Would you like to invite someone but you don't have any invites? No problem. Someone who wants to register on ADC but does not have an invite now has the option of filling out an application to become a member. Once they fill out the application (which should take about five minutes to complete) and submit it, it will be reviewed by the staff in the ensuing days and the user will then be accepted as a member or have his application rejected, depending on his answers.
But why should you invite anybody if they can just register using the application process? Firstly, applications take a few days to be processed by the staff, whereas registering using an invite happens right away. Secondly, we may impose further restrictions in the future on accounts that register using an application. When that happens, an invite would be preferable to registering using an application. Keep reading for a more detailed explanation of our reasoning behind this system.
The application process is used to weed out the potential members who do not bother reading the rules from the potential members who could turn out to be good, contributing members of the community. Some bad eggs will still inevitably creep their way in, but this is an extra hurdle that they have to jump through which will hopefully make them treasure their accounts a little bit more once they register. This also means that from now on, anybody will have a chance to join the community, even if they don't have the means to acquire an invite. Many of our current long-time members would never have joined ADC years ago if it had been invite-only, so we felt it was important to give the same opportunity to today's potential future members.