TR42 was once public but later overran by anime and insulting people. Invite system allows us to operate an incredibly close knit community (300-400 active users) which has been around since about 2000/1. Furthermore, an invitation is half the battle... membership is still based on whether or not the community votes you in. From a commercial designer's perspective, we have more freedom to share behind close doors.

Because of the trust that's formed the last decade, we've had meetups all over the world. No matter what country you're in — there's usually a rooter who's got an open door. In addition, TR42 isn't just about art... it's a living community and people share very personal details that they don't want index by spiders or viewable by the general public. I'm not going into specifics but it gets very personal.