What do you think about this as a potential solution to this issue:
https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/announcing-steem-0-14-0-release-candidate
I'm not a coder so I don't know if it would work, but it was very concerning seeing this sort of behavior negatively affecting new users. Perhaps this is a way to drastically disincentivize these types of trolls here.
Thanks for your help @derekareith. I really appreciate it!