True, its not indication of their (lack of) vindictiveness or such. but there are fewer of those, and using pure statistics, the fewer people you pick, the fewer of the "bad" type you'll most likely get.


[s]A limit of 1 new topic every five-ten minutes for the first 50 posts and up to five posts per fifteen minutes or 10 posts per hour seems like a less troubling barrier for new players while still stopping most bots.[/s]
On that thought... Account age might be just as relevant a barrier for such... Not many bots survive beyond their first day or three... so:
if account has less than 50 posts: 1 new topic every 10 minutes max
If account has less than 100 posts: 2 new topics every 10 minutes max
If account is less than 72 hours old, no more than 5 posts every fifteen minutes

Are those restrictions better, [@Kangaroo], [@Shienvien]?