I hate to see our moderators and gurus waste their precious time!
What about the following strategy:
1. Newbies are restricted to a dedicated "Hello, world" forum.
2. Newbies are requested to apply for a full membership in said forum.
3. The application must loosely follow a certain protocol (e.g. "the reasons I'd like to join / my first encounter with JBL / my favourite model / current collection / planned project / ...")
4. The community gives approval by means of a simple one-click action.
5. A certain number of OK:s is required to obtain membership.
6. The OK:s are weighted according to voter membership status: E.g. only one "moderator click" is needed or two ">100-post member clicks" or...
This would:
a. share the burden of screening new users
b. isolate potential XXX Viagra-style firsts post to a specific place
c. put reasonable demands on newcomers (also "money poor" ones)
Of course crook newbies could copy old applications, but doing this (in an non-obvious way) is probably already too much hassle for "drive by spammers". We as a community could also be careful: When in doubt, post a follow up question before clicking OK.
Just an idea. (I don't know how technically complicated this would be to implement, but I'd be glad to donate to help making it happen.)
Fredrik