Thanks for the note igehhh. I concur:

1. A lot of spam posts not just in discussion but in ANN threads. It's quite clear who posts with any meaningful understanding and who doesn't, I would even say it's quite clear who actually gambles and who doesn't (it's gambling isn't it?)

2. Megathreads don't always get their due though, not all of them are low value (again this is arguable but I actually see a lot of value in the WO thread, for example where there IS an active and knowledgeable community, and that alone warrants for the high frequency of posts otherwise would be considered shitposting. I'm guilty myself every now and then but I trust my campaign manager recognises this haha).

Because many campaigns also discourage mega thread posting if not outlaw them, you get the spammers opening new topics -- you see this a lot in Discussion but also creeping up in the main Gambling thread. Low quality content, no new discussion or angle, etc.

I agree that threads I opened could probably be turned to self-moderated (you named one but I have others also attracting spam) -- I don't mind moderating, though I might be accused of being too harsh, and could be biased to all the users I already know gamble (but that bias is good right?). It was just natural for me to NOT self-moderate to keep the thread censorship free but at this stage, I think the pro (less spam) is preferable to the con (possible censorship).

JollyGood's self moderation's a good example of how one could trim the fat, although I have to say at least one was opened despite existing ones -- should really have kept the existing topics (using the example of Champions League and EPL you used in OP) and moderate that together with others (is that possible?). Was there a reason JollyGood opened those new topics? To self-moderate?