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What are your thoughts on communities that rely on invitation-only registration to combat spam/abuse? Every user is invited by another user (except the first one) and you could take measures if you notice that all the users invited by X turn out to be spambots. Does this create an elitist community, or maybe a ghost town because no one joins, or could it work? I see it as a cheap alternative to expensive moderation or anti-bot services that could make sense for geminispace, if spam ever becomes an issue.
I don't see it implemented a lot though, I only know of Lobsters:
https://lobste.rs/about#invitations
Jun 22 · 8 weeks ago
😎 flipperzero · Jun 22 at 16:55:
On hashnix.club, instead of invite-only, I have either an e-mail powered registration form on the webpage (which does not send from anyone's email for their confidentiality, instead being an internal script sent from a dummy with prompt details to an email responsible for registration) or on the geminispace capsule I have a send in form which can be sent to flipperzero@hashnix.club by email or userfxnet@hashnix.club by misfin.
These are the methods I go for instead so I can personally screen sign-ups, whether or not they are spam, to make sure that there is a level of consistency with the userbase that comes in on top of having a part in taking care of spam and bots myself :P
😎 flipperzero · Jun 22 at 16:56:
My perspective on invite-only seems that it works if the services available facilitate interest in continuing to do so.
I've been part of different invite only community in the past and it waas always for the greater good. Merveilles.town is a good example of invite only community and I find the content that comes out of that to be really high quality. I am also starting a new community, lucid.observer and I am still trying to find the middle ground of what will be the most inviting, yet I want to have a group of people who participate and uses the service for their own good.
The way I see it in real life, even if a group, like let say my karate school, is open to the public, if you don't participate you are not welcomed anymore, so there are some 'moderation' system without being too 'inforced'.
📡 Queen_City_Nerd · Jun 22 at 18:46:
the Telnet BBS I run has some invite only areas. It's protected space for women, minorities that just don't need the nonsense. I've not had any takers on this on my platform but I also have new BBS. So it's a thing and can really be nice when you're part of a small often harassed community. We have a Jewish instance on Mastadon and it's just nice to have a space free from what's become the routine on the rest of the platforms.
Invite-only communities tend to be OK, not elitist in my experience. I saw some “invite only” communities grow enormous and it still worked OK; although the greater the size the greater the need to moderate as invite-only communities tend to have stricter codes of conduct. That’s possibly another reason why they tend to be more civilised: there’s a real risk of losing your hard-won account; and your friend who had an invite last time might not have one again…
I am OK...