Branch is a peculiar mixture of public & restricted. What's the point of having public discussions, participation in which is by invitation only? I read an interesting post, I think of a comment I'd like to add, and...ASK TO JOIN. I think, "Ah, [censored] it," and wander off, disappointed.

Agreed. Such barriers to participation of people uninvited to the conversation would suggest that Branch is intended more for people who already know each other, than for discussing things with people you don't know.

But if that's so, why are conversations posted to the front page as if encouraging the participation of strangers? The front page is now mostly filled with orphan posts with no replies. I don't understand it...

I think "ask to join" is just a way to keep a good signal vs noise ratio and discourage trolling.

You had the opportunity to evaluate who I was before letting me in and I had to think if I really had something interesting to say before actually pressing that "ask to join" button.

I agre with Luca, .. It is a barrier, but I think its worth it the optimal use would have few people writing, but all able to keep up.. Say "I´m Juan, PhD in .. sociology etcetc.."

However, it is true that there are too few people in "branches",
¿Do you thnk this is because of the must ask to join feature, or is it because of another characteristics of the site?

Juan,

The ask-to-join filter catches more trolls than human beings, so the quality of conversation is better that it would be without ask-to-join. But there's also significantly *less* conversation that there would be without ask-to-join, which makes Branch less interesting.

Well put. I worry that that will mean slow adoption and usage rates.