I don't think so

No they don't count as bashing

so you can build a bunch of probes and farm someone hundreds of times a day?

kewl when peeps leave loads of forgotten res on defenceless moons

This is a real travel back in time Looking forward to farm with es. probes as these have a capacity of 5 units

No they don't check the posts, there was some1 asking the same, just duplicated stuff.

4. Bashing

It is not allowed to attack any given planet or moon, owned by an active player, more than 6 times in a 24 hour period. This rule also applies to moon destruction missions. Probe attacks and interplanetary missile attacks do not count towards the bashing rule.

Since they don't count towards the bashing rule then you could use them for farming, but this rule could change, the Origin Team decides that

The probe exception was intended in it's use for checking for ninja, defenses, and creating a debris field. I mean if you build enough esp probes and attack somebody 30 times in like 3 hours while they are asleep I'm sure a case could be made against you for some type of bug using or exploitation. Then again maybe not.

Well, 6 attacks make for a total plunder of 98.4375% of the resources. Even if you have to launch a regular attack first to get rid of some fleet/satellites, I'm sure you'll be happy with 96.875%. And you probably won't need to come back for the net 24 hours after that