I already mentioned my thoughts on ac up here, but I also wanted to put out the idea of re-introducing the thread lottery. Either as Shae suggested for missions, or as it used to be way back when where people would volunteer to get randomly paired up with other people and then they'd work out an idea for a thread. Some really fun CR can get built that way, and I think it could be something that would help.

Friending and plotting memes could also be helpful, but I think I also have to agree that changing the way it's set up might be a good idea, pretty much for the same reasons Chi mentioned up above. Maybe combining that with a thread lottery might work as well, for people who want to get CR but don't necessarily have specific ideas on what to do during the meme?