Most annoying spam happens in the first few seconds of a post and is from a fresh npub. Spammers are not incentivized into replying to old posts, just new ones otherwise they get little visibility.
How about:
replier npub is first seen (or in a long time) to your post PLUS content length vs created time exceeds what is humanly possible.
from the spammers perspective I would just make the content length like a normal reply and the created time also random between 20-120 seconds, its just cat and mouse and the spammer can adjust faster
I think it’s a combination of measures that make it more effective, not just one, like security that works in layers you must be able to beat all layers to make it thru, it is a cat and mouse game but most spam is not sophisticated. We can deal with the sophisticated ones later and still have a first few layers of defense. WoT has done pretty good so far, but leaves legit new users out in the cold.
It doesn’t make sense to tackle at the relay level because most relays don’t know what’s happening on other relays, only clients know.
slowing spammers down IS a good thing, whether with PoW or making them wait it’s all a win
