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comment by mk
mk  ·  1259 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: October 14, 2020

It has actually been 6 hours for the last couple of weeks. elizabeth is right, Pubski is unaffected.

I intend to end the experiment this week, once I am back on home internet. It hasn't had an obvious effect on activity (https://hubski.com/stats), but I'd like people to give feedback if they've noticed anything.

It's not a blanket 12 (6) hour waiting period. I follow tacocat, and see all of his comments immediately, so does anyone else that follows him, or that he responds to. If people don't like it, that's ok. It's an experiment. I still feel that people are unnecessarily hostile to each other in comment threads, and that the medium is partly to blame. I'm still ok with experimenting with the medium.





kleinbl00  ·  1259 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    but I'd like people to give feedback if they've noticed anything.

okay

1) By defining what is "thoughtful" and what isn't, you've turned the tenor of the site much more cautious.

2) Those people among us who tend to be emotional have left.

3) What discussions we do have tend to be boring exercises in navel-staring.

4) there's absolutely no point in looking at anything until it's half a day old.

5) I regard this as your passive-aggressive attempt to make "following" work despite the fact that there's no point because you've got about 30 actives.

6) People are now hostile, just delayed.

7) The medium of Hubski is "maximum confusion" which basically means that the people who are used to your hijinks are more likely to interact. New people will simply opt out. I've had this discussion with two separate signage companies this week, by the way - making things difficult to do is not the same thing as making the stuff you want them to do easy. The end result is the same, except the interface amps up confusion, fatigue and hostility.

8) "If people don't like it, that's OK" combined with "I still feel that people are unnecessarily hostile to each other" is your way of saying "I get to decide what's acceptable and what isn't" which is diametrically opposed to "personal content isn't a sin". It's content. It's personal. You've created a space for people to create it. You've now decided that you're going to put a morality code in place, not because everyone is spamming each other with torture porn but because we're in the midst of a pandemic, a depression and a slow-motion coup. Your response? "Beatings will continue until morality improves."

9) If you're "still ok with experimenting with the medium" why don't you go the other way? You were entirely too ready to go "stop being mean on my toy" but I haven't seen you try anything to make people be nice. Put a time limit on mutes. Let anyone badge 90-day-old content to bring it back into the mix. Give Pubski a rotating owner. That's off the top of my head - positive behavioral shaping, as opposed to negative.

elizabeth  ·  1259 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The place seems more empty, stale and also lots more spammers. I think to improve the site we need more people, not less. Confusing mechanics are not helping.

I've almost invited my IRL friends to join Husbki a few times over the summer, was about to send a link to the site and then didn't because I'm not sure what would be the appeal for a person that hasn't been here the past 4 years.

I think the hostility can partly be attributed to the pandemic. In a time where everything is changing, switching up the mechanics of a place I spend my internet off-time is also kind of annoying. I get it that it's your place, and you can do whatever you want with it. But this also reminds me it's your place, not mine so with less feeling of ownership I'm less inclined to post OC, comment and participate.

mk  ·  1259 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I can appreciate that. One aspect that might not be factored in is the number of users that have reached out to me directly to lament the decline of Hubski. The common theme is a lack of empathy and increase in hostility that people are feeling. IMO the pandemic has exacerbated it, but the feedback began before.

I don't think this experiment has been a success. However, I think we might be able to do things to remind us to be cool to each other. I'll post a follow up on this experiment, and hopefully we can get a bunch of suggestions.

I don't want to force people into being nice. I can't. But this was a place that was previously kinder and more forgiving. If there's a path back towards that, I want to find it.

kleinbl00  ·  1257 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think the people who complain to you in private rather than doing something about it or attempting to improve things themselves are the last ones the site should change for.

Because then, rather than solving the problem, they convince you to do something useless and offensive in an attempt to solve a problem that isn't yours.

Frankly, there are way too many people on this site who stir up shit by PMing each other to talk about a third person rather than just putting on their big girl pants to address the issues.