The way they implemented it was really weird too, not responding to community concerns like that is decidedly un-reddit and unfamiliar to say the least.

Nope, Conde Nast bought reddit a few years ago, and it was revealed last year (http://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ceo-admits-were-still-in-the-red-2013-7) that it's still losing money.

Interestingly, they were also trying new, what looked like targeted, Amazon ads just before this announcement. I kind of doubt it's specifically a selling announcement, and more focused on making reddit more attractive to AMAs for celebrities, as a user in that thread hypothesized.

It's all about user base, user base, user base. User base, to an investor, means eyes to whom you can sell to. Whether it be ads, Reddit gold, user information, or some other commodity, having the eyes and thoughts of millions means a great potential for revenue even if it hasn't been cashed in on yet. That's why Facebook got valued in the millions when it went public on the stock exchange before it even started to turn a dollar of profit.

I don't think it needs to be a "one or the other" type of thing either. I always say that I don't eat at just one restaurant and I don't go to just one bar/pub... why would I visit just one aggregator? I hope you enjoy your time here and there. Cheers!

I found out about hubski when there was the whole thing with the /r/technology sub controversy. I will be honest I haven't been back here much but obviously did make an account. With the new controversy on the up/downvotes system, I am feeling like reddit is making it's way to a /r/hailcorporate level and that saddens me. The admins are usually very responsive, but on this issue they have just been defensive. I think I might be migrating over here.

I don't know when you migrated, but Reddit was relatively small back then, it was so small that nobody cared to censor it or target it. Then a very quality content based userbase started to grow up, and as I said before, reddit's frontpage today would be digg's frontpage tomorrow, and because it was so obscure (first time I was in reddit it felt like an old bbs, didn't know what to do half of the time, and the discussion was nothing compared to what it is now, it was more like a thread of r/askhistorians, you wouldn't want to mess it in there if you didn't have you facts straight. But as you said, for the time being, one compliments the other. If hubski gains traction, I expect several exodus as Reddit gets too big and the admins keep screwing with the userbase.

You just stay around, try to contribute with quality content, then hopefully (or not) it will reach critical mass. One of the things I am starting to like about here is that it's so small, you already replied two of my comments in two different communities. Although to be truthful, the only real migration was from Digg to Reddit. Orkut never caught up, and moving from Digg to Reddit was easy, at that time some posts on Digg were about complaining that Digg's that day frontpage was reddit's yesterdays frontpage. Moving out was simple, a slightly bigger community than here. Ss we are so few, we need to bring the content ourselves. Just post about what you like and eventually it will become bigger, like reddit (it wasn't what it is today, in some sense, here feels like that original reddit 7-8 years ago)

I am trying to lure some redditors from r/Zennonet and r/Quest?, people in there are already willing to jump of the boat, they just need an incentive.

AFAIK It was amazingly popular in Brazil, I don't know why they close it, it was different than google+

No, seriously, don't try to get people to join Hubski in some vain attempt to get the admins attention.

A: It won't work. Reddit's traffic is huge and even if 50,000 people come here today that's a blip in their numbers.

B: It makes all of our lives more difficult and would only work to degrade Hubski into something it should never be.

If you're going to invite people, make it be people that you think would be a good fit for the community and nature of the site. Please, don't just blanket invite every person you come across. That creates more problems than it solves.

walkingbush that is the best rewording of "When shit hits the fan" I've ever seen. I think I'm going to use that when I need a clever way to say "When shit hits the fan" :D

It'll be about as effective as hanging a 'keep out' sign.

The important thing to do would be to figure out methods by which an influx of users is handled properly. The web's never been good about handling Eternal September-like scenarios - and until a community comes up that starts thinking about the problem well in advance and taking measures to anticipate/stem the tide, it's just going to keep happening.

I stick with CashewGuy for a lot of websites, I even bought cashewguy.com (and threw a video of Malcom Tucker from The Thick of It on there, NSFW language). Mostly I do this because I'm not very creative with names, but also because I've gone by CashewGuy on IRC for years, and it's just easier. Also, cashews are awesome. They've never let me down, and I won't let them down.

Same, but I'll still be on reddit, these are two fairly diffrent sites and can't really be compared in my opinion.

What if that happens though? Do you think Hubski would take it in stride or does this community really want to see this place be very niche?

I think the issue is that two aren't mutually exclusive. It's possible to grow and maintain what has been established here, however, that is best done organically and not by push-button issues that happen on Reddit or any other site for that matter. New users come and go all the time, and the community has been growing progressively larger.

I don't see it being taken in stride because that would defeat the entire point of this place. It's not meant to be a place where people are posting low-effort content (most of the time) and not really interacting with one another. It's really more of a melding of personalities, interests, and personal connections which is why I like that bar analogy so much. That's what could be lost and that's why I don't think it would be taken in stride if there was a continued, significant explosion in the user base.

But I'm not on the dev team so this is all just my opinion.

Yeah, I can throw it up on github in a bit.

Are you decent with regexes? Otherwise I could just link you the one I borrowed most of the code from, which just uses the word/phrase as-is.

Also, you can use personal tags on Hubski which people can follow and that are specific only to you.

what about down...circles?