This might be related to @beschizza proposing a special “high risk discussion” mode. Because it is certainly true that some topics are just inherently controversial.
Cooloff period for new signups?
The key observation is that regulars, known users, are generally OK and can be trusted with these kinds of topics but the general public… notsomuch
Thus, a lockdown where new users have to do a bit more to post:
- maybe they have to prove they read every prior comment
- maybe they have to prove they read the original article
- maybe all new posts by new users have to be approved
- maybe there are even more restrictions on what new users can post
etc.
Reading through my reply to that topic, I still favor a basic algorithmic check to see if a topic is “high risk” and trigger this high risk mode which really only affects new users…
btw @TailOfTruth this is an excellent meta topic, it’s exactly why we create this category on every install of Discourse. All real community is predicated on internal discussions of “why are we doing this, and should we?” by people that, y’know, care about what goes on there.
