To whom it may concern...
If you're part of the great migration, welcome. I'll be here, waiting.
Oh my God where did you all come from. I have a feeling this is what it felt like when Aang found a hidden herd of sky-bison for Appa. They didn't show it in the show, but I have a feeling this is how it felt. This is way too much, I need a moment.
It's an experiment in Black Gentrification. We figured we'd come over and class up the joint, but instead of coffee shops and skinny jeans we bring fried plantain, saltfish fritters and a fresh pair of Jordans.
Also one of those rare meals that is appropriate at any time of day/night.
OffTopic: Eyy bro guess who made DailyDot http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/reddit-rape-racist-comment-trolls-problem/
I was going to ask what prompted another wave of interest from Reddit but this seems to summarise it. In short: arseholes again. Not 'arseholes on that site'' or even, perhaps, 'arseholes enabled by anonymity' but just a fundamental, fist-clenching, existential 'why are there so many arseholes in the world?' problem. We've had some rather excellent discussions here about the enabling of appalling behaviour by the conjunction of arseholes, opinions and anonymity; also many about their simple, baffling existence. What I like about Hubski's userbase is the approach to these discussions is one of genuine investigation and on the whole it's not flame wars we get here but a conflagration of thoughtful discourse.
I'm looking forward to getting into such discussions. I see that it takes a while to form a new habit (such as going here instead of reddit first thing), but I have no problem making the effort for a saner community.
Ha ha, further shows me the decision to be done with that toxic environment is the right one. You should submit that.
Hope you like hubski. Nice when everyone has "skin in the game". We're all responsible for our conduct and comments or we get shunned. Helps us all decide to keep our "jack-ass" selves in check. As a result, I've found some pretty eye-opening world-views and ideas. Have fun man.
Thank you. I've already had a baptism of fire based around a small misunderstanding mostly on my part so I am very happy to see that the sort of confrontations I was used to are a thing of the past.
The last pair of branded tennis shoes I owned were "Magics" back in 1990. I do love me some fried plantain and salt fish fritters though.
Like Moses and the Red Sea, it seems MilitantNegro has parted an ocean of bigoted trolls to land on the safe, calm and cool shores of Hubski.com and eightbitsamurai is bummed cause he still lives in the most gentrified part of Colorado. -This will make for some interesting plot developments in #hubskina
I've read most of the thread. As far as I can tell, there's been a mass migration from reddit in the wake of a controversy that began with Ferguson-hating on /r/BlackLadies and grew to encompass 43 subreddits. Daily Dot article here.
Just wanted to take a moment and say, "welcome." If you or anyone else has any questions about the site, feel free to PM me. I'm the "Steve Clausnitzer" you mention in a comment here. I'm glad you found us and I look forward to what you and your pals bring to the site. New, fresh perspective is always welcome. If you are looking for a safe place to have thoughtful discussions, my hope is that you've found it. Have a great weekend!
So, I didn't want to invite a bunch of people out of the frying pan and into the fire as it were, so I'm in the process of doing some due diligence on the folks here at Hubski. First here's one of the co-founders, Steven Clausnitzer, on his LinkedIn page: That's a good start. EDIT: For those I have come looking for refuge, welcome, and here's a guide to how the site works. One of the main benefits, you don't have to see stuff from people who don't matter to you. EDIT 2: I shouted out to the founders via Twitter, this is what one of them had to say.Conversation on the web is broken. There is a lack of true community online, and people aren't developing great relationships with one another. Following topics or interests leads to an echo chamber of likeminded individuals agreeing with each other. When intelligent discourse does happen, vitriolic commentary and trolls drown it out. Hubski fixes this.
The primer is a good place to start. The basic premise of our moderation is that it is user-driven, rather than top-down. Of course, like all moderation it can be abused, but IMHO it's better when that abuse is limited to one user and his/her posts rather than across a topic/subcommunity. It does take some getting used to. You started the #blackit tag, and it has a few followers already. All tags have a personalized version too: i.e. #blackit.MilitantNegro. People can follow #blackit to get all #blackit posts, or follow just #blackit.MilitantNegro, to get just your posts with the #blackit tag. All tags (and users and domains) can be followed or filtered out, and filtering takes precedence. For example, if someone filtered me (mk) but followed #blackit, and then they wouldn't see any #blackit.mk posts. Not all of the functionality is obvious. Feel free to ask folk, or PM or shoutout to me if you have questions or feedback. We are always working to improve this place and feedback always helps. Hubski definitely isn't Reddit. Opinions on the differences vary, and often evolve the more familiar people get with this place. Welcome aboard. blackski? ;)
Blackski...blackski! It's so bloody obvious I can't actually understand how I didn't already think of it... Thank you!
That IS a good start. I'm going to be looking at some Black-owned sites as well, but I can chill here with y'all for a bit, feel it out, etc.
Dang, I should have mentioned it seems gifs are not supported, but animated jpg and png files are. ermuhammad after finding animated gifs are not supported
ehnngh hnngh hnngh ohgod whyyy! Now I want to know how to set tags in your comments. I'm just gonna hashtag this one and see if that's how. #blackit Nope... that didn't work.
If you see a gif you like on Imgur simply change the extension to png. You can't tag comments, but you can tag posts.
I'm late to the party as always, but I'd like to try this on and see how it feels.
runs at you full tilt and throws her arms around you, nearly knocking you over
Yasss! If I only get one person out I'm happy. I feel like Jerry Maguire up in here. Now...did you bring the bowl for this damned goldfish?
I'm not sure it will be a mass migration. I don't really envision more than a handful of people will come and check Hubski out. I posted my "defection" in a relatively small private forum and then promptly deleted my account, so I can't even go back in to see what the fall out is. Maybe half a dozen people so far have come over and created accounts, but the impression I got was a lot of people felt leaving was in some way an acceptance of defeat. For me my own well being and mental state was more important than some imagined conflict with internet trolls. I didn't need to be in a any specific place to engage people in interesting and thoughtful conversation. The massive controversy around the bigots was only the final straw as it were. A lot will remain there and keep using the site because lets be honest there's not much going on here. That critical mass hasn't happened and the discourse is vastly different. Some people prefer to seek out a community gathered around a single topic but I like the idea of seeking out people with interesting perspectives instead.
This is a good start to the site. I'll tell my friends about it.
It's time we did something since the reddit admins are not helping. Let's see where this goes.
'sup, my dude! I changed my username because 'overton' doesn't really apply anymore. I've wanted to get rid of it over there for ages but it was tied to too much stuff to want to deal with the hassle. So this is a perfect solution all around. Let's get this party started! Now... how do I add gifs and/or pics to my comments? I'm kind of attached to doing that.
Welcome! Hopefully the trickle will set off a flood then we can really do something. It seems images are much easier here. Simply add the URL to your comment and it's embedded automatically. Now, lets get serious