I'm two days short of three weeks, so I'm going to take a bit of a risk and pester you with another question. If the majority of hubski users feel that way (and it seems like they do) why not make a policy change around it? Mute new users, or make the site invite/application only? If there's a two week or so delay between when people ask to join and when they are let in, that might encourage lurking. It could also be used to throttle new users so we don't swarm in and crowd out your discussions. I feel bad for people complaining about the reddit influx, but as one of them I'm also happy I found this place.
Sorry. Got busy. Wanna see unholy hell fire? BAM. No, no wait. Wanna see even more unholy hellfire? DOUBLE BAM. All that blood in the water, and we ended up implementing it without any announcement. I can ignore users newer than 2 days. So can you. So can we all. And you know what? It helps a lot. Not just me - because it's an entirely owner-facing choice - but those who would annoy me. It's a really useful feature that is entirely dolphin safe. But ZOMG. The blood spilled. The treasure squandered. The panties twisted. The butts hurt. So it's a work in progress, really.
As an ultra new user, and being directly affected by this, I completely agree. It makes no sense for a butterfly to have a strenous discussion with a caterpillar. Although I might even face the consequence of this, I realize the logic of it