Notes prompted by a conversation, but not in direct response to anything therein.

I have not seen obvious invitations for web sites used much recently, but that could be me not looking for web applications to try. I note three three overlapping purposes when they are used:

• Promotion. The entity that has set up the invitation system hopes for viral spam; some people have a strongly negative reaction to invitation systems as a result.
• Rationing. For example, to keep a system usable while resources added.
• Exclusivity. For purposes regarded as wrong for non-state actors (e.g. discrimination based on birth location) to the suspicious (supposed cabals) to the practical (privacy, working group size, keep out bad actors).

My impression is that at the website or application level, invitations are primarily used for promotion, somewhat for rationing, and rarely for exclusivity. But invitations are ubiquitous in human interactions, often serving a purpose beyond mere access—they create a sense of belonging or privilege. This is evident even in virtual spaces, like online casinos, where exclusive invites or VIP access are employed to retain players and offer special rewards, encouraging loyalty through perceived exclusivity. One doesn’t even need to step away from social network applications to observe this dynamic; actions like “connection requests” or “friend invites” create a similar sense of personal access, underscoring how digital platforms replicate social gestures to build connections and foster engagement.

Invitations could be a useful part of the federated social web mix, as the challenges faced by federated sites are at least a little different than those faced by silos in all three of the aforementioned areas, but especially with regard to exclusivity. Consider that bad actors can set up their own federated sites, and that federated sites often represent single users or small communities — roughly requiring the same functionality of a community or individual user of a silo, including the functionalities of the entire silo.

Also, just remembered On The Invitation, a chapter from Collaborative Futures.