Completely agreed. I brought up such a suggestion a while back and it didn't go over well though.

We have this "5 posts before you can PM requirement" that causes confusion. Rather than that, have a "New Member" sandbox section (primarily Community) that introduces new members to the community and includes a very clear sticky thread detailing the process of getting out.

I've been to some forums where new members could not even create new threads until certain achievements had been met, and I'm good with that too. It could be based on number of replies, number of Thanks, number of thread reads, Searches, whatever.

People opposed to such hurdles may think of this as simply a forum, but it isn't. It really is a community, and in the physical world communities only welcome transients for a short time. Residents commit to staying. I think we need some equivalent.