I normally sit here logged our during the day and just read some of the older posts from earlier last week/month, I never really check the comment sections until recently and I discovered a lot about everyone and what they're up to and it makes me excited and happy about what I'm doing.
So, just saying hi after a few months.
I also think that giving users more filtering options is a better solution than the typical moderator formula. Moderating lots of comments can get out of hand and wild very quickly even if the Mods are excellent. Hopefully as Hubski's userbase grows it will give us greater and greater tools for filtering comments/content based on OUR preferences with a little input from the community rather than depending solely on moderators and mass voting (a la reddit). As a side question, as more users come onto hubski, will each users vote still count as one dot on the hub? That seems like its going to end up with almost all posts and comments at a full 8 dot hub rather than the nice gradient we see now.
As a side question, as more users come onto hubski, will each users vote still count as one dot on the hub? That seems like its going to end up with almost all posts and comments at a full 8 dot hub rather than the nice gradient we see now.
I've always wondered about that. Will it go 'round and 'round like the user wheel?
I would think we'd adjust for traffic, but even if we didn't that would make for one heck of a statement if a post had zero, wouldn't it?
Gotta say, the lack of a downvote/lack of ability for posts to get 'buried' if people disagree with them is a difference I've slowly noticed and grown to appreciate through my time on Hubski. Silence - aka, the zero-dot hubwheel - says enough to me. I like it.
It'll happen. Its like death. It progresses ever so slowly. The most you can do is postpone it. The only surefire way to avoid eternal september is via a paywall. Then you just get a room full of people with credit cards who feel entitled to everything because they paid a nominal fee for it. Yes I'm a cynic. Realistically we've got quite a few years before Hubski is even at risk.
I'd like to go in a little more depth with JTHipster's idea, because quite frankly I like it. Of course a lot of us here are funding projects, businesses, and research out of our own pockets but I'm sure we would be able to do something for those people, like a non-payment membership whitelist. Definitely something to consider if we begin to feel the pressure of Eternal September... (I feel weird saying that. But the money could go to keeping the site up, charity, and community projects.) Feel free to give me a slap in the face.
I'm confident right now in the site's architecture. We had a sizable influx of shitheads in late December, and they pretty much went away after a few days of nobody noticing them. The point is that pretty much everyone who got one of those boneheads on their feed ignored right away, and the problem was isolated within a few days. A few days of only having their little troll troupe to converse with apparently wasn't interesting so they crawled back under the bridge whence they came never to be heard from again. I think most Huskiers didn't even realize what was happening, which is awesome. Hopefully the same can happen in the future, even on a much larger scale.
That was really encouraging, I agree. One thing that I also found encouraging, that I've mentioned here before is that a number of those people that started off as "trolls" ended up changing their interactions and posted good content and had some great comments. It was as if they came over, saw the culture, and changed accordingly. I think that also bodes well for future growth.
Yeah I completely forgot about that actually. The unfortunate thing is a lot of those people were friends of mine from Reddit, and though they act immature there simply because the websites cesspit, I somewhat expected them to be chill here and partake in some interesting discussions. I was disappointed.
See my comment above, a lot of them did act appropriately after realizing that Hubski isn't Reddit. Some of them are still here, and I went from ignoring them to following them.
I'm just still not convinced that it can't be avoided because of following/unfollowing, ability to completely block users, as well as domains. Plus the filtering controls that do not exist yet but will. The downfall, I think, would have to be comprised of two things. MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE amounts of traffic resulting in an avalanche of new users, along with complexity in the UI design of Hubski's filtering controls such that they are not breathlessly simple and intuitive and apparent enough to the newest users to be functional and useful. If Hubski can nail the UI for filters to the point where the newest users are aware of them and can use them effectively, then I think it'll be pretty good. The last great threat will be in the comments section of threads where, due to popularity, a massive horizontal influx of comments of low quality show up in numbers where it is too hard to block that many users (or the comments aren't bad enough to warrant blocking someone you don't know, but they are collectively 'meh' and uninspiring or otherwise not great).
I wonder what might cause an influx like that. On reddit I sometimes see people blame it on /r/gonewild, but I'd be surprised if that were the only reason. Somehow I can't see a hubskigonewild happening. Hubski: ass, cash or badge. No one rides free. Except everyone.
. The last great threat will be in the comments section of threads where, due to popularity, a massive horizontal influx of comments of low quality show up in numbers where it is too hard to block that many users (or the comments aren't bad enough to warrant blocking someone you don't know, but they are collectively 'meh' and uninspiring or otherwise not great).
What if you had the ability to see only the comments made by people that you follow? I don't see a need for this right now, but if Hubski had the sort of traffic you're alluding to, that could be a useful way to maintain the integrity of your experience.
Well, I'd say the majority of insight in comments comes from people you don't know already once a site reaches a massive scale....along with e majority of crap. If you only see who you follow you can't leverage the great many unknown contributors that are often experts in niche areas and minutiae...so I'd personally be wary of this.
I would agree with that, if ever something like this existed it would be best used as a toggle. Something to easily switch on/off. The vast majority of the people I end up following happen after I read a comment of theirs. It's the best kind of discovery IMO.
One thing I don't get, and maybe I'm doing it wrong, but even if I ignore a user, I still see their comments. Just with a line through their name. I think it blocks me from seeing their submissions, but not sure if it does if someone else I follow shares their post. But regardless, there are a couple people's comments I wouldn't care if I ever saw again, and it would improve my experience on Hubski, but they are still there no matter what I do. It doesn't matter if I filter their submissions, because all it takes is one mutual person or tag we follow and they'll be in there commenting up a shitstorm. Really hope I'm missing something, but from what I've seen, Hubskis system can't keep the comment sections clean, only my feed.
I think the 2 minute Bob Ross waiting period should be an option in your settings.
I think as long as Memes and pics don't pervade Hubski we'll be fine. Worst case you end up following only the people/tags you care about and don't see that stuff anyway.
Yeah, the comments are some of the better parts of Hubski. Most forum/aggregate sites comments are pretty crappy and immature on average (It's not all reaction gifs, pun threads, and racism/sexism like on Reddit/4chan/"Old"Digg/etc). Hubski is a small enough community that people are still nice and polite to each other, yet large enough to get a large and varrying group of diverse opinions on different subjects. It's the main reason I like reading Hubski and frequent this site. "Hi."