Tribunal isn't exactly a powerhouse on their best days. They don't really provide in town protection since A) People don't hang out in town like the once did and B) They don't have enough coverage due to low playerbase to make a real difference.

I'd argue A is actually a bigger detriment to the game (remember auctions!?!) but the newbie/orderly/town aspect has been mostly a failure since they lost global coverage and powers, at least IMHO.

As for someone flagging the entire MUD... well since that gets handled in an OOC fashion (character denied, flags undone, etc) why not just prevent placing more than some number of flags in a short period? I imagine if you have flag data you could probably find the most flags placed in an hour number and put it slightly above that.

All that said, I don't really think Empire and Tribunal combining is the best idea ever, but I do think *something* should be done with Tribunal.