[Devasta]

The future of the internet is going to be invite-only enclaves. I sometimes wonder is anyone working on the next generation of discussion forums, or if it'll be a return to PHPBB.

[nicbou]

This will create an interesting problem for newcomers to an area or hobby, since they will have few introduction points. It will work for some people, but exclude others.

I wonder if there is another way.

[FranklinJabar]

They'll instantly become infiltrated with bots and include people based on arbitrary politics. Either the content is such that it makes zero sense to game or spam or it is lost already.

[Devasta]

But if approval of a new user in the enclave requires vouching by an existing member, then they will be anyone who joins lest they are banned themselves right?

I'm talking about like 100-200 members max social clubs, not subthing like subreddits with tens of thousands of users.

[marginalia_nu]

lobste.rs is already kinda that I think, makes an interesting contrast to HN, which has a similar crowd but is open to anyone.

[FranklinJabar]

Interesting. Seems like it's largely converged to the same site.