That's a good way to go about it I think. 

I just gave a merit to alanst in another thread, a member who's basically brand new.  Normally I would not have done that, but he demonstrated that his command of the English language was pretty good and his post was organized and to the point.  I can't imagine he'll somehow turn into a typical bounty spammer unless he sells the account to one.

Theymos wants a little relaxing of standards if I understood him correctly, but I'm not going for that in the case of new members especially.  I will keep an open mind about all of this, but I don't intend to help any shitposters to rank up.  The good thing is that most of them couldn't write a decent post if they spent all day on it.  It just isn't in them.