Fair enough, I didn't really consider the point of view of users like you.

So long as nobody gets to see those tags but you and possibly me.

I think that is a good driver for any future changes to the way Hubski works. Which is why I proposed the tagging in the first place.

The ideas for metrics I proposed are not something I'd use to judge others: it's more like 'hey, we share the same things a lot, maybe I might want to follow you'. Comparable to the music similarity meter on last.fm or something along the lines. I don't really see how a metric like that imposes standards to the community which Reddit Gold does. It's something I think is nice to know and not much more than that. I'm not gonna judge someone because they didn't like the same articles as I do.

As for the picture, yeah I agree that it shouldn't be mandatory, that wasn't my intention but I didn't say it explicitly.

Those are not things that I have done, they are not things I am proud of, they are external judgements of an inhuman system attempting to quantify me via an arbitrary metric that may or may not have the first thing to do with my life.

I think I gave in to the tendency to label and categorize other people. Useful to make quick decisions but not to foster relations. Yet I think that there's gotta be something I can do to get to know a user better than their last couple of posts. Do you think there are better ways to foster relationships that can align with who someone is?