[jacquesm]

> I'm a noob here but I'm more of a reader / lurker than a spammer.

The fact that you write this more or less already proves your point. Spammers would not engage in conversation (at least, not normally).

[tomjen3]

It would seem then, that the solution would be to ban new postings by users who don't have at least 10 karma.

[jacquesm]

That would also drop a lot of really nice stuff. Plenty of people start their lives on HN as the posters of an article.