1) Make it so that posts from lower ranked members don't bump the thread to the top (ideally up to Member)
Agree, it's good idea. But even just stop posting for newbie on Marketplace ( Altcoins) can possible prevent 80% spam and bump.
2) Get rid of the Announcement board completely and instead charge ICOs a fee to list here and once they do they get their own sub board in the Alt Coin section. If this happens then paid bumping is useless. Many of them would probably like having their own board and they could even be responsible for moderating it or mod it how they like.
ICOs should probably be paying a fee to list here anyway. They get a crazy amount of advertising for free and are probably causing 95% of the staff workload by all the spam and abuse that is happening and staff are left to run around like headless chickens trying to clean it all up. It's about time they have to start compensating for this. Money raised can either go to hiring more staff to combat spam or given to charity.
Thoughts or anyone have any other suggestions to combat this abuse?
Not agree. Forum will be more spoil. They will just pay fee for board or sub-board and same will promote by alt account instead of bump. How ever it will same spam.
Better solution I think leave it same board. Yes you can suggest for fee on same board but personally I discourage.
I think restrict posting below member & reply / quote restriction below Jr. Member. So below member will not able to make thread , below Jr. will not able to reply or quote. If implement this I believe 80% spam will reduce.