As you may or may not know dribble started as and it’s still an invite only platform. Anyone can create a free account, and even upgrade to their premium plan, but in order to be able to publish you work you need to be invited by an already existing member.
Many websites and services start out as an invite only, it can be a good launch strategy (people want what they cannot have), Google+ did it, Hello is doing it, etc. But like I said this is usually more of a marketing strategy than anything else and usually anyone who spends more than 2 minutes looking on-line will figure out how to get an invite.
Dribble however seems to serious about this… not only they’ve kept the invite only model way after their launch but getting an invite is really though! I myself have been looking to be invited for weeks now with no luck, and trust me, I’ve tried.
I’m really looking forward to the day when I actually get invited. I’m really curious to see what kind of community hangs in there who are so protective when it comes to letting newbies in.