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HN could allow the submitter to optionally configure up to 3 multiple choice questions about the article.

A user would need to answer all of them correctly before being able to comment. An incorrect answer would add a delay of ~1h before they can comment (without needing to do the quiz again).

Even though it’s fairly easy to cheat or work around, it might be enough to tilt the incentives towards just reading or at least skimming the article.

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It would be unfair to people who only wish to comment on one aspect of it without the need to have an encyclopædic understanding of the content, to those with reading difficulties, for poorly-formatted content, for videos (which present their own accessibility issues) rather than text articles, and plenty of other scenarios.

Imagine trying to comment on a comment without reading the article. The article would be irrelevant but obligatory.

This idea discourages discussion rather than promote it. One can guarantee any submission with such questions would never make it to the front page.

That sounds like a great way to make the most upvoted comment "submitter's favourite baseball player is Jason Heyward".

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