Rattle wrote:

The main point I'm stuck on, is that it would be effective in eliminating the spammers. And if the spammers colluded, we would have everything we needed to remove them and whoever let them on the system.

I would caution against that going too far with that last part.

When I read "invitation" system, I'm thinking of a mechanism whereby an existing user can generate a one-time-use token which enables account creation. It's a gating/throttling mechanism.

When you propose a traceback method that punishes the source of the token, then you are asking the existing user to vouch for the new user. This is a much higher bar.

With an invite token system, I could hand out a MemeStreams access card to someone I'd just met -- at a party, or a technical conference, on the airplane, whatever. These are opportunities where the site could branch out to reach entirely new audiences, as opposed to just adding one more person within the same circle of friends. But if I was expected to personally vouch for every one of these new users, none of them would receive an access card.

RE: Registration temporarily disabled