Thank you. I think this is a first step. Of course, it won't stop determined people from registering under a variety of names, then spamming. It is pretty easy to recognize most spam without reading the message. I have no desire to put money in the pockets of those who post links using their referral identifier so that clicking on the link or buying a product will earn points or money for them.
I, too, think having a few trusted moderators is a good idea.
If spamming is allowed to take up a large percentage of the posts, the forum will eventually lose its usefulness. Wading through a lot of spam discourages most people.
Carolyn