[ansible]

That is basically the idea behind https://lobste.rs/ . There's approximately zero spam or other bad behavior.

You can look at the full user tree (https://lobste.rs/users) and see if there's anyone you know who might be willing to invite you to join.

[IncreasePosts]

Very little spam, but also very little engagement. The same post on hn might have 100 comments and on lobsters it has four.

[ryandrake]

I think we need to stop using "engagement" as a measurement of anything related to quality and usefulness.

[EasyMark]

Quantity has a quality all of its own.

[IncreasePosts]

Sure. But the odds of finding an insightful comment on HN is much higher than finding one on lobsters, merely because there is more content.

[bee_rider]

As long as the growth rate is positive and it isn’t too expensive to host, a small stable growing site could be fine.

[realo]

Hey!

I have been a good citizen of Hacker News for fourteen years now...

Anyone here would want to throw me an invite to lobste.rs?

:)

[Multicomp]

Haha that's my line! I would guess that those people who are already on the seafood website know other technical people in their day-to-day workspaces like silicon valley or Palo Alto or wherever, so it's easy for them to get a link. Meanwhile for those of us on the opposite side of the US or, barely in the Anglo-Sphere at all, we are on the outside looking in and are not likely to get a link just by being mostly lurkers and occasional contributors.

At least for me, I'm the only HN user I know except my dad who doesn't even post, he just got lurk links from his knee if the woods like hackaday.

[ansible]

I requested an invite from a guy I have only known via Reddit, we've never met IRL.

[riffraff]

I can't actually remember who is the person who I requested the invite from, I think they were given out somewhat freely by some users.

[ansible]

You can look on your user page, or search for your username on the user tree page.

[riffraff]

I did, but I can't say who that username is