Of course I thought about it and understood that very likely for that reason the functionality is not active today. And I also clearly understand that the limitation would not be hard but soft.
The intention is to limit users who maintain a very low conversation ratio, with their reading ratio being 5 or 10 times broader. A badges and user title that marks them and an exit path explained in a simple way can “wake them up”.
I also know that it is common on the Internet for 90/97% to unintentionally fall into the group of lurkers, although I also know that this mechanism can motivate them, because they would be enabled to reply and contribute in other forums through a simple exit —providing three accepted answers as solutions— and not in the categories with the most traffic.
Technically, something similar is what supports peer-to-peer exchange in networks like Torrent, which have been functioning among us for more than a decade.
It is an experiment I would like to try, especially after seeing that the cheer points awarded are almost overwhelmingly granted based on reading time rather than contributions.
I think it’s something interesting to discuss; maybe this can be achieved with simple adjustments to the Discourse core.