Of course we need comments and I agree about reluctance from newcomers. But as long as this is optional, each author will see how this works for himself and if it doesn't work, he can just stop using that option.
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The question I think is why should there be time spent on developing something that is essentially speech-restrictive that might or might not work. If it works well, it will become popular and participating on the platform will become largely protected by a paywall. On the other had, if it doesn't work well and the feature remains unpopular, then the time and effort to develop it would have been kind of wasted. To me at least, the possible cons seem to clearly outweigh the possible pros.
Are you aware that even your own "participation" or your account here on Steemit is behind a paywall? There is a fee paid for every account creation transaction. It is paid by Steemit INC, but it may not be paid if accounts number increases too much.
My point is that everything has a cost. If we make the cost of commenting obvious, spam will naturally decrease. And STEEM, as a token, will get more economical value. An advertiser who wants to appear as a commenter on a post will just have to pay a fee.
It's in line with the whole "attention economy" that Steemit is based on.
I am aware of that but surely wasn't thinking about it. It's very easy to forget about a cost when somebody else is paying for it ;)
Still, I don't see this as sufficient justification for more fees.