So I've been a user on here for a day or so from the Reddit move over and a problem I seem to notice is if i want to view all the posts on a specific hashtag (i.e. #science). Sure I could go from my feed to clicking on #science to all #science posts but that seems like a long way to go for a relatively simple task, however it may be just me.
Maybe a possible solution to this would be on the side under the discover row to put a "my hashtags" or something to that extent to make navigating around the site better. Seems like it would be simple enough to code as well with just another </div><div class="bottomcoltop"><span class="leftmaintitle">Hashtags</span><br> (keep in mind I only have a basic understanding of web design so that may not work) and then coding in the individuals followed hashtags, all assuming the want for a feature like this was high enough.
Unless of course there already is a way to do this which I am completely unaware of, which I would greatly appreciate knowing about.
I think one of the goals of Hubski is to move away from the idea of content-based browsing and onto user-based browsing. The first is more likely to lead to the glorification of the masses and the second more likely to lead to... well, whatever you want, not whatever everyone wants. For instance, on Reddit if you want to know about politics then you subscribe to r/politics and whatever makes it to the top there is what you're likely to see, regardless of whether or not it's good, original content or just whatever people have forgotten about for long enough that the repost is worth karma. On Hubski, all I have to do to make sure I'm seeing interesting political dialogue is follow a user who seems active, intelligent, and focused on politics! Sure, I'll get some of his other posts as well, but they're more likely to be submissions which I'm interested in rather than what hundreds/thousands/millions of users are interested in. I'm sure that over time some of the more popular users will end up basically being "subs" unto themselves, but the user-follow system is much more likely to please each person individually by avoiding democracy in favor of a sort of information-bubble.
Just today I started following someone (who also now follows me) after we had a long, thorough discussion in which we had a couple disagreements. It was refreshing to be able to have an actual discussion where everyone was happy even if nobody technically "won".
This has been my favorite part of my experience here. I have actually changed my position on some pretty big subjects because of conversations I've had in the past here. I think regardless of what website you're on or even if you're having a conversation in person, the most important thing is to be open to new ideas and open to the possibility of having your ideas change. Too often people associate changing their opinions or ideas with weakness, but nothing could be further from the truth. To be able to say to someone "you know what, you make a good point and you have changed my thinking on this topic", is an amazing thing to say. In that situation you are most certainly the person that has "won". Btw, welcome to Hubski.
I have actually changed my position on some pretty big subjects because of conversations I've had in the past here.
Hi TNG, I noticed an article in the Sunday New York Times in which the writer did not use the Oxford comma. Perhaps the SNYT will only use the comma if necessary for clarity and otherwise not. I continue to study this. (tee hee - I don't want to be rigid about my fondness for certain punctuation, certain preferences and certain dictators.
On the second point, I actually think this method of new content discovery is superior than seeking out new subjects to look up. More serendipitous, exposes you to more new topics, and does so at a higher level of quality as long as you're following generally quality posters.to make sure I'm seeing interesting political dialogue is follow a user who seems active, intelligent, and focused on politics! Sure, I'll get some of his other posts as well, but they're more likely to be submissions which I'm interested in rather than what hundreds/thousands/millions of users are interested in.
For all you new users, I say give it a week. You are fresh off the boat and want you subreddits. We understand. But give the way Hubski is set up a good long shot bc it works well. Trust me. I've been stuck over here for almost a year. The first thing I did was follow tags as well. But once you start getting used to the idea of following people and recognizing everyone's unique personality, you'll forgot you even made this request.
This really sounds like a pretty sweet idea, and it excites me that this system does exits here. However, I'm curious what will happen if/when the population of this site starts to grow. I don't know if a system based off recognizable individuals will endure a large user base.
Twitter seems to do fine with a huge population. You find your niche, I suppose. Like thenewgreen and mk have said, hubski is always open to ideas and discussions as the site grows and the population grows. I think that there will be challenges but as long as the community continues to offer intelligent insights, it should be alright.
And therein lies the (perceived) problem: not that you want good parts of reddit to be implemented here, but that you say that they should translate over. hubski has become a replacement reddit for a good many people since the TheoryOfReddit post it would seem, including myself. However, it is not a copy, nor is it intended to function purely as such a replacement. Translate over implies that replacing reddit is hubski's only function, when it clearly is more than that. Basically, I think that sometimes people overreact, but I can easily see where they're coming from, and it's not an unreasonable place.
A good idea is a good idea and if we feel it serves the vision for Hubski, then it will be seriously considered and likely implemented no matter where it was sourced from. I think once you are here for a bit you will see that we are very open to suggestions and glad to receive them. I do think insomniasexx makes a good point though, test drive the site for a bit and see what you think. Thanks for your feedback
Yes. Thanks tng. It's early so I apologize if it comes off as harsh or unfriendly or unwelcoming. That wasn't my intention. I hope you all stick around and see the major advantages of the system that is in place. If you are curious, go back through all the bugski tags and see the discussions and suggestions that have come and gone and been implemented. It really is remarkable how many changes and discussions have happened.
I agree that there are a surprising number of steps to reach the feeds for a specific hashtag. I like how Tumblr has their system set up. When you go to the search box on tumblr, a drop down menu of your followed tags with new posts pops up and if you click on them they go right to that tag's feed. Also, at the bottom of the drop down menu is an "Explore more tags" link that might be helpful for people to discover new tags they might not realize to search for.
possessedcow recently made a suggestion that typing #science into the search bar would take you directly to the page of all #science posts. I like the simplicity of that approach. I'm not opposed to a one-click option to bring up your followed tags. Currently it is two clicks: click on your name, then click on 'followed tags'. Perhaps something like rorifer suggests, when you type # into the search bar, it could drop down a list of your followed tags.
I think that you need to encourage more people to move away from thinking this as a Reddit clone. Tags are basically subreddits, and are doomed to run into the same problems. It seems like the user-follow feature is way more interesting and deep than the subject-following feature. I would do everything I could to encourage following users over following tags- but I think you already know that. It would be great if you could make your own groups of people you're following. For instance, I could look at my followees (who I'm following) and create X number of categories (say a dozen per user) and sort my followees into those categories. Then if I want to filter by my own categories, I can see the users I follow for their programming acumen, humor, writing quality, or what have you. Whatever actually drew me to the user in the first place. Also, while I'm replying to you, has anyone mentioned yet that it's very hard to read the dark blue text when you're following someone but they're not following you? I imagine you don't see a lot of people not following you, so it might not seem like much of an issue, but for me, at least, I have to highlight the user name to be sure of who I'm looking at.
This is a very good point. Tags are good for content discovery. They are bad for feed-building. That's one reason why I am ok about improving the tag-related search functionality, but not so keen on making a list front and center. Currently a lot of suggestions are coming from people that haven't used the site for more than a day or two. I am taking that into consideration. But, I appreciate the voice of caution. As for the dark blue... c'mon you just joined! Just kidding. I could probably make it a bit lighter and yet keep it distinct. You aren't the only one to comment on it. It's much easier to read in the other three Hubski styles.Tags are basically subreddits, and are doomed to run into the same problems. Encourage following users over following tags.
Haha! I know I just joined, but I always find that the longer I use something the more numb I become to those little irking details. I'm sure in a few months/weeks I won't even think about the color and if someone asks me about it I'll say, "Pshaw! It's perfect and you're the faulty one! Besides, quit reading over my shoulder!" But that guy's a jerk anyways, so don't worry what I say to him. I also edited that comment- I don't wanna sound like an entitled/know-it-all whiner after just 1 day here. I really think that hubski is a great idea, and I'm excited to use it daily or more often!
I will and am, but I'm pretty sure mk has a better grasp on things and is more popular/influential than I am. Also he can edit the FAQ
I understand the unwillingness to be seen as a reddit clone, but I think that there's something worthwhile to being able to easily access only one tag. It's not the same as a subreddit. While you get a group of posts tagged with whatever you looked up, they weren't submitted to the same place, they merely had the same tag, or, in some cases, the community assigned it that tag. More importantly, though, is that, every now and again, I want to look through only political submissions, for example. I don't want to have my entire feed be only #politics all the time, but I do want the ability to access single categories at a time. And again, I think that there is a clear difference that sets tagging apart from subreddits: there are no clear 'spaces' for tags, users tag as they please.
If you don't mind constructing the URL yourself you can just manually enter: hubski.com/tag?id=<TAG NAME> <TAG NAME> must be all lower case or it won't return anything. I brought up something slightly similar in my post over here.
I touched upon this in one of my earlier posts, tags should behave not only like a tag but also as a link to the relevant area of interest of a submission. and as rorifer pointed out, an actual menu of followed tags would be good. If I had it my way, I would have hubski use tags like tumblr does.
I like your suggestions, but for now one of the ways I search is by putting this in my URL bar: http://hubski.com/tag?id=TAG So for example, if I want to look at #physics, I just put: http://hubski.com/tag?id=physics