Today brings a significant change to Hubski. Tags can no longer be followed.

Tags have been a source of debate for a long time now. I expect that this will bring some more.

I’ll be happy to get more into the specifics of this decision below. However, the primary reason is that effects of tag-based subscriptions ultimately run counter to the goals of Hubski, and the long-term viability of this community.

We are not removing tags altogether, however. Community tags can still be added to a post, and you tags can still be ignored. In fact, more functionality that will take advantage of tags to improve discovery will be coming soon.

Starting today, when you click on a tag, you are given all the recent posts with that tag. Also, as recently suggested by <span><a class="ajax" href="at?id=possessedcow">possessedcow</a>, when you type ‘#tag’ into the searchbar, all posts with that tag are brought up directly.

I am sure that for some users this is going to take some getting used to.

In addition to this change, we’ve made another smaller one. Some users, including <span><a class="ajax" href="at?id=Saydrah">Saydrah</a> and <span><a class="ajax" href="at?id=syncretic">syncretic</a>~, were asking for a better way to find new or not-yet-popular posts.

On your left, you can now see an ‘unshared’ link. This will bring up all posts across the Hubski community that have yet to be shared (excluding posts that you ignore). We think this will be an interesting way to not only enhance discovery, but give new users a better chance to be noticed, and new submissions to be picked up.

As always, feedback is much appreciated (as if I have to remind you). :)