Invite request spam problem - vet through other social media?
For most of the history of Tildes, if someone came across the site and decided they wanted to join, but didn't know anyone already on, they could email Deimos with an invite request. However, with the rise of LLMs, the noise-to-signal ratio has become so high this is no longer a way to join Tildes - explanation by Deimos: https://tildes.net/~tildes/1vl3/is_there_any_interest_in_building_a_tildes_successor#comment-if6r
I've read the recent discussions on Tildes being maintained as is and not actively grown, but I think most of us believe the community is up for many more years of enjoying each other's company, and would like to pick up a few more members along the way if they seek us out. That just requesting to join isn't possible anymore makes me a little sad.
I had the thought that larger sites are able to invest more resources into spam account filtering, many of us have active accounts on other social media sites (or other types of sites with community interactions), and I speculate that almost everyone who finds tildes and is interested in joining has already been active in some other online community. Some of us Tilderinos could post here our handles in other communities, and offer to consider sharing one of our invite requests to Tildes if DM'd in our other community. We'd have to reject requests from new accounts, and use some judgement on established ones, but I am thinking having people go through the filtering process those other communities use would reduce the spam requests enough to make it workable.
What do you guys think?
I don't know if it's still a thing, but r/Tildes used to have regular posts set up as a request thread. That's how I got my invite. We've basically been doing what you suggest for a while now.
This, I went a step further and claimed a referral posted openly since I don't have any sort of social media networking going on. It was easier than trying to put an email together to Deimos that might or might not be read, especially given the alternative of lurking Tildes since there's no paywall here, unlike certain other forums and Discord are to those without an account.
Also for those who aren't aware, newer users don't seem to get invites, so its only the users who have been here in a non-lurking capacity who may have codes to give out.
I think people inviting people they know is the best way to avoid bots.
We've got the site locked down like Fort Knox and we STILL have drama. Without more mods, an idea that's already been shot down, I don't think we can handle an influx of new users.