Thanks for finally posting the rules. Probably why they posted them? Sales starting to slide?
I own the game....bought it a year ago or more. Had to get the upgrade kit thanks to Germangames.com in Waterloo, Ontario. GREAT SERVICE from German Games!! (Get it?)
Now that the rules are officially online, it opens the door to some other interesting possibilities... for example, an interactive online tutorial on how to play (aka http://www.profeasy.com/Settlers_Boardgame/ )
Okay maybe not THAT interactive. Still, it would be nice to have a place to point people to visit, BEFORE showing up to a game event to learn how to play.
So you think posting the rules will goad me into buying this game, Mr. smarty pants!!! Well you're right gosh dernit. Thanx a lot for making me spend more money! Jerks! searchable.pdf rules would be nice
edit: game ordered, money gone, fun to commence within 1 week
I travel to 8 conventions a year with over 80 games Cardboard boxes just can't handle that kind of abuse and most of the boxes are bigger then they need to be. I consolidate the rules into ring binders and having the rules online lets me print the oversize rule books on 8.5x11 so they fit in the binders.
Also with I cant afford every game out there so reading the rules online tells me if it is the kind of game my groups would like and saves me a lot of headache trying to return open games or money selling them to the second hand market.
Got this game when it first came out because of the hype. Found the rulebook unclear and unwieldy with exactly zero publisher support. Wrote it off as crap, gave it a low rating and banished it to the back of the shelf. Now that there appears to be some kind of support I'll remove my rating, dust this off and try it anew.
I agree that posting *something* was a nice move, but this is just a bunch of scanned images of the rulebook.
It still feels very archaic not to have a "find" feature to look up rules with. I still don't understand why this publisher has taken such a contrarian view towards digital rules support. The lack of a find feature is all the more frustrating with rules that are split up into basic/advanced/full. Nowadays when I've seen many gamers sit down with their iPad/Kindle/Whatever for easy rule reference.
Anyhow, I'm not one to usually come on here and moan, but this is lame.
Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen
Jerks! 
searchable.pdf rules would be nice 
Frigging useless! I solved the captcha and then it freezes up when I try to download. Sheetmonkeys!