It's not the time that counts, it is the offence that does. Whether you did it yesterday or before 2 years, you are guilty of it and you deserve to get the punishment assigned for the offence in the present.
A 28 years old adult who doesn't even have the sense to understand that a place cannot be without rules, and offending them would get you ended up with a punishment. A person living in a country needs to know the laws in there and obey them, same goes with a forum.
Shedding tears won't help you. You call it your favorite forum, but as far as I know, people never get careless about the things they posses which are their favorite. If they do, they lose them, and that is what happened with you.
It is not once, the reports above show that you have done it more than once, and something done more than once cannot be a mistake.
They do, if they manage to catch the murderer.