a vacation to the beach! I hope to do that in July

that Mexican sun is hot, do not get burnt.

What might work is a system whereby the public can "nominate" threads that they feel are or were very useful. After some number of nominations that thread could be flagged as being a "Recommended Reading" thread and would appear highlighted or something on the main forum page.

The "flames" does, in my opinion, not serve a purpose as used and could be used here.
A thread does only exist for a short while, however, I think that the current method of moving these to the FAQ section is excellent, maybe a section for "read these if you are (kinda) new to this" and a "common pitfalls" or some such could be added and used in a similar fashion.