No. I got the notification on the top of my forum profile. I don't think I broke any rule of the forum in all my actions.
you did exactly that, you can't copy-paste without mentioning the source.
Pointing out the posts I made 2 years ago when I was a "newbies" is pointless. It's just a blackmail
I tend to agree to this, if that is the only mistake you made, then permaban is a bit too much IMO
Is posting relevant articles from external sites with reference URLs against the forum rules? Yes or no?
it is not against the rules , as long as you post the reference, in all world standards that does not count as plagiarism.
The way I see it, someone is trying to bury me before my time. Let's be frank!
yes very possible, someone must have done a lot of digging to get to that point, but i suggest you keep your cool here, non of the admins replied, all of us here are normal members with 0 power, so staying cool and polite + being sorry for the mistake you did + promising not to do it again is probably the best you can do.