There has been a considerable increase in bot activity and malicious content posting on Lemmy recently.
Fortunately our little instance has been mostly spared so far, but I do worry that this may change at any moment.
In an effort to protect Lemdit and ensure its long term survival, we now require registration applications to be submitted by new users wanting to join us.
I've kept it short and authentic people will always be welcomed here, it just means that joining is not instantaneous anymore. I personally dislike registration applications, but I feel like protecting what we already have is more important than convenience and there aren't any better measures available yet.
Hopefully this will change as Lemmy evolves, I know the devs are working hard to find better solutions.