Posted this on /r/hubski, got a few upvotes but no response - so thought I should probably best post it here:
Hubski on the surface looks like the kind of thing that answers all the issues I've had with Reddit, and offers a lot of really great ideas. But I do have some questions, some concerns, and also ideas for improvement. Hope you don't mind me sharing!
1. I think it needs a better intro guide - after going through it, I still didn't really understand what was going on, and that was coming from being experienced with reddit which let's be honest Hubski is rather similar too. Your site could really do with a good explaination as to how it works - perhaps a video? This might also help promote the site.
2. The site is really, really quiet. Why so? For something a few months old I can understand that - but Hubski is, what, over 2 years old? It would really benefit from people submitting a ton more content. Any way to encourage this? The founders could certainly play their part.
3. Where are the rules? I can't seem to see any outside of standard legalese TOS. Does Hubski have any rules against defined objectional content?
4. What is the moderation policy? Seems you have this silencing system which is user controlled. Can you elaborate on how this works?
5. I'm not sure about the #subject.user tags. Why are they together? I find that a bit confusing as to what the subject is. Why not separate them?
6. The site is very monochrome. Why not add some colour? Having certain colours asigned to certain tags would be very helpful in seeing what type of content it is at a glance.
7. Thumbnails! Also very useful at getting an idea of the content at a glance before clicking on it. Any chance of such a feature being introduced?
8. What about avatars? One issue I have with Reddit is the difficulty in remembering who anyone is just from a name. Avatars are good at giving more of a memorable personality to a poster.
9. Do the admins have any policy on administration transparency? This seems to be one of the big issues with Reddit and source of a great deal of conflict and conspiracy theories.
The thing about Hubski that seems to trip up most new users is that it's path is different than a lot of comparable sites. Hubski's goal isn't to "get big" or grow it's userbase to super big proportions. Hubski's goal is rather to maintain it's community and quality of content, so things move slower here.
A lot of people come here looking for a replacement for sites like Reddit, but you shouldn't think of it like that. Hubski will give you your fix of things that Reddit can't offer, but it doesn't do all the things other site will--and shouldn't.
7. I rather like that there aren't thumbnails on Hubski and I hope it stays that way. Hubski has a clean, zen look to it as is. The other issue is that all posts are on comparatively equal footing on your feed without thumbnails. Thumbnails become attention-baiting little bastards. Browsing Hubski takes some human amounts of patience, and that's in line with what the site wants to offer.
9. Everyone seems to always fret about power abuse when coming from Reddit. The admin/moderator dynamic that there is on Reddit does not exist on Hubski. All content is really just user-moderated on a per-person basis. I don't know how such controversies could even arise on Hubski.