Hi and yeah... Don't really know if the invitation system isn't prohibiting snapzu from being really an alternative.
Hi~
Thanks for building this site! And keep it alive while reddit is going awol...
While I can see that the invitation system has is advantages, like keeping this site alive by smoothing pikes, I also fear that its stops some communites from gathering here in the first place. With that I don't mean the big standard ones, I'm mostly thinking about fandoms.
Those don't follow they same growth characteristics than other interest based ~~subreddits~~ tribes, they mostly rely that there a found on accident. Fans mostly stumble upon them, while looking at creations of that community by browsing other communites who share or mention it. Which makes them outsiders, who can't join the community, because the members can't give them invites to those they don't know about. (But do want to know about.) Even if there was a system, who alerts the members about the outsiders, those outsiders will already will loose the interest to join the tribe and go somewhere else where there is no mountain to climb or stop completly.
Because I use reddit mostly for those fandom subreddits, I don't know why I should invest time on snapzu as an reddit alternative, which is a shame. It really seems to be nice here.
Join the Discussion
The main thing to understand is that Snapzu is not reddit. We want to grow, but we don't necessarily want to turn into another reddit. We're already pretty satisfied with the state of this community. You make some good points, but if someone wants to join they can just request an invite. And if they lose interest in the time it takes to receive one, maybe they wouldn't have been much good to the community in the first place.
The invite system acts as a simple filter — only those who want to be here will join. And those are the best users. I'm not quite sure that we need lots and lots of members just for the sake of having them. It's true that there would be more activity, but it would be quantity over quality.
I don't speak for everyone, but I know most of us Snapzites are happy with the invite system.
Anyway, it's good to have you. I hope to see you around :)
Very well put. Snapzu has its own thing going and we're doing great without a massive influx of users, who are anyway more than welcome.
I don't mean that the invitation system should go away or that it is bad per se. Just that it is a too big entry barrier for a specific set of people, from which snapzu could gain.
Fandoms of that type are mostly full of shy people who try to socialize by using a common ground on which there a comfortable with. Those are kind people, who can't even really lurk on this site, because they can't even follow tribes or people.
While people who will hurt snapzu intentionelly are not stopped by an invite system.
So you don't like the invite system but don't want to get rid of it, either? It's not like we can do it halfway — it's either invites or no invites.
But, like I said, it's so easy to request an invite. It doesn't have to do with their shyness, but rather their level of interest. They can request an invite, join, and lurk/follow all they want.
True, but I think we also stop tons of crap at the door with this system. And any intruders that get in are dealt with pretty severely.
First Idea, just for the sake of the discussion:
Gives people a trial option and creators more reassurance when there follower count grows. You could also spin it further, as a monotizing option: Invite or 1$ for write upgrade. Yes, has is disadvantages too.
It's perhaps a viable solution, but for what problem I'm not sure. If someone is willing to sign up for a read-only membership, why wouldn't they just request an invite and get a full membership?
Don't underestimate lurkers. Subreddits I moderate all have atleast 100 lurkers for 1 poster. Most people are just in for the content. A read-only membership would allow them to filter the content to their needs. Which is big enough reason to create an account with 3 clicks and providing username and password, but not enough reason to state an mail, gender or even ask and wait for allowance.
Quality posts requires effort, why should one invest time in it, when there is only a limited amount of reputation to gain?
I definitely respect lurkers, and clearly they would appreciate being able to follow and filter. But, they can do so by requesting an invite and making an account. If they don't want to do that, this community doesn't lose anything — lurkers don't contribute.
This is a separate concern you're bringing up, right? We do it for the fun of gaining levels and reputation, but mostly because it benefits the community. I don't think much of fake internet points, personally.
"Chiefs" of tribes, as well as mods, have tools to refer people to snapzu and get their own invitation codes as well. While this might discourage some of the spontaneous finders, it does help with targeting a specific audience by the Chief and the mods.
Right now, the invitation system is to stop snapzu from getting inundated by reddit users. Snapzu is a bit different than reddit and the admins are trying to keep it a bit more high-brow. Even if they do lose out on some member joining, the slow growth that it allows will help with maintaining the "culture" of the site and not let it get swallowed up by massive immigrations from reddit.
A lot of members here aren't really interested in massive growth. We of course love the growth from these exoduses, but are always scared that they might harm our relatively tight-knit community. So a lot of smaller communities have very slow births, but that's fine because these communities aren't really the main destination of Snapzu. The main destination is the giant network of content that are the snaps (which is why we have things like being able to post things in multiple tribes, following users, etc.) So ya, if you are looking for a large amount of fandom content, its not going to be here for a while. However, a lot of people in the community are willing to trade the benefits of variety for the benefits of exclusivity.
I'm not sure what the usual wait time is as I understand they are processing invites faster than usual at the moment, but I only had to wait about an hour or so for mine. And I feel like there's some additional psychological effect going on too - like I feel more invested now that I've gone through this process and gotten my invite as opposed to places that you just sign up and that's that.