I think this would hurt new users, need to minimize friction, they can graduate to amber once they have their bearings 

Also on this, when new users sign in first thing they see is an empty feed. I would suggest either showing global, or feed from algo.utxo.one or the popular note DVM or something, so they can get to following asap 

 Hashtags and suggested hashtags are a better option imo. The Voyage app does this well.

But no, new users don't want to download another app to use an app