Aware that your issue is the approach and the fact that invites are the main way of scaling this rather than just issuing random waitlists, but there is an issue about networks which I assume they are needing - i.e. users already on there will want their friends on there with them, as it is a social network.
The issue about creating networks of people that know each other and interact is probably pretty key to building a real social network - see how Facebook rolled out by college campus.
But, the inability to check any post by people already there is absolutely unacceptable. Not being able to verify a screenshot of public figures is just a huge no-no in my book.
All posts are publicly accessible though -- here's Jake Tapper's posts for example
https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.repo.listRecords?repo=d...
I have a negligible following on social media and don't know anyone over there so I don't think they're being cliquey with the invites.
To someone else's point, they're doing a lot of firefighting. When I got in, your followers list did an infinite loop, "hellthreads" were causing errors every time you viewed a reply, and content moderation was (and still is) constantly breaking (NSFW stuff keeps breaking through on their placeholder "what's hot" algorithm(. I was able to register @salesforce.herokuapp.com as my handle, etc.
I think it's a beta in the truest sense of the word and you'll probably get an invite soon.
I already knew I didn't want to use it as I have no interest in using a voice/audio based app. But the membership didn't help any either.
The problem is with the product space not the product. There is no fix for all these issues - only compromises. Bluesky will not be any different - people will be toxic, unhappy with moderation, unhappy without moderation, want blue checkmarks, think blue checkmarks are BS - blah de blah blah blah.
I've been on the wait list since Feb 22, but for whatever reason I don't have access. That's just sour grapes, I know, but it also means that others who don't run in the right circles also don't have access. It means the community is intentionally exclusive and cliquey.
I don't know what it is about tech that everyone wants to become the people who abused them in high school, but it's a bad trend and we should be better. If invites aren't going to be chronological they should at least be random. Invite people who are different intentionally. Otherwise we end up with another clubhouse-esque VC circle jerk.