I would agree, but I think an even better suggestion would be to have some warnings shown in red at the top of certain sub boards of the most commonly broken rules. Ie:
In the Press section:
Do not post non-bitcoin press articles here.
Gambling:
Do not post ref linksAnd so on. They could be rotated like ads if there's several commonly broken rules.
It's good idea to keep sub-forum/section/child-board keep tidy, but just like any sticky thread (including official rules), it will be ignored.
Whilst many people do ignore them, many also don't. Silly or naive people may not bother reading them, but that's their issue if they don't and they then fall foul of the rules. I know I always familiarise myself with the rules or customs of a forum before I start posting as some are more harsh than others about enforcing rules and bans and warnings/bans can get dished out like candy on some of them.
Why not both? The "unofficial rules" thread for the subforum could help to generate those warnings. Maybe after one ranks up they can have a feature to turn it off or something. I prefer the sticky suggestion simply for the fact it requires no modification of the forum software/structure itself and would be most easily implemented.
I wouldn't be against both, but a warning at the top is hard to miss. I don't think it's a good idea having too many stickies though as that just increases the chances people won't read them. I suppose you could include a warning in the red message to also read the stickies for further details. This is something I suggested in the Newbie welcome message I proposed:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4923876.msg44344662#msg44344662Before posting in a sub board please take the time to read the sticky/pinned threads at the top of them as answers to the most frequently asked questions can be found there along with other helpful guides
Having a welcome message explaining some of the rules will help a lot and stop a lot of people getting banned and mods wasting their time on handling things that people should be aware about.
Also, I don't think the software would need to be modified to display warnings either as we already have (or did have) warnings at the top of Investor based games (I think it was there, but doesn't seem to be anymore).