I remember a while back how some of the older veterans of this group were arguing about the pledge and the effect it had on trolls. I believe in something different - that a <b><u>VERY SMALL</u></b> amount of spam and OT messages every week (just one or two of each) helps to keep the spice in a group. Any more, however, and the group starts to degenerate.
It's just a theory that I have for the optimum concentration of spam and 100% OT messages in a newsgroup - somewhere around 1% to 1.5% is vital for a newsgroup. Under about 0.7%, things seem to slow down (don't ask why, this is just my observation) and above 3% the spam and messages whinging about it start to clog up the newsgroup.
This seems to be true for any newsgroup I've been in - it's really odd. Just my two cents.