Indie Hackers: Now Invite-Only

Interesting, I had not heard of this before. If anyone feels inclined to send me an invite, I'd like to check it out. This is me, computer music open source indie hacker: https://github.com/iainctduncan/

The title makes it sound like you'll need an invite to even access the site, but the article makes it sound like you'll need an invite to post to the site. However, the distinction isn't made explicit. Will we still be able to read without an invite?

Please don't make Indie Hackers invite-only. The Indie Hackers website is surely for people who need to find an online network of like-minded people, especially for those who struggle to find it elsewhere. They might not be part of a startup accelerator, they might not be good at networking, but joining the website might be the first step for them to join the community. It would be a shame to require that people be part of the community before they can be part of the community, if you see what I mean.

Don't get me wrong, having a hurdle to sign up is a good idea. You will get more invested members that way, and less spam. But you can choose different hurdles that don't exclude people who aren't well-networked. For example, you could require every new user to fill out their profile with detailed answers to questions, before allowing them to post on the forums.

Now that it is invite-only, I desperately want to get in! I love it when companies try to nudge me. I need that extra FOMO kick in the butt...

I decided to use phone number verification for signups on my 20-things.com link aggregator. I was thinking of dropping it altogether, but after reading what indiehackers just did, I will probably keep the phone number verification and add apple signups as a complementary channel.

What is else left for us to do in this day and age to minimise spam and abuse?

Something I found quite interesting is that the spam wasn't just targeted at the Indie Hackers community itself (i.e. click the blog spam and get served ads, or whatever else), but to get backlinks on a site with high domain-authority.

I know this because I personally saw a couple of spammers openly talking to each other about giving each other backlinks too.

I never thought that spamming like that would be worth the time or effort, but apparently it was.

Argh I just learned I have only been subscribed to the email list since 2017, I don’t actually have an account.

This is the first time I see it, very sad to see it closed now. It would be awesome to have an invite link!

Haven't used the site in a while and just logged in to see if I could share some invite codes but seems as if you only earn invite codes by participating in the community (I haven't commented in a few months).

Wow that makes me so sad. I used to love reading their forums but never got around to making an account. Oh well, there's always HN.