I do like the idea of removing signatures for members who are are only posting for the link and not returning it until they improve their posting. If a member has their signature removed they should not qualify for the recognition.
We implemented the 10 post policy because we were getting a lot of PM spam and it was difficult to effectively deal with it. But I do see in doing so we created the issue of the "spam to get 10". Guess it is a picking the less of two evils.
We will have to look at it, maybe we can set a limit on the PM's for new members. I will explore what options we have and when Michael gets back next week share this thread with him there are a lot of good ideas.