Name applewood Location Sitting on a dining room chair. Getting ready to head into the backyard to listen to the cicadas. Current Preoccupation Trying to learn Spanish. Looking for good stories to read, television to watch, anything that'll fill the hole that was created since I walked away from comics. Sewing. Bookbinding. Job hunting. More casual conversation, because it's genuinely a good way to connect to people. More OC and threads about what people are making. Humility. Curiosity. Civility. Gratitude. There's absolutely no reason why conversations on here should feel like walking into a war zone, where you're afraid to share ideas for fear of being dismissed, mocked, or antagonized against just because someone disagrees with you and feels absolutely no compulsion to treat you respectfully because of it. When this goes beyond even remotely controversial topics and bleeds into conversations about cartoons, movies, books, food, etc., it's beyond tragic. Conversations are supposed to be about exploring ideas together, to build relationships and share in the joys that our experiences bring us. They're not supposed to be battlefields, where at the very best the only thing that's won or loss is the building up or tearing down of egos. Four years ago casual threads would have comments numbering in the dozens. Now we're lucky to get that out of Pubski. We're not gonna be able to get back to where we used to be without a genuine and heartfelt shift in attitude.What change would you like to see from the users of Hubski?
To quote wasoxygen from forever ago: I couldn't agree more with the characteristics you laid out. I'm gonna ask some questions, answer the ones you feel compelled to: First, do you think we still have lurkers like this? I've seen a good number sharing posts without commenting, but I'm not convinced they're as sizeable a group as they used to be. Second, how would you like to see those conversations facilitated? Do you think people just need to start asking more casual questions (maybe reviving #askhubski?) or do you have a vision of some site-level support for that? I also want to know what you mean by a "shift in attitude" because I'm sure that I relate to it and agree with you, but I'm having a tough time articulating what I'd actually like to change about the base-level disposition of the site!The site has been aptly likened to a cocktail party. People are milling around, some clustered in little groups, many participating in multiple dialogues at once. For every conversationalist, there are many more nearly invisible lurkers who don't speak up but enjoy following along.
I think the number of lurkers have probably shrunk alongside the general population. I've also seen regular uses, voices I've loved and appreciated, become lurkers at best. I think mk has put in great safeguards in his moderating system to help reduce the number of trolls and spammers. The rest is on us as users to be respectful, considerate, and mature contributors to this site. The majority of users here do just that day in and day out. Unfortunately, as small as this site is now, every interaction is more impactful because every interaction is more rare. As a result, negative interactions are more likely to drive people away than they were four or five years ago. Well, like I said in my previous post, I think we could all stand to be more generous in spirit. Every last one of us. The conversations I personally look for and want to contribute to are ones where I feel heard and respected and where, when someone disagrees with me, instead of making me feel attacked or like I have to go on the defensive, they give me space to speak and explain myself. It's amazing how much easier it is to share ideas if it feels like I'm in a casual conversation with a friend than in some fierce debate where I have to struggle to be heard. Knowing what I want from conversations and how one kind makes me feel over the other, I work very hard to try and afford others the same opportunity to feel heard and respected, even if I disagree with them. It's been a slow process to change my behavior, but where I'm at now is a world of difference compared to where I was five years ago.First, do you think we still have lurkers like this? I've seen a good number sharing posts without commenting, but I'm not convinced they're as sizeable a group as they used to be.
Second, how would you like to see those conversations facilitated?
I also want to know what you mean by a "shift in attitude"
Those influxes were usually people who got sick of reddit for one reason of another, and came here for some relief. Many found it, others just went back to reddit after awhile. Do you think we should be hoping for more influxes like that? What can we do to encourage them?