Rules are pball only, as 90% of non-pball that goes on here inevitably ends up as "trades or cash offers".
It's more that it's much easier to draw the line at nothing non-paintball allowed, than it is to police some sort of "trades are OK but only if they are for decent kit and not cash offers on every second thursday".
As for what's gone before - it's prob more like people are getting better at reporting posts, and there's more mods about to police stuff. The rules haven't changed, Buddha did them ages ago..