a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4640 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Buying upvotes with cash on Reddit
As of right now the lurk page is basically a "trending" page so I guess it would be possible to get a bogus submission with some bogus comments to end up there. I suppose mk could make it to where a post doesn't make the "lurk" page unless it has comments from an established hubskier. That could be one way to eliminate any BS posts from being seen by our Hubski "guests". We wouldn't want any newcomers to get the wrong impression.

As for the external posts getting hit with BS posts, I think lessismore is right, just "ignore" someone and they will no longer show up.

The only thing I see as a potential problem for the future are people commenting. How to ignore a user that comments on everything but has nothing to say or someone that is annoying or a blatant troll? How to avoid that is the question. Can you block someone from posting a comment on anything you post? Maybe if you ignore that user, they can't comment on your posts? This is a problem to be solved.





thundara  ·  4640 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Keep in mind there's a fine line between keeping out spammers and keeping out newcomers. Don't want to turn hubski into digg with only the power users able to gain and hold traction on the site. I do like mk's idea of giving priority to users with fewer ignores though.
mk  ·  4639 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Yes, I am leery of building a site that revolves around a small group of influential users. In fact, you might have noticed that I removed 'popular hubs' from the discover page yesterday. I replaced it with 'recently badged'. I am still doing work there, but I don't want to artificially cluster newcomers around certain users just because they were here first.

I'd rather visibility to the community as a whole to be a transient thing, dependent upon the quality of your most recent posts and comments, and not upon a legacy. Of course, a user will keep most of the followers they have earned, but if they want to get more of them, they have to keep providing good reason for it.

thundara  ·  4639 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Thank you for that, it's a good policy to have
thenewgreen  ·  4640 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I like mk's idea too, they're still there they are just not being featured as prominently because the community has basically all but told mk that this person is posting for nefarious reasons.
mk  ·  4639 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I really don't want to get into active moderation like blocking users from your posts. It's one thing to alter what you see, but IMO it's entirely another thing to alter what other people see. As thundara suggests, I don't want to get into a situation where power users are dominating the site.

I am all for enabling a user to filter their own experience, however. So if you are ignoring someone, it would make sense that their comments would drop closer to the bottom in your view of a post.

As for general moderation, if and when we get into that, I'd like it to be as dependent upon user input as possible. Ignoring does give a pretty good metric for that, at least to raise a flag that there might be an issue.

thenewgreen  ·  4639 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I guess I should define established, I would say it's someone that has had a full hub wheel at least once. Not exactly a "power user" scenario. That said, I think the system in place is a good one for posts but it doesn't do anything to prevent someone from trolling every mk post with comments. What If I went to every post you made and commented rudely but not so offensively that it barred me from the site? This could effectively ruin your hubski experience. What, if anything, can Hubski do to prevent this?
mk  ·  4639 days ago  ·  link  ·  
If someone were willing to make that effort, I'd almost be flattered. :)

I'd ignore them, so their comment would sort to the bottom, and if others ignored them, the same would happen. My guess is that they would run out of steam eventually. If we don't take the good with the bad, then we are left to determine which is which.

If it became real problem, I'd probably consider some other approaches, but I don't think civility can be enforced very well.

thenewgreen  ·  4639 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Thanks, I hadn't realized that if you ignore someone their comment falls to the bottom of your feed. That's great, I think it would essentially solve the problem. Like you said, they would run out of steam, so long as people aren't responding to them and rewarding their idiocy. This can happen when you get more than one on a feed.

You're right about civility, it can't be enforced.

mk  ·  4639 days ago  ·  link  ·  
    Thanks, I hadn't realized that if you ignore someone their comment falls to the bottom of your feed.

Oh, not yet! thundara suggested it, and I think it's a great idea.

thenewgreen  ·  4639 days ago  ·  link  ·  
It is. Nice work thundara