The same way you do not really follow the football threads (as you prefer cricket), there are others that do not follow the cricket threads but follow the football threads instead. Each has their own preference but as you will not post in the football threads but will post in the cricket threads there are those that will post anything incoherent in any thread on any topic just to make the signature campaign fee target and that is where there is a problem.
Handling those spammers or those posts considered low quality or incoherent is not an issue in self-moderated threads but when threads remain unmoderated the good quality meaningful posts get drowned out by those seeking to spam the thread with nonsense. I think those that mentioned earlier in this thread they have locked existing threads and started new self-moderated ones, have done so after contemplating it and concluded it was the best way to ensure the threads have relevance.
Yes I did it a long time ago, long before the OP created this thread.
In the sports related threads, I tend to delete low quality posts including those that are from members spamming for the sake of their signature campaign fee. I think it helped in many ways to keep those threads clean. Sure it has resulted in less number of posts compared to similar threads but that does not have a negative impact because the regular visitors continue to post.
If i give my own example, i am a big fan of cricket, so i usually post in cricket related gambling discussion threads. Even though those threads are over 500+ pages but I still find them interesting as we have new matches and tournaments every now and then and i always have something new to discuss and read. There are many regular posters who discuss the same and even if a newcomer comes there, it is not easy to recognize (unless he says anything foolish) if he is posting for a signature campaign or he is really interested in discussions.
Since I rarely follow football leagues or other sports, you won't find me posting there. Even if I had to post there, I would have something to say about it and not spam.