Scratch

cheddargirl wrote:

Being here during the days of the 50 forum post rule, I've noticed how easy it is for normal users and commercial spammers to easily gain the 50 posts needed for a signature by easily doing the following tactics:
- go to all the stickied 'forum guides' and type in "great tips", "that's good to know", and "thanks for the guide"
- go to several 'New Member' threads and post "hi, i am new member" or "hi, i am new".
- go to several 'Show and Tell' threads and post "sounds cool".

By this observance, a 100 post requirement rule may not be a good enough deterrent here to prevent new users who are looking to troll and spam the coveted 'Miscellaneous' forum (assuming they have gotten word of it).

Most forums who have locked sections from new members usually have posting requirement, time requirements, and reputation requirements before gaining access to the locked forum. Scratch currently does not have a reputation system, but perhaps any post requirement could be supplemented with a similar time-based one. A Scratcher with good intentions is more likely to wait and stay on the forums, a troll or spammer is less likely to wait and will probably spam right away and is more easily caught.

I do see your point...
However, I personally know that upping the limit beyond 50 would put a number of legitimate users out in the cold.

I always try to make my posts thorough and informative, which takes time.
This means that it took me quite a while to make 50 posts!

Therefore, I must go with your ranking system idea.
We could maybe have a 'best answer' thing like yahoo answers...