Can we put the "Special Invitations for domebo" idea to rest?

[Sybarite]

There is a recurring idea going around here that domebo was a board that wanted to invite only special people; that only *certain* posters from the Straight Dope were invited. I would like to put this idea to rest once and for all - if there had been a way to invite every single poster from the Straight Dope to domebo, in my opinion, we would have done it (I can't speak for CRSP {Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party on the Dope}, the creator of domebo, but I was somewhat involved in the movement that resulted in its creation and have been there since very early on). Every poster from the Straight Dope is and was welcome. If you did not receive a personal invitation, that is regrettable, because you are welcome, as are people from the general internet.

One factor that I've mentioned before but that seems to be getting completely overlooked is that we did not feel we were free to start a thread announcing our existence and inviting everyone over. CRSP started this thread in MPSIMS asking about interest in a splinter board and was quickly closed down (for right or wrong). It was not a big leap to assume from that that a general invitation thread from a competing breakaway board would not be welcome, either (it turns out later that it was - we didn't know or expect that at the time). People used what we felt was our only tool at the time - private messages to everyone we could think of.

The first mentions of domebo were in this thread of mine, asking for suggestions for new message boards. CRSP (very casually) mentioned domebo on the Dope for the first time in this thread, complete with a link. I think most reasonable adults can figure out that if the person who starts a board links to it, he is inviting you to come over and check it out. Therefore, I would like to humbly request that the idea that domebo is an elitist, invitation-only board be dropped. domebo may or may not be a board that is of interest to you, but please judge it on its own merits, not on a false idea.
Thank you.
{gets off soapbox}