I have mixed feelings about the idea of sticking any threads in the junkyard, and it's only partially because I hate stuck threads in general.
There are enough attention-whore members that use the junkyard like their own private yard sale as it is, bumping their threads every couple hours. If there was a way they could actually get their sales stuck at the top you'd see several of them doing whatever it took to make their sales qualify for that kind of treatment. And then, as Haze mentioned, you'd have the whole first page cluttered with stuck threads.
But having those kinds of runs stuck would increase visibility, to be sure, but I'm not sure if that would actually decrease the possibility of scamming from happening. I feel like it is the buyer's responsibility to be diligent in maintaining contact with the seller, bumping threads, and so on. I would hope that just because a thread is getting pushed back off of the first page or two that it doesn't mean that the participants of that run are completely cut off from updates from the seller, or are incapable of remembering they have a stake in a project that is in progress.
If a seller is going to flake out, it probably doesn't matter if their thread is stuck on page one or drifted back to page fifty, it is still the responsibility of the buyers to hold the seller to their word and deliver on the run.
As for limiting presales, as opposed to only selling "in hand" items, I kinda like that idea, but I think it would drastically reduce the amount of handmade items offered for sale here. I can think of several members here that only sell what they have in hand, financing all runs up front, and they are some of the most trustworthy and reputable members on the RPF. Oddly enough, these are the very same guys I'd be even more likely to be willing to pay up front for something, just because I know the caliber of their work and their ability to follow through.
But, not everyone here that has a great project, and the willingness and talent to pull it off, has the means to fund the whole project up front. And yes, sadly, this is the biggest opening scammers and deadbeats exploit on the boards.
Perhaps instead of simply dropping all presales altogether, there could be a new policy limiting the presale-to-delivery window to less than 45 days. Most scammers bide their time placating their customers with excuses until the PayPal time limit to request a refund has passed. Closing THAT window would certainly help improve the chances of someone getting their money back, should a deal go south.
