Yes, in this case you have... after 2.7 years (999 days) not logging in AND with not any more existing member aaccount mail adress.
A non-working old email address is of course a security problem.
You can either prove that you are the relevant user (which is usually impossible due to the limited data stored) or you have to create a new account and this time choose an email address that has existed for longer.
For example, I still have an email address that I have been using for almost 20 years. A good email provider and that is no problem at all.
It is also not advantageous to use disposable email addresses or, for example, an email address from your current employer (jobs change).
However, it is certainly understandable that we then deactivate the relevant accounts (i.e. deactivate them, but not delete them) so that no spammer or other criminal can simply take them over, for example because of a weak or hacked password.
Therefore:
If you want to give up or change your email address, you should do so while the email address is still working. Changing the email address of your forum account is very easy for anyone to do themselves.
How quickly an account can be hacked can be seen regularly on eBay classifieds, for example. There are always accounts that are taken over by spammers and fraudsters because the passwords are too weak or because a user uses the same password for their email and in a thousand other places.
