Do something like this[/url]. Make a useful post, outlining guidelines that people should follow. That will make it easier to reference the guidelines and silence scams. Clear it with a mod first so it can be stickied. Soon you find other users referencing your post and the community will start to police itself.
I agree with the OP's sentiment about the Altcoin: Announcements section here on the forum.
But Vod has a valid point. Cleaning up that thread will not only be a massive undertaking, but establishing the standards of etiquette and procedures for ANN Posts would be an undertaking in and of itself.
Personally- I think a very straight forward, reasonably easy to implement the solution. Moderating this solution (unless Simple Machines Forum can auto-moderate posts as done on Reddit) would be another story.
The ANN Section is challenging to read; it's challenging to find the information one is searching for. It's filled with a lot of bumped up dead threads. Posts that seem to come out of nowhere, and you have to filter through these on top of everything else.
I'd like to see:
A Standardized Subject Format.
As on Reddit, (Known as Reddiquitte) and other forums, the post must meet strict requirements, or it is typically auto-flagged and never gets posted at all.
A SIMPLE SUBJECT FORMAT OF: [Post Type] | [Proper Name of Project] - [TICKER]: 80 Character Description [ALGO][POS/POW]
That's a very rudimentary markup I just did. But that alone would make reading that section world's easier.
Secondly, I'd only say if a Thread within the ANN section hasn't been active or replied to within X days (60 perhaps): Auto Archive it out. . If active again, the OP would have to contact a Moderator for review.
Policing the forums with human moderators or auto-moderating (if possible) or a combination of both would make the Bitcointalk forum - specifically the Altcoin Announcement Section, a much better community for users to post their projects.
Cheers!
Strato