Hey everyone, thought I'd post some stats since we're one week old now!
From Vultr (instance is hosted through them):
Total applications: 116
Denied applications: 4 (one person asked to change username, 3 others gave one word answer to the application question)
Accepted applications: 112
Could you tell what the motivation for the application process (and application question specifically) is, considering that it adds friction and delay to the registration process?
considering that it adds friction and delay to the registration process
Yeah, if I make it entirely open it would be very easy to DDOS the instance with bot accounts. Once I (and one mod for now) figure out the infrastructure, scaling, community management etc. I would certainly prefer it to be entirely open as well. It's just that things are in flux during this transition period.