This makes me 😭
UPDATE: Thanks @nekusoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de for this update: The issue has now been commented on and was closed by the maintainer, where they explained why those blocks would be nonsense. But it appears the OP wants to still talk with maintainer privately about it.
Perhaps requiring government ID would prevent even more bots… but stopping bots is not my priority. When reading YouTube comments I see obvious comments from bots making generic comments or asking people to click links, but I also see many comments that make me wonder if they are being sincere or this is ML generated. Unless you’re going to ask for more and more personal data then only the side creating bots will advance in fooling those requirement. Barriers to entry do not appear to be a valid long-term strategy.
Yeah, requiring government IDs would basically solve the bot problem, but would make the internet a privacy hell, especially for nations like China which already struggle with it.
We need a middle ground, but it’s becoming increasingly harder to find one as you said.