I saw your blurb! I agree. I've promoted a few people as well. To be honest, though, I don't really have a better solution to suggest.All I've noticed is that with the latest system, I've seen less and less fresh blood resurfacing much after saying a small comment or hello in the "Welcome to Hubski" thread.
I took a leap of faith with a few users over time, discerning they weren't bots.
I've promoted people who made thoughtful comments. I blocked the cute animals pic person. The system has worked great to defeat spam, it's also seemed to kill of a large number of new adopters. I don't know if you remember the day global was 5 pages of audio book promotions. That killed the site for new adopters and the rest of us. It's a tricky balance. Talking to others I gather that there was more context to animal posting person than showed up on their home page (I guess he deleted his more profound comments). From where I stand it looks like we shooed away some rif raf that found its way where it didn't belong. I think promotion should he used to include people who have shown they are outstanding community members. Regular old community members can get in the door with a minimal amount of conversational engagement.