OnePlus has announced on their forums that they will start using a pre-order sytem starting in late October. The forum post says that they will not stop using the invite system, but that orders from invites will get shipped from confirmed stock, and pre-orders will get shipped as stock becomes available.
More information can be found here: https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/week-40-and-so-it-begins-the-oneplus-pre-order-system.117715/
Hopefully hearing this news will make at least some of you very happy. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Have a nice day.