I see that "Rules" has finally made it onto the Industrial template.
A permanent announcement regarding the rules sounds like a good idea. I could implement it with my own idea...
Returning to the topic, I think it depends entirely on the nature of the post. If it's a proper discussion or one of those ghastly "What's Your Favourite Oddworld Creature" threads, then newbies probably should be allowed to create them if there hasn't been one in a while, as new members will have joined. However, if it's a question that can quite easily be answered by searching through the Forums, then I hope I'll remember to integrate it into the Q&A thread. Simple stuff.
And bringing back old threads is against the rules, so if we illegalise repeated threads, then we're limiting the voices of members who have joined recently.