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.