I think the general idea is "if you're on my timeline I probably like RPing with you enough to share an invite with you"

Since players usually get a limited number of inmates, it's not just the mods who can invite new players

also many of them allow for TDM-to-Invite

yeah, both of these

It’s a socially acceptable way to screen your players.

Whether that means “I only want people someone is willing to vouch for”, or “I want to make sure players will be a good fit for the type of game I’m running”, or just “I can only handle 30 players, and gating it this way means they’ll be people who want to play with each other”.

invite only games are a hard no for me. I won't even do tdm's at them

quantumvelvet: yes I get why they exist, it was more the general promoting that baffled me

@ everyone else: I see! That makes sense

justghosts: lol I'd feel too awkward asking...

right? I don't want to have to beg my way into a clique... lol

That’s why they promote - they’re screening players, but are open to a wider player base than just their own friends/maybe friends of friends.

It’s the distinction between private games and invite-only games, more or less.