What are the strengths and weaknesses of the tag system? As opposed to subreddit-style categorizations? How is this different (if at all) from the generally acknowledged patriarch of the tag system, Twitter?
The only thing I don't like about subreddits on Reddit is that someone owns them. No one gets to choose who is in charge of your favorite subreddit. There are power trips, coups, and all kinds of immature stuff that can go on even in relatively small and niche subreddits. On Hubski, everyone is the curator of a tag. You can moderate by muting and blocking users to clean up a given tag space. There are no owners or mods of tags who control what the rules are. While I have doubts about how the tag system will scale against a subreddit style system, that's not really my concern. That's up to MK and the gang to figure out. In the meantime, Hubski works just great for what it is. Also, I noticed you are asking a lot of questions about Reddit and comparing it to Hubski. A lot of people here use BOTH Reddit and Hubski for many various reasons. You don't have to pick just one. :)
One thing I like about subreddits though is that some of them feel more like an actual community--which is nice for a site as big as Reddit, because if it were all just one giant "community", it'd be harder to really find people to connect with based on shared interests and views. In small subreddits I'm able to have good discussions, I can recognize users and possibly remember things about them, and they each have their own distinct feel. I care a bit more about discussions generally than the content posted to a subreddit/tag. Bad moderation can make a subreddit go to hell of course, but I subscribe to a number of subreddits that I don't think have much of that problem. Good moderators take input from the community and act upon it. Hubski I think is small enough that one big community works better than if it were to break up into many smaller communities. I like the tag system on Hubski and the subreddit system on Reddit, but I'm not sure I'd like it as much if it were vice versa. One thing I like about the tag system is that it's possible to post something about a more niche interest and it can still gain attention. If you post something to a very tiny subreddit, then nobody will see it aside from the very few people that happen to have found that subreddit. On Hubski there's more than one way to come across a post though (2 tags + followers), so it's not so limiting.
I agree, I mentioned how it will scale as a concern.
Reddit would be a complete mess if no-one owned the sub-reddits. This is what allows the community to enforce rules to prevent memes and other unwanted content from becoming overwhelming. If Reddit removed ownership of sub-reddits it would be a complete disaster. Maybe Hubski can find a method to make the site scale with tags, but that is yet to be seen
I wasn't suggesting they should be removed, but ownership can also be a negative in some subreddits. Though I've never had a problem with mods in any of the subreddits I frequent, there have been some major shit storms over moderation numerous times over the years I've been on Reddit. Moderation is necessary on Reddit, doesn't mean it can't also be a negative at times.If Reddit removed ownership of sub-reddits it would be a complete disaster.
|While I have doubts about how the tag system will scale against a subreddit style system, that's not really my concern. That's up to MK and the gang to figure out. In the meantime, Hubski works just great for what it is. Agreed, I was just brainstorming the potential of Hubski based on how it stands now-- that said, my understanding is not yet whole. This community offers a lot to learn, which is why I've been trying to compare to reddit, the only similar network i have truly been involved in, to see how Hubski stands apart. I'm hoping to have many updates as this idea is worked out :)
Yeah, Hubski isn't yet big enough to have the kinds of problems that subreddits/moderators solve, but it will be very interesting to see how it's tackled if it ever gets to that point.
The foundations of a budding site like this are important. We want to enjoy and evolve with how things are now, but planning for the future is just as important.
In addition to the mod drama and power trips and bullshit that happens in the subreddit system, the other problem with subreddits is anyone can submit to that specific category. This results in (1) spam and (2) an echo chamber and (3) lack of relationships between individual users. This is why I encourage people to follow both tags and the users who frequent those tags so that your feed is full of things that interest you AND people who interest you. This allows your feed to have things you may not normally encounter and begin to get to know the users who share interests with you. For example, I'm not very interested in music in general but because I follow people who are interested in things I enjoy and music, I get to see good music posts. Even though I would never browse or subscribe to /r/music or the 8000 genre music subreddits, I stay informed and consistently discover new things about music that I normally wouldn't. One example is this post by Owl that introduced me to something I would never actively seek out or typically enjoy. I would never be exposed to that on reddit.
You're right about the being able to follow specific people part, though I think in some cases subreddits are helping to fight bad signal-to-noise ratios in the content stream. For example, the /r/gaming subreddit over the years and general eternal september that any default sub gets to see, devolved into a mess of memes and inane posts about a popular game with the superimposed impact font joke etc So, some people got together and wanted a gaming discussion subreddit without the memery, so they made an /r/games (which is the most popular one, theres also an /r/truegaming) with the goal of having better quality posts and discussions through more involved moderator actions, and it's worked pretty well. There's not really any crapposting going on in Hubski right now, but if some day this place hit critical mass, it might be difficult to contain.
Keep in mind now that you could create #games.haymakers9th and you will be the only person that can submit posts with that tag. People can follow it etc. Personal tags -My guess is that we will expand on this too as it opens a number of possibilities.
Personal tags are definitely an interesting and workable concept. The ability to have a personal tag and a public one in the same submission eliminates the possibility of isolation and a solely blog-style dynamic.
Wait, I didn't know that was possible. So if you have a tag and then a "." and a username it become private and something only you can post to? Do you have to be the first person to use it to "own it?" Or could I make DrPepperGuitar.thenewgreen now and it would be mine? Or will it only let the user creating it use their username? Also what happens if it's multi-tagged? Only YOU can add a second tag? I've noticed you doing this with the photo challenges, but obviously we can post to them so I'm assuming that is how it works. (Not planning on using someone elses name by any means, just wondering if people could steal mine or something of that nature) Just curious.