It's been my intent from the beginning that people be able to carve out their own niche, and it is clear that many people value your input. #vaguequestionsbypablo has a number of followers, and it is very cool that you've created that specific tag. That is a best use scenario as far as I am concerned. This is correct. Any frustrations that people are feeling about the changing nature of Hubski are ultimately my problem (and the rest of the Hubski team), not yours, and it is right that frustrated users direct them to me. If Hubski 'breaks' because people are using it as they see fit, then I take the blame.This is not my Hubski, nor yours, nor ours. It is its own, and it quite surely will develop on its own. Just post what you think is good, and talk about it with others. That's it.
Wait, but, why take responsibility for the natural development of Hubski? You are a founder, a catalyst just like your founding partners, and at least from my perspective you are a crucial part of the dynamic of things now, but not because you are on the Hubski team. On my feed, you're a user and a contributor just like me. Just a very prolific, intelligent, and powerful one. I don't think you should be taking blame for a failure because you opened the opportunity for success. The only responsibility you have now is your own influence as a user to the dynamic of the community.
No, I am also responsible for the tools that enable people to continue to enjoy Hubski even as it's natural development changes its global profile. The rest of the Hubski team can share the blame too. :) We aren't only responsible for the tools available, but we are responsible for how they are presented, and also what tools are not available. However, I do agree that it is critical that I am also a user experiencing the same problems and trying to address them from an individual perspective. I do that too.The only responsibility you have now is your own influence as a user to the dynamic of the community.
I was just thinking that there's been a lot of discussion and complaints about this stuff when the architecture of Hubski is made so that you can just cut it out if it's annoying to you, so people should do that. The fact that this is becoming a hot topic seems to suggest that Hubski is growing to a point where people will actually start to use this feature and create their own pockets in the community. Interesting stage in its evolution, right?
I'm worried by this system, and will make a post about it later. I don't know if a userbase built on knowledge and communication should have hidden pockets of knowledge and communication that people can't access if they're unaware of it.
Well, it's an opt-out system, so if people use it they know they're cutting out certain things from their feed. And if people don't use it then they're limited to seeing everything that shows up on the site. What if I don't care about football and there's an influx of football discussion popping up all over? I can either like Hubski less or just cut out the tags and/or people that annoy me. I can save myself from the changing character of the Hubski user-base. Every large site needs some kind of segmentation. It's inevitable that this kind of thing will happen.
But what if something truly amazing happens and you miss it? Ok, i can certainly understand niche things like football, even art and music arguably. But isn't unfollowing #hubski or #askhubski, because something pissed you off, like turning your back on the whole community?
I unfollowed #askhubski, but I still check it out. Since unfollowing I've checked it out at least once a day. And, on top of that, just because I've unfollowed doesn't mean it shows up in my feed: now it only shows up in my feed if posted or shared by someone who I follow (which, admittedly, limits it pretty severely). I guess muting/ignoring would be a different step. Clearly I haven't explored these options enough to even know the difference between the two though. I am loath to use both.
If someone pisses you off, you just ignore them specifically. You're not going to be able to avoid missing things that happen outside your selection of followed items. Some people really really don't want to miss out on stuff that happens in sites like this. I'm not one of them--it's madness to me. No one expects you to see every little thing on here. Who has time for that? And there's a variety of ways to catch things you might miss now: the Hubski newsletter, the bestof thing that is starting to take off, the fact that you can browse by number of spokes on the wheel, etc. So if someone wants to catch it all, then they simply don't use the blocking features. If people don't then it's not hurting anyone.