Is this forum going downhill, due to numpty newbies?

that stops new people from making new relevant and interesting threads, should be the other way round. give someone negative points for making pointless and irritating threads, if they make a certain amount then they have a months ban from thread making or something. like a driving licence. a month should be long enough to learn to use search.

But you still have to put up with all the stupid shit in the first place. The counter arguments would be that

1) if you are going to be starting good threads, then it shouldn't take you much longer than probation to earn your 5 pips.

2) you could end up with established posters getting banned because of people fucking around.