TMBO is an invite-only system, and I love it. it limits the number of people that can join and it ensures that they already know someone.

and those are two reasons why I dislike it.

I like it because it guarantees a single unique identity per person.

for a user that lives by the rules this makes no difference, but for miscreants it means they only get one shot at annoying you. if you're banned, you can't immediately jump back into the fray by hopping IPs and trying again1. this makes administration really easy. about 1500 active accounts in any month, 4 active administrators, and maybe one issue a quarter.


1 in our specific case, the person who invited you can't make invites for 6 months after an invitee has been banned. repeat, and you both go away.