It looks like they have their own "vibe" and rigorously enforce it in their own community. That's fine, it's their service after all. Feels a bit strange to turn away potential new users when people are looking for viable alternatives
I don't think Tildes is turning anyone away, not sure where that narrative comes from. Anyone can request an invite from the owner themselves.They are just not looking for explosive growth like some of the other services are.
In fact I think the invite system is an effective way to keep the boys away as the free-for-all signups are easier to game.
People parrot this as if getting a Tildes invite is like getting invited to join the Freemasons or something like that—it's not that hard to get an invite.
And for those who are just going to lurk, you don't even need to register to view everything.
But if you're trying to be a Reddit competitor getting an invite is sabotaging your mission. I've been on Reddit for 10+ years and I'm actively looking for a replacement, but I'm not going to search for someone that can send me an invite to a new social media site
ok, but Tildes isn't setting itself up as a Reddit competitor, like, its goal isn't to get people to move away from Reddit. It's just its own thing which happens to have some similarities to Reddit but with a bunch of differences too.