10 minutes might be a bit of an overkill, even for new users only. As I have noted, I tend to find out 5 seconds fairly quickly, with [i]legimate[/i] posts I actually wanted to make (never mind that five seconds would not prevent timeout-related double-posting, anyway)... About thirty seconds is something I'd personally be able to tolerate, if it was something that went away sooner rather than later.

[quote]The fourth feature, though more of an unlikely wishlist feature, would be a system for trusted users to vote to nuke spambots without mod intervention. Mods would simply see a feed of accounts nuked by the community which they could then reverse if there was some sort of wrongful nuking.[/quote] This seems to be far too dangerous. I've seen far too many griefing incidents, and if it was a fairly unknown and none-too-confrontational user who was targeted, it might easily slip attention. I don't think less-than-mods should have that kind of power. By default, only mods are the users you trust enough.