Why don't you make it so the thread can only be bumped once per day regardless of how many people post in it? I think if we make it merit or rank-based then they'll just find a way around it by paying the relevant users to post in there. That would at least the defeat the purpose of paid bumping and it'll probably stop whilst still allowing active threads to be bumped daily (but just once a day. The time could also even be randomised so people can't just choose a certain time of day to bump it).
Have you thought any more about this that you put in the Maybe category:
Charging ICOs a fee to make their ANN here. You could even get rid of the ANN board completely and give them their own sub once they've paid the fee. If there's no Ann board then there will probably be no paid bumping because it will be useless, but let them spam away in their own slum and squalor.
Maybe.
I think that would once and for all solve the paid bumping issue and it's about time ICOs started contributing financially to the mess they're causing here and the extra manpower that is needed from staff to clean it up.
1. Disable posting on altcoin announcements below Jr. member rank. Keep only read mode for newbie rank.
I think a better solution (and as I have suggested before) would be that lower ranked member's posts in there just don't bump the thread at all. I think they'll just get around it though by using higher-ranked accounts which could easily be purchased (if they don't even have them already or some high ranked bumping service will then pop up to meet demand).