Given that framing, and to make it feel like less of a punishment, and to prevent easy evasion with new accounts, I think new users should be rate limited by default, and the mods should be willing to dynamically adjust these defaults depending on the number of new users. If it’s just a few at a time, maybe we can assimilate them without rate limiting them at all. When it’s more, impose the rate limits on everyone below a certain karma threshold. When we’re getting overwhelmed, to prevent an Eternal September scenario, the allowed posting rates could be much lower than usual. Keep watch on the numbers.
More speculative, but I could imagine something like a green card lottery or sponsorship system to help us assimilate users at a more manageable rate, even when demand exceeds our capacity to do so, although increasing that capacity is also worth looking into. About the best I can do now is point at The Sequences.
So, for example, the mods could select a certain number of promising new users per month and remove their rate limits. Or that number could be selected at random from new users who apply for the privilege. Or with a low enough karma threshold, maybe new users would graduate to assimilated status at a reasonable rate on their own, but this would also have to be tuned by the mods based on the current numbers.
I approve of the rate limiting idea, especially considering the influx of new users, for Concentration of Force/Eternal September reasons.
Given that framing, and to make it feel like less of a punishment, and to prevent easy evasion with new accounts, I think new users should be rate limited by default, and the mods should be willing to dynamically adjust these defaults depending on the number of new users. If it’s just a few at a time, maybe we can assimilate them without rate limiting them at all. When it’s more, impose the rate limits on everyone below a certain karma threshold. When we’re getting overwhelmed, to prevent an Eternal September scenario, the allowed posting rates could be much lower than usual. Keep watch on the numbers.
More speculative, but I could imagine something like a green card lottery or sponsorship system to help us assimilate users at a more manageable rate, even when demand exceeds our capacity to do so, although increasing that capacity is also worth looking into. About the best I can do now is point at The Sequences.
So, for example, the mods could select a certain number of promising new users per month and remove their rate limits. Or that number could be selected at random from new users who apply for the privilege. Or with a low enough karma threshold, maybe new users would graduate to assimilated status at a reasonable rate on their own, but this would also have to be tuned by the mods based on the current numbers.