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There is a flawed assumption that opening up the floodgates will flood the village. There is a very small coterie of people that can, and will, use their influe

There is a flawed assumption that opening up the floodgates will flood the village. There is a very small coterie of people that can, and will, use their influence to maintain interest in a project over time. For most of us, no one really cares enough about what we're doing anyway. So, by turning away one potential user b/c they don't have an invite code, you are hurting yourself...maybe more so than a buggy, but still usable UX might. That being said, my current startup project http://www.browsemob.com http://www.browsemob.com has an invite code to get into our beta, even though I put it in our signup video and all over the net. What can I say, my hypocrisy has no bounds!

tdorrance 14y ago
That's awesome! Do what I say, not what I do! I completely agree though. I think an invite system, in theory, lets you build a sense of exclusivity. The velvet rope effect - people waiting to get in the hot night club. But in the end very few sites can really demand that kind of attention. We are using an invite code and launch page on our project - http://neufit.com http://neufit.com and are allowing in-game invites for those 'lucky' enough to get under the rope! Hope it works! Just signed up for browsemob, btw!