I'd extend this to posting any stories at all -- if posting a story cost a few points of karma, it would discourage the 'submit dozens of links and hope that one or two of them get voted up' approach which seems to be becoming increasingly common lately.
I don't think lack of articles submitted is a problem. What's wrong with lurking and posting a few comments here and there to gain the karma needed for posting?
Another idea is that posting one article a day could be free, but ti costs karma for each additional one posted (maybe even an increasing cost based on how many you post per day.)
My feeling is that anyone who doesn't think they have anything worth saying probably doesn't have anything worth linking to either.
Requiring that users acquire at lease one point of karma from posting comments before they can submit stories would also eliminate the random floods of spam submissions, since spammers aren't likely to either (a) post comments, or (b) have the comments they post get voted up.
Yes. IMO having people participate in a discussion before starting one is important. It forces the poster to get a general sense of the site and its (un)spoken rules before starting a discussion.
This is one of the foundations of building an actual sense of community. If you were having a discussiion in the real world, wouldn't you feel a bit put-off if someone jumped in and started talking without spending even a moment to hear what other people are saying?
Requiring that someone has SOME positive karma before posting is just a way of saying "yes, this person has shown some interest in participating in a reasonable manner".
