I have been thinking for some time about the ways of making bitcointalk a more serious and strict forum than it is right now. I would like to share my suggestions with you and get some feedback. If they are good ones then maybe moderators could implement the necessary changes.
1. Smerit limit per post. Earning merits is generally hard, which makes them valuable on this forum. However, some people receive 15 or 20 merits for a single post, while others have only 15 merits, which they earned slowly from different people and for different posts. I think it would be better to make it impossible to send more than 5 merits for a specific post by one person. So, if the post is really good, then it can earn about 20 merits, but those merits must be sent by at least 4 different people. (questioned by hilariousetc and pugman)
2. Maximum 2 merits per post per merit sender in local boards. I think that people usually trade merits in small threads in local boards, because the moderation there is not as strict as in the English sections of this forum. If one can send 5 merits for a post written in English, I think it is fair that only 2 merits can be sent for a non-English post.
3. Offered by kryptqnick and silent26: No Signature campaigns without escrows. I know that scamming on signature campaigns is not common, but why not to make it impossible? Most of legit campaigns escrow the funds anyway, so I guess making it a must should not be a problem. (questioned by hilariousetc and pugman)
4. No Signature campaigns for projects with bad reputation. Betcoin.ag accounts had red trust on this forum due to the infamous jackpot scam, but they were still advertising themselves for at least a year after that incident. I think it would be fair to forbid scamming projects to advertise themselves on this forum. (questioned by hilariousetc and pugman)
5. No ANN threads for shady ICOs. We all know the statistics on ICOs. While I find the general idea very appealing, the fact that most of ICOs are scamming people harms the reputation of the crypto market. I think there should be some requirements every ICO has to meet to officially enter bitcointalk.org. Among such requirements I would name an official website with a whitepaper, team and roadmap listed on it. (questioned by hilariousetc and pugman)
6. Rank requirement for signature campaign managers. Sometimes people with zero trust on Member or perhaps even a Junior Member rank lead signature campaigns. I think that people need experience on the forum to be Signature campaign managers. They need to know what it considered good post quality and what is bad; in which topics participants should not be welcomed to post; which projects mainly prefer specific forum sections and childboards etc. It truly seems strange to me when a Member decides which Legendary members to accept to a specific campaign. From my experience they usually don't bother making hard decisions, so they simply accept the first ones who applied. Anyway, I suggest that only people with membership rank of Senior Member and higher are allowed to lead Signature campaigns. I guess we should exclude copper members here as well, but I am not sure about that. (questioned by hilariousetc and pugman)
7. Offered by seoincorporation: at least 1 merit is required to become a Junior Member of the forum.
8. Offered by mdayonliner: Signature campaign manager has the right to make the minimum merit requirements for the campaign participants.
9. Offered by Coin-Keeper: U2F authentification instead of captchas.
10. Offered by jonemil: Add separate board on each sections dedicated only to merited topics.
11. Offered by Jet Cash: reforming moderation policy, so that good posters don't have their topics locked and ICO promoters are limited in their activity.
12. Offered by joulion86 and r1s2g3: all signature campaigns should pay in bitcoin.
If you have other suggestions you'd like to add to these ones, please attach numbers (from 7 and higher), so that everyone can address the specific suggestions easily to create feedback. I will edit this post and add them here (I'll write down the names of those who offered them as well).
Thanks!