CAn you change your Avatar, it's scary. And me saying that means something. Please, if you do I say thank you if not... *Bleep You* Just kidding. But I would like it if you did.
Yeah, I guess a warning would have been better than an infraction. But we've had people do that in the past: they posted a thread with no pictures, and then after a dozen people complained they posted pictures, and then there was no download link, so people complained, so they posted a link. By the time the link was there, they had one or two pages of posts already. It was intentional. So I think mods are on the lookout for those shenanigans, and assumed that's what you were doing. I would suggest releasing a V1 or a "Beta" map version so that you can get feedback, and then release a V2 or a "Real" version of it. Anyway, good luck.
If a thread doesn't have a link to download a map, it shouldn't even be in the map forums. People only do it when they want to create "buzz" about their map, get more attention, and get more downloads. It's annoying. Please only post map threads when the map is finished and available for download. And please only name the map thread the same name as the map. It keeps the forums neat and easy to browse.