I found Hubski in a reddit alternatives thread, lurked for a few weeks, and made an account 365 days ago. In that time I've come to really appreciate this community for numerous reasons, I'll focus however on 3.
- 1. Hubski prioritizes civil discussion above all else
This is pretty self-explanatory, but it's important. Because of it's design, Hubski makes a typical flame war impossible, or at least impractical, and also fairly easy to contain. When a user spots another user, or topic that is particularly flame-riddled, they can be ignored/muted pretty easily.
- 2. Hubski encourages Original Content
As long as you're not putting anybody else down, and doing something genuinely creative, Hubski is all about the OC. Make music, a poem, a comic, an epic adventure in the creative style of D&D, a great meal or a treatise on technology. Hubski just wants you to make something original.
- 3. Community
Because of the nature of the hubweel, circledot and badge, Hubski does not allow for people to simply hunt for fake internet points. You can't just make posts hunting for badges, because a badge must be earned, and therefore is spent with some care. This means that everyone participating is doing so primarily because they are interested in the topic. Now this is important, because 'interested in' does not me 'supports.' Just like a circle-dot is not an upvote, a person following a tag on hubski does not, by virtue of following the tag, take a side on a controversial issue. They make take a side in the discussion, but the following #guncontrol does not of itself set you on one side of the issue. Whereas on reddit for example, each subreddit tends to create an acceptable vocabulary/grammar/opinion to have on the given issue, which is how dogma is created.
The effect of all of this is that your average hubski user is a lot more patient, and more committed to quality and manners than your average messageboard user. Hubski is a message board, because although yes you can just post images, they tend to be the exception rather than the rule, used for comedic value rather than main content.
A bit on personal development:
When I found Hubski I was in the process of beginning to come out of a dark season in my life, and I can proudly say that I have put that behind me for the most part. I have learned to recognize when I am reacting (Negatively) to something that has happened, rather than acting in a way consistent with the person I want to be. I recognize the effect of different negative stimuli, the feelings that I tend to create spontaneously as a result, like a body generating a fever to try and drive out an illness, but burning nerves in the process. I recognize the impulse to try and dull that feeling with a misuse of alcohol, THC or food. That's not to say that I have given up any of those things entirely, but I no longer use them to cope, and have learned better moderation. Death used to terrify me into inaction, but after long mediation I have 'died' and now I live like I've passed away and I'm trying to make up for lost time. I'm not so afraid of failure, because I have nothing but this one life's worth of time, and I have to make the best use of it that I can, and maybe enjoy some of it.
I'm incredibly grateful for Hubski. For it's perspective, for it's unique character (And characters!). For the goals it aspires to, and the priority it gives to order and reason in an internet of anarchy.
Cheers to the thoughtful web.
I have only been here for about four weeks but I really like it. I like a place where there aren't petty flame wars everywhere. I have been kinda looking for a community like this for a long time now and I am really glad I have stumbled upon Hubski. I look forward to getting to know you guys better in the future.
Good for you man! Dark seasons can be very trying to weather. I'm glad you found some sunshine. You verbalized my thoughts exactly. I've been here half a year and I'm growing more and more infatuated with you people every day.I recognize the impulse to try and dull that feeling with a misuse of alcohol, THC or food. That's not to say that I have given up any of those things entirely, but I no longer use them to cope
I love these posts. Bring 'em on. I think we should have a specific tag as the various Hubskiversaries or birthdays come up. I didn't give my anniversary much of a tag, just #hubski. eightbitsamurai called his anniversary post #nosharesjustsmiles -- something generic would be good. Especially to help the researchers who are bound to show up eventually. Anyone suggest a tag for these reflections? OftenBen calls his #daysofhubski and #reflection -- anyone else? I like both of these. I see galen used reflection as well.
Your story of finding Hubski is pretty similiar to mine.
I heard a few months ago about it on HN, looked on the global feed and dismissed it. Just a week or so ago, I the stumbled across a discussion on Reddit, that every community gets worse, the bigger, "more mainstream" it gets. Someone there then mentioned Hubski as a platform, which might be able to prevent this
I think, OftenBen, I'll post my thoughts here, partially because I think it's weird to clog feed with multiple "A year of Hubski" posts (though don't mistake me, I'm in love with this idea). If you don't mind?
Alright, so for context, OftenBen came up with a year of Hubski idea, noticing that a few of use all kind of showed up on here around the same time (Due to a reddit thread i think). I think Hubski has been the single most positive influence in my life over the past year. The fact that I can come here at any time of day and be surprised, enamoured, deflated, perturbed, jollified and encouraged by the content and the discourse here is a real treat for me. I have been wrong here, I have been offensive to some (at a point of weakness - felt desperate to be included in something against my better judgement). I have been educated, had my eyes opened, and found out things that amazed me and shattered my own personal bias. Thanks Hubski. You're pretty alright.
Cheers to the thoughtful web. I feel no need to make multiple accounts here. Always have with reddit. Heard of and met retired facebook trolls who had to, in order to protect their real identity (some of these folk could have been in law, public positions, etc.), work under pen names. Here, I feel that it is celebrated the fact that a personality (or so) keeps up with their inquisitiveness; consistency doesn't matter here. No one, as far as I've seen, has said, effectively "Well, you posted x comment one time, so you must be a terrible person..." while a few thousand might nod a head while perhaps a few give it an uppoint (DuPont? Upvote?). IT'S ALL SPORADIC. Which is why it has, as well, been one of the factors that have been some of the vectors into new ways of thinking. The structure of the hubski experience is topic-page focused, and your feed is subject to a different hierarchy than a binary segmentation of ideas processed through an RSS-like striation. that one sees elsewhere.