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This problem can be solved by an invite/vouch for system.

New account can be invited or vouched for by an old account with good karma. If an account that you vouched for starts spamming and/or slopposting, you lose your vouching for abilities for a period of time or forever.

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I didn't know anybody here before I joined. (I have been here for a few years, and I still don't know anybody here.) How would a person like me get invited or vouched?

Ask you IRL friends or colleagues from your job "hey, do you happen to have an HN account?"

If the discussion is related to a public project, like in the examples in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47303604

...you can use existing communication channels (website, readme on github) to ask people for an invite to participate in it.

I am pretty sure that none of my friends nor co-workers read HN. Whenever I have shared stuff, none of them have heard of HN.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com