The fact that we haven't added any child boards to the Altcoin boards already says that something is very wrong.

I have recently tried to alleviate this problem with a list of currently active giveaways to stop people from bumping up the dead giveaways.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=322446.0

Instead of announcing giveaways, people should announce faucets... they serve the same purpose and greatly diminish unwanted traffic on the forums.