I actually proposed this but would like to do it like once a day or so. I would like a barrier to entry but not one that is too long. As others mentioned, it's hard enough to get people on Hubski as it is. Designer news originally only allowed sign ups between noon and 1pm est. The biggest problem is that's discriminating against international users, as that's like 1am anywhere in the middle east, etc. It took me 4 days to sign up even though I was in the US and if I hadn't set an alarm, I probably would have said fuck you and never signed up due to pure annoyance. However, I did feel extra satisfied once I did sign up. I think having some sort of referrer code would be good to have as well. I would hate for someone to share and recommend hubski to someone, only to make them wait. I also think pointing out exactly what we really trying to accomplish and solve will help make this decision easier. For me, it's two fold. I would like to decrease "drive by hubskiing" from reddit, etc threads. I would also like to make sure people truly want to sign up for hubski and then use it. Having an extra level of commitment helps with the former, for sure. The latter, I'm not even sure is something we need but it would be accomplished with this.
We've talked about it but much of the discussion in this thread applies to applying limitations for new users as well, like Hubski being as imposing at it is for new users already. Most of the limitations we have apply to users who have yet to fill up their hubwheel once cut down on shenanigans happening (like community tags.)
Have you had a lot of disruptions in your experience here in the past month due to the influxes? This is a serious and honest question. Also, it's worth noting that you can turn off newbie posts in your feed via your settings.