Thoughts: Invite-only Cellar

Nic pointed out the other day that he thought we should go the route of CitizenX. That is, once they developed, they closed their doors to run an invitation-only site - if you were to be able to participate in the boards, you needed to be invited. AKA, no general admission. Or people could fill out an application, it would be reviewed and they'd be allowed to join up.

So, to cut to the chase - what do you think about this? Waiting until the Cellar has built up a bigger base, rounding up the biggest contributors of intelligent material (maybe 400 or 500 of 'em? who knows), then starting a members-only site, with the whole invite-only deal in effect. Maybe a couple public boards, and maybe everything would be viewable by the public but they wouldn't be able to sign up and post - that way, they could get an idea about us, and then submit an application. What do you think? Just curious to hear peoples' opinions on this one - obviously, it's Tony that makes the choice, but I just want to hear what everyone else things.

Myself, I'm kinda undecided (not that it really matters, like I said). I can see how it'd be great to keep the noise down and the intelligent conversation high, but by the same token, we don't know what we'd miss by leaving it closed.

Thoughts?