So, after a week, we have some preliminary results:

1 out of 41: Remove Shouts

Obviously, this is not going to happen. There are too many reasons why it is part of the game.
​

7 out of 41: Leave it "As Is"

I'm going to assume that the people who want it to stay the way it is either don't care one way or another, or maybe are contributing to the reason it's viewed as annoying ;)
​

9 out of 41: Increase Staff enforcement of existing rules.

I believe that the chat spam rules have just been revamped, so this may already be in effect.
​

9 out of 41: Increase Shout costs.

One of the reasons people defended Shouts was that is a "money sink"... meaning it takes money out of the economy. Increasing the cost slightly (I threw 10k in just for fun) to 2k or maybe 3k would accomplish the same "sink" action, but possibly make Shout spammers a little more wary of "accidentally" hitting the Shouts 4-5 times in a row, if it will cost them double (or triple) than it does now.
​

15 out of 41: Opt out of being able to see Shouts.

While the first idea was to be able to completely turn off Shouts (because if you've left most other chat channels, there isn't anything someone could be "advertising" that you are interested in anyway), but another, and in my opinion better, idea is that Shouts by someone on your "/ignore" list should not be able to "override" your ability to avoid communication with certain individuals. Either one would work, but the "/ignore" list idea should be the minimum level.
​

I'm still going to keep the poll up until the 14th to see if the "general opinion" of the server changes. (which at 2 votes per person, only 21 people is a pretty sad turnout)

 

Half of the Shout "spam" would not be considered illegal, since it is not the same message... it's a conversation. It's one person asking 5 others (that actually care) about a subject that no one else is involved in, but the entire server is required to hear it because they have disposable income.

Your training comes from being on Staff and keeping an eye on multiple chats ;) *bows to the retired Mod*