I don't think I support this. If such feature becomes popular, it will severely limit the interaction that new users would be capable of. The small accounts will suffer alongside the spammers and I see that as counterproductive.
Additionally, I feel this goes against the free-speech ideals that are part of the essence of this platform. I really don't think authors should be able to make their posts into pay-to-speak areas.
I would rather keep seeing some spam comments than having such feature implemented.
'nice post'.
That kind of interaction?
All kinds of interaction. There is no practical way to systematically differentiate between the spam and the insightful comments that lead to meaningful engagement. I don't think we should deprive ourselves of the chance for the latter to limit the former. Spam is annoying, but not as annoying as a paywall, at least not to me.
He said that it would be optional.
You can do what you wanna do...
I noticed that, yes. Thus my "if this feature becomes popular" phrasing. In my opinion the idea has been presented clearly along with the reasoning for it. I'm just not in favor and wanted to make my opinion known. At least for now, I remain more or less convinced that such a feature goes against my idea of what this platform is and should be and the interests of the platform as a whole.