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AN option to consider:
Disabling bump ability of new accounts.
Why should accounts lower than the member rank, that haven't earned any merits, be able to push a thread to the top?
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Anyone can post but the thread won't rise back up to the top unless they are member rank or higher, correct? That's a novel proposal and one I can't really find any fault with, though I suspect it might be difficult to get the forum software to play along.