I don't see adverts and I'm genuinely confused as to how this site is able to make a profit.
Our highest priority isn't money...or even growth. It's to give people a place online where they can escape the vitriol of comment sections, the low-fi content overwhelming reddit, and engage in thoughtful and civil discussions. The team has tentative plans for revenue streams but they aren't a priority right now. We all have "real" jobs and this is our project and passion. Making money isn't a passion, FYI.
From Neil Gaiman's commencement speech. The motivation to start something good should never be the money.I don't know that it's an issue for anybody but me, but it's true that nothing I did where the only reason for doing it was the money was ever worth it, except as bitter experience. Usually I didn't wind up getting the money, either. The things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I've never regretted the time I spent on any of them.
I think there is a donate button hidden somewhere after one of the links on the bottom of the page. I think. I know there used to be anyway. Think of it as a game, -needle in the haystack or an easter egg hunt. The donate button may also be an urban legend.
I totally figured it out! You have to get to a 404 page, when then redirects you to a game of Zork. You must play through the game, without losing once. Upon victory, a donate button will appear allowing you to donate $0.01 once. To donate more you need to repeat the process.
I used to find the StraightDope forums a great place for that, but then they went paid, and even though I subscribed, it kind of killed them, for me anyway. Your vision for Hubski sounds exactly like Reddit seemed when I first found it, in the days - yes, they existed! - when even /r/atheism included thoughtful and civil discussion. Let's hope it succeeds.
quality in subs like /r/atheism is a dream long dead :( It's been hardly a week i'm on hubski and after spending some time here, I cringe goingback to /r/all. I dont mind hearing news a little late here on hubski (though this surely change as the community grows) if it means filtering out all the bullshit on reddit. I fuckin love this community. And that's what shapes the site. I frequent #Music and it's incredible. I post unpopular, never-heard-of recordings and performances and I get insightful comments like 4 days later! If you dont get upvoted in the first 5 minutes on reddit you're buried. I really, really hope this place stays pure.
I don't think there is a donate button, it's kind of an old joke when people ask how Hubski makes money. :)
If you kept a permanent, absolute ban on image memes, I think you would avoid that. The problem is, and it will be interesting to watch this here, that every community eventually develops its culture, and in-jokes and "memes" (in some form, it need't be image memes) are a part of that. Whether they take over and destroy the place from the inside remains to be seen.
But without a downvote button here, am I expected to simply mute permanently anyone who takes part in something inane like a pun thread? If that becomes part of a certain sub-community's "culture," I have no interest in seeing it, but that means I'll have to never see any of those users' other non-pun contributions. I suppose that's their problem, not my own. EDIT: I'm in no way trying to criticize hubski or suggest that Reddit is inherently better - just trying to have a discussion is all!
Not sure, I'm still finding my feet. I can cope with the occasional pun, but image macros/memes are a 100% kill for me. So I guess I will end up muting anyone who does that. It will be a shame if they also contribute in an interesting way, but other good users will just have to fill that gap.
Steal all Hubski souls and run for the hills to feast on the yesteryears of humanity.
There are no ads, and as far as I know, no revenue streams. This place was built community-and-discussion-first. Let me add: I don't think that mk should necessarily swear-off making money from this website. It's a time-consuming and costly endeavor, and if it keeps growing, would eat into more and more of his time, and I would like to see him rewarded. I just don't think it was ever a stated goal from the owner or admins.
Insom just answered this somewhere, but you're right, -it's not. The goal is simply to sustain a place for thoughtful discussion on the web. It isn't even necessarily to grow the user base if that means harming that goal. Not to put words in your mouth insomniasexx...I just don't think it was ever a stated goal from the owner or admins.
There's a thread that says Hubski gets no royalties. Here: http://hubski.com/pub?id=103100