I don't agree. New members need to find their feet in order to earn merit. An upgrade to junior member without requiring merit provides encouragement whilst they learn the community standards at Bitcoin Talk. Restriction on the boards they can use would be far more useful than introducing a merit requirement for them.
Unfortunately many new members take their example from Mother Nature. They spray their barren seeds in as many places as they can, and they hope that one or two will bear fruit. We need to help them to learn that they will get far better results by planting their healthy posts in fertile threads. Moderators can play a part in this by ensuring that the threads remain healthy.
I dont see the logic there. Restricting boards means they cant use the forum as they may want to until earning 10 merit which can take a long time.
Not gaining rank just means you will not get any bounties. Bounties are a biproduct not the reason bitcointalk was founded.
And i see you got 10 merit already, and that was for good posts. I would not care about the rank on thoose posts just the quality. So restricting rank up with merits is still what i see as the best way to stop the spam.