Nice article! Discourse seems to be doing well, and is proceeding with its eyes open. I’m sure Discourse is wary of being complacent - as noted, it’s an arms race.
AI-assisted moderation is probably part of the solution, but as noted, moderators are needed, and need to know what they are doing, and have the tools to support them.
It’s good to study history. I like the example of Slashdot: limited moderation points, and meta-moderation to guard the guards. (I also like the multidimensional upvoting: interesting, informative, funny, etc)
I’m not sure Reddit is doing so well: I see complaints about the moderator’s toolkit, and I’ve seen subreddits fade away due to overzealous or inactive moderation. When new posts are held in purgatory for too long, it’s a demotivator. Yet, holding posts for approval is a powerful tool.
I recently had to tweak my forum settings when we got a wave of spammer signups. Email verification is not the whole story, as we surely all know.
Brigading and sockpuppetry are also problems - it’s not just spambots.
There’s always more work to do…