Most forums I'm on that encourage people to make an intro post have a separate forum to do so in. It keeps the general forums cleaner and keeps the newbs in one place at first, plus shows new comers what's expected in a newb post and what happens if you act like a tool by example. I dunno, I really like the newb section on my local street racing forum, it's a lot of fun to welcome/harass the new folk.
Just an idea.