3 ms·

When you've only got 3 comments on your whole front page, not sure invite-only is the best idea.

Grumbledour 2y ago
This is the main problem of the "Hacker News for [x]" type sites. Lobsters got lots of people interested, but it is itself mostly not interesting to read, because there is very little discussion. Sure, you keep out some noise, but you also keep out what makes hacker news great, and that is the comments from all sorts of people. All these kind of sites serve is a curated link list, which can be nice, but they don't fell like a community if you see the same dozen people leave ~3 comments per article and can only participate yourself after groveling before the chosen. While I do think a good community needs some type of gatekeeping, being invite only is not it.
- righthand 2y ago
  Perhaps "interesting to read" does not correlate directly to "healthy discussion". It's a feature that Lobste.rs has low volume commentary, it leads to more authentic response less ad-hominem or passive-aggressive commentary like HN is constantly flooded with.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  >While I do think a good community needs some type of gatekeeping, being invite only is not it. Their verification method already seems to be enough of a gatekeep. >if you don't know (or can't find) an existing_user from whom to request an invitation, you can make a public request for one. This will display your name and memo to all other logged-in users who can then send you an invitation if they recognize you. And they ask for some personal website to verify as well that is visible. Given the volume at this scale, this could have been a manual verification by the creator for a while until there's enough scale to rely on invites (similar to Tildes).
vunderba 2y ago
Especially considering how long this site has been around at least according to the stat page (over a decade at this point). https://gamedev.city/stats https://gamedev.city/stats
- zipy124 2y ago
  The stats page is just a clone from the site it's code is forked from, you can tell because they even have the same text on their stat page about their pledge drive, which clearly they did not do, but was in fact on lobste.rs. https://lobste.rs/stats https://lobste.rs/stats https://gamedev.city/stats https://gamedev.city/stats
saint11 2y ago
Website maintainer here, that's kinda what we are going for. I really don't want to have to moderate a big community, this is supposed to be something you check once or twice a week.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  once a week may not really be enough to engage a community unless you are sure who you are recruiting will be very active. But I respect the choice, nonetheless. It just simply does fit my ideal style where I could find at least 1-2 interesting posts when I check twice a week. Having niche interests can be a curse.
willio58 2y ago
As someone who wanted to comment and was immediately prevented by the invite wall, I agree. I even submitted for an invite but clicking submit triggered no notification or anything. I don't have the energy to look at the network request to confirm

This is the main problem of the "Hacker News for [x]" type sites. Lobsters got lots of people interested, but it is itself mostly not interesting to read, because there is very little discussion. Sure, you keep out some noise, but you also keep out what makes hacker news great, and that is the comments from all sorts of people. All these kind of sites serve is a curated link list, which can be nice, but they don't fell like a community if you see the same dozen people leave ~3 comments per article and can only participate yourself after groveling before the chosen. While I do think a good community needs some type of gatekeeping, being invite only is not it.

righthand 2y ago
Perhaps "interesting to read" does not correlate directly to "healthy discussion". It's a feature that Lobste.rs has low volume commentary, it leads to more authentic response less ad-hominem or passive-aggressive commentary like HN is constantly flooded with.
johnnyanmac 2y ago
>While I do think a good community needs some type of gatekeeping, being invite only is not it. Their verification method already seems to be enough of a gatekeep. >if you don't know (or can't find) an existing_user from whom to request an invitation, you can make a public request for one. This will display your name and memo to all other logged-in users who can then send you an invitation if they recognize you. And they ask for some personal website to verify as well that is visible. Given the volume at this scale, this could have been a manual verification by the creator for a while until there's enough scale to rely on invites (similar to Tildes).

vunderba 2y ago

Especially considering how long this site has been around at least according to the stat page (over a decade at this point). https://gamedev.city/stats https://gamedev.city/stats

zipy124 2y ago
The stats page is just a clone from the site it's code is forked from, you can tell because they even have the same text on their stat page about their pledge drive, which clearly they did not do, but was in fact on lobste.rs. https://lobste.rs/stats https://lobste.rs/stats https://gamedev.city/stats https://gamedev.city/stats

saint11 2y ago

Website maintainer here, that's kinda what we are going for. I really don't want to have to moderate a big community, this is supposed to be something you check once or twice a week.

johnnyanmac 2y ago
once a week may not really be enough to engage a community unless you are sure who you are recruiting will be very active. But I respect the choice, nonetheless. It just simply does fit my ideal style where I could find at least 1-2 interesting posts when I check twice a week. Having niche interests can be a curse.

willio58 2y ago

As someone who wanted to comment and was immediately prevented by the invite wall, I agree. I even submitted for an invite but clicking submit triggered no notification or anything. I don't have the energy to look at the network request to confirm