[ngpio]

> The whole thing started to look like a random selection disguised as an exclusive elite fancy club.

In starting a few "exclusive elite fancy" internet clubs over the past decade, I've noticed that random selection is usually sufficient for an initial batch of members. The trick is to quickly grab a chunk of those first members and invite them to think on what membership criteria will best serve the community.

> What made me stop? The field was asking my Google+ account. They say the community will run on it, that is optional for now, but I will have to have one. As I don't have and don't one, I stopped right there to think if it would be worthy.

I agree that Google+ is an annoying barrier to entry. A private subreddit is my first choice for these sorts of things, but it would probably be a bit limiting in this scenario. Higher bandwidth communication between individuals with strict, human identities is clearly desired, and Google+ is designed specifically for this.

If I were looking to start a limited-entry online community today, I'd probably start with a Gazelle[1] instance and build off of it as necessary.

[1] http://whatcd.github.io/Gazelle/