Alternately: a (very low) karma requirement for comments and posts to the discussion subreddit (~20?), a somewhat higher karma requirement for comments and posts to Main (~200?), and a newbie subreddit for new posters to post in. Regular newbie forum topics would be welcome threads and stupid question threads; anybody could post in the newbie forum, so there would responses from LW veterans, and anybody would still be able to ask Stupid Questions. (Meetup threads possibly should go there too.) (Depending on how many other topics there are, it might be worthwhile for every introduction, meetup, and question to get its own thread there.)
Alternately: a (very low) karma requirement for comments and posts to the discussion subreddit (~20?), a somewhat higher karma requirement for comments and posts to Main (~200?), and a newbie subreddit for new posters to post in. Regular newbie forum topics would be welcome threads and stupid question threads; anybody could post in the newbie forum, so there would responses from LW veterans, and anybody would still be able to ask Stupid Questions. (Meetup threads possibly should go there too.) (Depending on how many other topics there are, it might be worthwhile for every introduction, meetup, and question to get its own thread there.)