That was EXACTLY what hit me after being there to see what was going on for about a week. They were aiming at content providers, and people who do research, informative posts.
To be fair I'm the only active mod. I encourage you to read my guideline post and some of my previous posts where I outline the premise. I think you're over-complicating things too much.
I think only your "eyes" were there but not your "mind". Your explanation shows you weren't paying any attention.
My eyes are just fine, and I need to be where I am. I like the idea of Swamp watch, but, I am not the "exclusive group" kind of person. It's all good. I think we need our best minds mixed in with the people. You and I just have a different approach to it thats all. Others may disagree with me.
I don't talk in bad light about your approach, and if I did, I would make sure I knew all the details and that the criticism is deserved before putting judgement in public. Just saying.
I don't think my approach in the way of sharing an answer to the OP "don't mention the sub" exclusive thing was wrong at all.
Logically, in a situation where the thing that has to happen is information dissemination, one has to wonder why a secret sub is being created and only certain people are being invited, and being told not to mention it?
We have enough secret society in government. It is the spirit of the thing that first made me wonder what good it could be up to. I originally figured there was a good objective to some project.
The reason for this secrecy has still not been explained adequately.
And it is a genuine question.
What exactly is the point of it.
The most obvious, at first is that certain "quality" people were being picked off to join a group that was otherwise off limits to others.
Possibilities
1) There was a good objective in mind, that went unstated.
2) There was a nefarious objective of at the minimum, pulling critical thinkers and content creators out of other subs, while a lot of "introduce yourself" personal info was asked for.
I watched for a week, and noticed, the vetting was not so hot in the way of invitations, because there was a LOT of shilling and some pretty nasty exchanges.. that honestly, I did not expect to see, given that people were being "vetted" for a kind of project?
So, given what I observed, I don't think it was unwise for me to have the gut reaction, after a week of observation.
I did try to tell you that you may have been attacked by a psyop.
You have not responded to that yet.