If we were going to deal with the links to Pit threads, I would say the solution would not be rules, but to fix the software. @codinghorror seemed to understand why the Pit thread is near the bottom, so maybe he’d understand why we might not want links to threads.
That said, I don’t see anything wrong with avoiding directly linking or using the QUOTE button. (You can still quote them with copy and paste.) I do it a lot, albeit primarily in the Troll thread not to attract their attention.
I will admit there are times when I am not ready to deal with the Pit, and would prefer not to be notified. I am unclear on whether they just have the little link below their post, or if they get notified that their post was quoted or linked to. The latter would, I think, be something undesirable.