I am primarily a lurker.

I lurked on Hubski for several months without and account, then finally created one and lurked for several more months before I finally created this account for the purpose of actually contributing. Even with how little I contribute here, this is very high amount of interaction for me. Since joining I have only very recently opened up and talked about personal issues I'm going through as well. So keep all that in mind when reading my opinion changes here.

I like that hubski has a small user base. I like that I can log in every other day and be caught up with damn near everything in a short amount of time. For me it helps me not feel overwhelmed. I understand that is not going to be the goal for the creators and admins of the site, growth will always be a goal and priority, but for me, it will likely mean I contribute less.

This is very small and tight knit community. I spent a lot of time just lurking and reading interactions and arguments that span years. There's a lot of inside jokes and references that I still don't get, but I took a long time to lurk and help myself feel comfortable being a part of the community.

I love the self moderation of the site. To me, it is the most powerful and comforting part of it.

I particularly like the hush function and I use it a fair amount, If I know I'll disagree with most of someones comments, I don't want to see them at the top of a post. I like the Mute function. I've only used it a couple times, once someone noticed and questioned why in a pubski thread, their past behavior was pointed out to them and they apologized and were unmuted. But ultimately I find comfort in not expecting comments from someone I don't want comments from. If someone has muted me...fine, I don't want to comment where someone doesn't want my comments, even if it's a topic I'm interested in.

I dislike the idea of only seeing posts from tags I follow. I want to see all the posts and just have the tags make specific ones stand out. I love that the only thing I don't see on the global feed are things I have personally filtered out. I've never understood peoples frustration with tags, I use them a lot, I often use tags to go back and read posts on past topics I missed or was before my time on the site. and some funny shit sometimes pops up because of that third tag that can be added by others. Someone even once noticed that I follow the "cows" tag and we had a good laugh, that tag is basically never used.

I still want to see every comment on a post, I like the idea of people I follows' comments being at the top, and everyone else's below (hushed can stay at the bottom). Having someone else decide what I do or don't see contradicts the self moderation that I love and have come to associate with Hubski.

I have become more vocal here and contributed more because I love the self moderation tools here. I know that if someone doesn't care about my sad little posts, they can filter me out, never see my posts and ignore my hushed comments on others posts. I like that if someone becomes hostile I can filter them out and never have to think about them again. With a bigger user base, this could turn into some weird echo chambery type system, but with the size hubski is now, I like it.

I'm mostly here because hubski is a content aggregator, I've only recently looked at it more from the social aspect, while it's nice to get fuzzy feelings when others or the site's power users comment or circledot my post, it's not really why I'm here, but I understand that a lot the the site's longtime users are here for the close social circle.

In the end I love it here, the type of posts and discussions here seem a hell of a lot more adult than most other aggregators or social platforms, discussions can turn heated because a lot of users are close, but overall the arguments seem less petty that other places. My personal browsing habits have changed a lot for the better since discovering hubski, I browse a lot less clickbaity sites and a have been pointed to more legitimate news sources and interesting places on the web because of everyone here.

To sum up, I guess, I like it here because I think the current self moderation tools and small user base it what makes hubski a good place with higher caliber discussions.