Post making contest 3.0

nopqrstuvwxyz

this passes rule 1 and 4

1 and 2 were initially in the same boat, because there was a time in which neither of them had any posts which passed them. Then someone made a post which passed rule 1. It was easy to see what was different for that one post compared to everything else in the round, which is why rule 1 was figured out. Because every post has still failed rule 2, this ease could still exist, which is why trying to get any post to pass rule 2 is so important. The other rules could be solved with current information, which is why trying to get new information is important and why that screwy rule 2 is so important.

Also, I thought it meant that the rules themselves were rotating (i.e. for post n, to pass rule 1 it had to follow A, for post n+1 it had to follow B, and so on).

this passes rule 1 and 3.

ah
that makes sense!
well in that case, i guess rule #2 is unfair.
you won't get it by randomly guessing.
but by learning more about rule 5 you can figure out more about rule 2.

edit: more things to say
rule 2 is unfair that its unlikely you'll pass it by randomly guessing, but it's fair in that i feel like you have enough information to figure it out.
rule 5 is a much more complicated and dastardly rule, the fact that so many posts have passed it is just one of the quirks that make it so gross.