Well this is certainly the dilemma isn't it. It's a catch 22 because the quality would obviously instantly improve if we did that and I'm getting to the point where I think it's going to be the only solution to put an end to it, but in doing that it's obvious we'd lose a massive amount of traffic and new users signing up which is kinda priceless to the forum. If campaigns were banned I wouldn't be surprised if the forum became pretty dead and half the people just left (though obviously this would be preferential to those that just want decent discussion). Personally, I think it's about finding a balance but there really needs to be some fear of punishments and people losing their accounts if they take the piss and abuse the system otherwise nothing is going to change.
This makes it sound that you think "half the people" post only because of sig campaigns. Do you really think so?
And if yes - why would it be a bad thing if they stopped posting?