I would rather make it as Stack Overflow operates. Collect karma, even from comments and ...

0 karma - can only post comments and upvote 50 karma - can post links 500 karma - can moderate

and basically stuff like that, numbers are made up and I hove no idea if it would even work, but I like stack overflow approach a lot.

Our industry is already enough of a bubble as it is - I don't think there is no need to be even more needlessly (and inappropriately) elitist as we already are.

I don't even know that "webdesignshare" that you talk about - is it like actual spam, or is it just annoying content? Because I personally see yet another sketch-plugin or sketch-tutorial-video or "why designers should {inset here}" as spam as well.

I don't think invite only is the solution. I think it's just what you get when your site grows. But maybe you could track how much time user X spend on DN and how active he is and then give him the option to post. So you could just filter the accounts out that just exist to post a spammy article and leave.

Yes.

I suppose it comes down to what you think this place should be.

A lot of stories receive comments like, "This isn't news" which would suggest some users want this to be a news site. Post types like Show and Site Design as well as the rise of things like AMAs make this more of a community for others. I've also started to notice more posts from non-designers looking for advice or info, so there's that. You mention invite-only creating the community of 'like-minded' designers, but that starts to be a problem when you consider the lengths we ought to be going to as an industry to foster diversity. Maybe there could be stricter rules around posting and moderation, but that amounts to mods deciding what DN should be, likely cutting out sections of the user base.

In short: who knows man? But trying to fight spam by closing the doors feels like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

You could add a down vote option, and when a certain amount of down votes are reached Mods are prompted to review the offending author. If they're consistent offenders then their account is disabled and can only be reactivated after a telling off.

Smaller communities have better content. It's been proven by Dribbble while in its beginning, and DN while in its beginning. Being invite-only or not does not address the issue. Once you've gone over a certain limit, things go downhill from there and there's no way of going back, at least, in practice.

Yes, so I can get dat second invite-only color.

At the very least ban links to known spam sites (read: webdesignshare) If only I got a dollar every time I clicked report on one of their posts.

Maybe the site should be visible after login only? Or maybe links should have a rel="nofollow" making it effectively less attractive to post spam?

I'M SO SICK OF WEBDESIGNSHARE! I use Feedly to garner all my DN news and it's burning my eyes out, bring back the quality.

Invite only.

I think closing it down is the "easy choice", but will hurt the community in the long run. I've been a member of a few closed boards, and they can get pretty stale (after a while, new posts become more and more infrequent) and a little elitist.There are def pros and cons either way, but the unique thing about DN is that it has great potential to be relevant to both new and veteran designers.

I would rather see things stay open.

If the only reason is to prevent spam (and I'm all for that), I think a better solution is a waiting period for posting on new accounts. And blocking spammy urls. Or maybe just blocking any link that starts with a number ;)

A site I administer started getting ridiculous amounts of spam after reaching a certain level of traffic...and not just the spambot type; like sweatshop staff going around signing up just to post stuff.

Wound up developing a multiple layer system to ensure every user was legit, including a human check (answer X question), admin/mod approval of new accounts (including a whois check and comparison to existing user known IPs), and then all new users' first couple posts are quarantined pending mod review.

Maybe overkill for DN, but it had worked for me..Haven't had a single spam post in years.

I'm loving the comments being given so far. I appreciate this is a very opinionated topic, and I thought it would be. But I figured it's better to get everyone's opinion on the matter.

Nominate moderators from the community. And shuffle the moderator-ship after every three months so we can involve as many people contributing to this community. This will encourage contributors and boast the power of community.

As someone who has only recently joined, I would hope you'd keep it open - with limitations (SO's model doesn't bother me, and I'm on other boards with similar reputation-based permissions). My background is programming, not UX, so I look to resources like DN for good, solid information. If you close DN to others like myself, you cut us off from the opportunity of learning, and the of the possibility that we can, at some point, contribute of our own strengths. And, by the way, I do have a business, and a product - but I'm not here to push it at you. You won't get spam from me.

webdesignshare is the reason why I deleted DN's RSS feed from my Feedly... Now only visiting DN once a week after an email with top stories comes. Pretty sad.

I'd like to see a quasi-Product Hunt / Stack Overflow / Dribble type setup applied to DN.

Even if I didn't have access to the original DN, I think it was better then. Less spam, more actual design stuff, rather this mixed techie-startup links we get today.

Perhaps a modification in rules and a reassessment of a content strategy (i.e. what kind of posts to share and upload or even ask) could solve this problem.

Personally, I thought the quality of the discussions and posts were higher before the open registration.

Since open registration, it seems, that there has been less discussion and the focus has drifted from being primarily about design (in all of its disciplines) to now being just updates to design tools, development/framework links and startups.

Which I think is a shame. DN was really the only community online where there was interesting content being shared from across all disciplines. For example, it wasn't uncommon to have discussions about print design and not just web and UX. We can all take some of the blame for this by not being more actively engaged and sharing/voting for better stuff. Going off my post history, I certainly should be more of a participant and will try to be.

The original registration process had its downsides, but I think it lead to more engaged users. I'm in Sydney, which meant that the registration window was at 4am locally. Not a huge issue for those in the US or on that timezone, but that limited window meant that anyone who wanted to participate had to jump through a few hoops.

My guess is it will never go back to how it was. This is now someone's business which needs to pay for itself, and not just a side project that LayerVault would run at a loss because they could.

I wouldn't mind invite only. If it's good enough for dribbble it's good enough for us. Also I wouldn't mind a comment rating system like the one on slashdot.

There seems to be two issues being discussed here: the rise of spam, and negative users. Although the first issue can easily be solved with becoming invite-only, many of these negative users have been here a while.

I've folllowed DN for quite a while, even prior to starting an account. As DN grew, I feel like there was a sequential growth of users that only ever post negative, snarky, and thoughtless comments. This really changed the previously friendly, welcoming, "Be nice" aura of DN that existed before.

I would suggest a "mute" feature where you say which terms/urls you're not interested in and automatically hides them when you visit the site.

Later on, the system could learn this automatic when you "hide posts" you don't like and it learns.

Invite Only feels restrictive. Consumption should be free. I agree with incentives to increase participation

No