Perhaps the best test would be having two buttons displayed to the user before they post a message:
"Please take an IQ test before you post" and "Post your message"
Since the people who take door #1 demonstrate intellectual penis envy and a lack of judgement on how to best spend their time (a fair criticism of me right now, since I'm responding to this post instead of working), you should only allow people who pick door # 2...
Seriously, I think the idea is a non-starter. Here are a few problems I have right off the top:
1) Big assumption that the quality of submissions and/or discourse is proportional to IQ. I don't think you can use IQ as a lever in this regard.
2) Even if 1) is incorrect, the IQ curve has a normal distribution. So, you'd cut off most of your users pretty quickly as your IQ requirements get higher. Last time I checked, it is a bad idea to actively trim a large chunk of people from your community. Especially by effectively telling them that they're 'too stupid'....
3) I'd be willing to bet that you'd alienate an important subset of people - intelligent mavericks, who wouldn't care to be part of some club based on a number. And I'd also be willing to bet that theirs are the viewpoints that would probably make your site interesting enough to come back to.
4) Adding onerous requirements (even if they are periodic) to allow people to contribute would probably result in a huge falloff in participation, and not just by the 'low IQ' club...
I'm guessing that I'm probably not in your target demographic, since I don't understand what benefit a site like this would offer - beyond feeling good about one measure of your intelligence.
"Please take an IQ test before you post" and "Post your message"
Since the people who take door #1 demonstrate intellectual penis envy and a lack of judgement on how to best spend their time (a fair criticism of me right now, since I'm responding to this post instead of working), you should only allow people who pick door # 2...
Seriously, I think the idea is a non-starter. Here are a few problems I have right off the top:
1) Big assumption that the quality of submissions and/or discourse is proportional to IQ. I don't think you can use IQ as a lever in this regard.
2) Even if 1) is incorrect, the IQ curve has a normal distribution. So, you'd cut off most of your users pretty quickly as your IQ requirements get higher. Last time I checked, it is a bad idea to actively trim a large chunk of people from your community. Especially by effectively telling them that they're 'too stupid'....
3) I'd be willing to bet that you'd alienate an important subset of people - intelligent mavericks, who wouldn't care to be part of some club based on a number. And I'd also be willing to bet that theirs are the viewpoints that would probably make your site interesting enough to come back to.
4) Adding onerous requirements (even if they are periodic) to allow people to contribute would probably result in a huge falloff in participation, and not just by the 'low IQ' club...
I'm guessing that I'm probably not in your target demographic, since I don't understand what benefit a site like this would offer - beyond feeling good about one measure of your intelligence.