhere else links to ECF it shows the link that brought them to the site in the first place.
As a previous admin of a site with forums, generally speaking this would go unnoticed, unless there was a sudden high influx of traffic from a particular link.
So it isn't some creepy " we are watching everything you do and everywhere you go" sort of thing, but rather being able to see what brought traffic to the site.
In this case it happened to bring traffic to the site against a rule
