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Im not against it. I only say that oneliners arent automatically bad posts. In fact my post was very good since after i first thought i know the answer already, i had to search and calculate later, to check things out. It took me some time and it was the perfekt answer. In fact i think short answers often can be the better answers.
I agree the length of a post is not the best indicator for spam. Many short answers are good and helpful for someone else.
But even when you would say that short answers automatically are spam... thats no solution at all. In my case... i only would need to add a sentence or two. Wouldnt be a problem. The same goes for spammers. Simply write more and youre done. So treating oneliners as spam might be a fast solution but i think its a rule that can be gamed. Which kills the purpose. And helpful oneliners (i got a thank you for it:)) are treated as spam.
Saying that... if its checked manually anyway then it might be better to not got the oneliner-are-spam-route. It would be pretty easy anyway to identify spammer.
A common spammer tactic here is to rephrase an already existing good answer. This is very hard to catch unless you read the whole thread and even then you will have complaints about it. I suspect that the two managers did skim through the post history which gives an overall impression about the posts someone makes. It would probably better to look more deeply into every thread for every post, but that is very time consuming with the given time and the amount of posts to check. They might also do some more in depth checks randomly.
I see two (or three) solutions here.
#1 The simple and sadly common one -> dont care.
#2 The way this campaign is run, which is similar to the way the board is run -> general rules, without beeing too specific to give the managers room to decide on a case by case basis.
#3 The way some here are apparently asking for -> Very distinct set of rules
I dont like #3, because this can easily be gamed. One liners are not allowed? Ok, just add a line break in the middle of the sentence or another sentence that basically says the same, rephrase an existing answer etc. There are many ways around rules to are to specific.
I like #2, because it keeps you guessing if this might be considered spam from to time to and I think its important to think a second or two before clicking "post". The focus should always be the post. If you can help someone with a single line you will help someone with a single line. If you focus on your post count this vague rule of no spam will always be on your mind.
I think #1 is a disgrace, because it will eventually lead to a situation where the admins have to handle the spam. Trust me no one here wants that. Staff, Mods and Admins have to endure complaints about how paid signatures turned this board into a useless pile of shit by old and respected members. Some of the most knowledgable members here will ignore you just because you sell your signature. If this situation is just ignored like on another campaign people will not complain about their manager, but they will complain to the mods and admins. Lately the Meta section is full of these posts and its usually only the tip of the iceberg as the majority just takes ban. This is more bullshit mods and admins have to deal with and eventually no one gets paid. Signatures will just be disabled.