[aleph-]

How so, it's a method for dealing with spammers/marketers and the like who would post low effort or off topic content regularly.

[blocked_again]

Its true that this system blocks spammers and marketers. At the same time it also prevents a large amount of genuine users who want to take part in the dicussions because its hard to get an invite. So overall the system does more harm than good.

[rrix2]

There are like five people in this thread offering invites, it's not that hard.

[Carpetsmoker]

I got an invite by just asking nicely on IRC with some details about myself.

[mindcrime]

It's not that hard to get an invite. Ask in an HN thread and there's a good chance somebody will hook you up, assuming they either know you, OR can tell from your HN comment/submission history that you're not some weirdo who is going to spam lobste.rs with crap.