I have to agree with the bottom two ideas. A chatbox, or even an IRC channel could work for NB, and you could have different rooms for discussing Tobi, or anything really. As for Mods, I have noticed around a certain time of day there are no moderators on to do anything.
I only disagree with the first idea. While most people would spam for their 100 posts, a few people don't and three months is quite a long time to wait just to make a thread. What about people who aren't all interested in the roleplaying side of things, and maybe want to talk about their favourite video games? They should be allowed to make a thread for those sorts of things, not to mention people like to introduce themselves.
My personal opinion on the moderator situation is that that have to be more harsh with these sorts of things. Maybe an announcement which can last for maybe a month or a week, and then they start infracting.
On a side note, I feel like mods should also maybe get more involved with the community. While it's nice to have them policing the areas, unless they get involved with the talking and the chatting, they do seem very intimidating to approach when trying to ask them a question. That's my biggest problem.
Buuut, onto the actual topic. I wouldn't even call for leniency. Just make an announcement and be off with it. If people decide not to read the announcement and choose to break more rules, then they're gonna be punished for it.
The Naruto Media sections are the most popular and the most busy/active sections on the whole forum. The RP sections have a lot of work for the mods, but the activity in the Media sections is much higher than in any other sections.
The problem with the Naruto Media sections are that mods quickly get sick of the sections, its the same thing over and over again. At its peaks, there are 600 members or so in the Naruto Manga section, 2 mods can't keep track of all the threads/posts that the members make, so often (im speaking for myself), I don't even try, because it's too much for me to handle.
People almost never use the search tool, or don't even bother looking at the threads in the first two pages, before going ahead and creating a duplicate thread. Many of the new members (around 80%) go straight to Naruto Manga section or Naruto Discussions and start partaking in discussion, without reading the rules. So naturally, they will double post, not follow simple rules. Most of the people don't even know how to edit/delete their own posts, much less Multi-Quote.
Many immature members will start insulting each other when they start losing discussion, or when another member doesn't understand something.
And every time, I try to take initiative and try and get people to behave, and clean up the sections, they will always act like rebel teens who are told by their parents to clean up their room. Whenever that happens, someone always ends up getting banned.
Getting more mods would be a solution, but only a temporary one, because people always lose interest in those sections over time. So 1-2 months after being a mod in those section, you'll be sick and tired of babysitting all the kids in those sections.
A chatbox wouldn't really be a solution either, because with 200 members (roughly 1/3 of the people in the sections), 200 kids, partaking in a IM conversation, it'd be like trying to read the credits in a russian sope-opera (because they scroll so fast), and a lot of insulting back and forth.