Hubski is a social network and link-aggregating service that has built a small, but strong and growing community. They have accomplished this by promoting thoughtfulness and providing an enriching environment for discussion. Over the past two weeks, several Hubski users (e.g., JakobVirgil, rozap) have conducted studies to better understand the current state of Hubski, and potentially offer the creators with some useful advice for future growth.

In this article I will attempt to better understand what Hubski has traditionally deemed “badge-worthy” in order to gain insight into the types of content users of Hubski find thoughtful. These data should help us gain perspective on the current comment rank system, but will also be useful in understanding other past trends, most importantly: what does the thoughtful social network think is thoughtful?

mk was aware of this studies development.

Note: If you would like to contact Cadell Last you can find him on Hubski (username: theadvancedapes), or contact him via email (cadell.last@gmail.com) or on his website: The Advanced Apes.