In my view, it is a bad and unrealistic, dare i say dangerous exploit.
It's "playing the gamemechanics without sense or decency"

Some player found out about it and now everyone has to follow to not be left behind,
instead of coming up with clear and strict community rules like "do it once, okay,
do it thrice, get thrown out/banned".

In short, not every exploit HAS to be used, we are rulers of nations, responsible for our people and their well-being, NOT Bankers.

you can still do that

I think it is an exploit in general and not good for the game...
However, Salting is pretty important regarding captured cities. Capturing Cities is not comparable to founding->salting. You do not always want to keep the captured city, but may want to take it away and destroy it to hinder your opponent. This is especially true if you struggle with emp plans and approval.

I think the exploit v. feature is easily answered. The wild walkers second quest can be found a new colony. After founding, you have to earn production in the new city. If you found then salt the earth, you fail the second part of that quest and get the quest to found a city back. You can found/salt ad naseum for massive gold/resources. That cannot have been an intended feature.

Yes, I see it now, thanks, but it's not very good English so it's hard to grasp what they're trying to say.

Advanced use of "Salting the Earth" described in "Next : Where to settle your next cities ?" and "Next : What to do about your first empire plan of the turn 10 ?" sections of this guide . Crucial point to understand, that if you don't use salting strategically, you won't be able to pick 33% construction reduction at turn 10 (on normal speed it would be turn 20). So you won't be able to compete with players, who managed to pull off that trick.

I do not see anything when searching for "salting the earth" in that guide you link to.

Needed to happen. Obviously it's an exploit. If it's good for the game is another question. I'd say it's not.

Thank you for making this. This is really needed in my opinion.