[KomoD]

> but they should definitely have a captcha of sorts to limit bot accounts

Captchas don't do much, they're super cheap to solve with services like 2captcha, capmonster, etc.

You can get recaptcha solved for $0.6/1k, hcaptcha for $0.8/1k or cheaper. (email is pretty cheap too, but still more expensive than captcha solving)

Requiring phone verification would be the most effective out of those because it's pretty expensive for the attacker, something like $0.02-$0.11 per verification is usually what I see

[msm_]

I feel strongly about privacy and I always loved the fact that I can post pretty much anonymously on HN (I don't mean this account - it's pseudonymous at best). It's sad bad actors get to ruin this.