This discourages activity. You would think Steem would want us to be constructively commenting on multiple posts per hour if we have the time to do so. What if you get into a conversation with someone on a post?

Or is this only for new posts and does not affect comments?

I read fast. If I read an article every 5 minutes and comment with my thoughts, upvote the post if I liked it, etc. Does that mean I am having decreased rewards within 15 minutes?

I get it, we need to prevent spam. Absolutely, but isn't that what the community is supposed to be handling? Shouldn't we be just simply flagging more posts?

Excuse my ignorance, I'm pretty new to Steem overall. I haven't read the whitepaper or anything.