Count me in.
As this is a newbie game, I think we should keep every option available - we should be able to learn how to horde, how to use Arcane Nexus, etc. So, I vote against the "no hoarding mod"
Diplomacy should be no binding - if you want to show everybody how much you honor your agreements, then feel free to post your alliances on the forum. However, I believe it should be like real life - sometimes you want everybody to know who your allies are... sometimes you don't.
I also belive we should play with the default settings - I may be wrong, but I think most games are played with just small variations of the default settings (CB mod being the exception); so, it's better to learn how to play well with the default settings, before play with such a drastic change as the 100 multiplier. Keep it default.