Apologies if this counts as spam.
Already Mark had set up Hubski without any “down votes”. Using the Hubwheel as a voting mechanism got rid of arrows altogether and thereby set up a way of giving only positive reinforcement on the site.
I'm still reading the interview, but this line caught my eye. Over my 516 days here, I've noticed a lot of disagreements -- but sites are also shared because of thoughtful disagreement. People care enough about a post to disagree with it. People very much want to share a post and their disagreement. This is much more sophisticated than up or down votes. .. ok, must read on.
On a personal note, thanks for writing this, I really enjoyed answering your questions. When people ask me what Hubski is all about I think I may start directing them towards this article.Apologies if this counts as spam.
I think we need to make a post on Hubski around this topic. You took the time to interview us and write this, why shouldn't you be able to share it without apology? Personally, I would encourage any hubskier to post their own work, writing, creations, art, music etc.
Thanks. Glad you guys enjoyed the interview process. Interviews certainly turn out better when it happens that way.
Excellent, excellent points -- especially from b_b, I thought, about links being "conversation starters" rather than endpoints. But this takes the cake:
I mean, I'm still laughing.Do you remember the end of the movie Predator? The alien triggers a self destruct mechanism attached to its wrist which has some sort of alien number countdown. I had a day dream that the countdown mechanism on the Predator’s self destruct apparatus looked like our hub-wheel. It was then that I realized it could be used as a device to count/measure and not just as our logo.
Yeah, I guess Predator's not the most poetic of inspirations, but I'll take it where I can.
John McTiernan is a highly underrated director. He's made some groaners, but when he's on his game, he's an efficient genre filmmaker in the old-school tradition.
Here's my second favourite quote from the interview. I just sent the interview to my spousal unit to explain why I have been on the computer more than usual lately (since the influx). The key word in that quote, I think, is "building." -- like building anything, it takes time. Rapport, trust, and "some sort of friendship" are good things to build in little snippets of encouragement, opinion, debate, support, and questioning.Building rapport, trust, and some sort of online friendship is more important to the virtues of the site than having the most efficient way to discover the latest and greatest from around the internet.
"Some sort of friendship" was actually a painful phrase for me to write. Internet friends are qualitatively different than real friends, but they aren't exactly strangers either. I'm unaware of a better term, so I settled for a less than desirable but descriptive phrase that hints at what I mean without really capturing it. Inelegant, imprecise, but hopefully everyone understands nonetheless.
I know - there are friends and "some sort of friendship." Strangely, I dreamed this morning that two of my best real-world friends died. (interpretation anyone?) Anyway, yes - these friendships are qualitatively different for sure...and yet - we can have more rapport often in a text-based relationship - although some of the conversations here indicate that people read the words of others defensively at times rather than empathicly. Recent discussions (I'll tell you where if you haven't seen it) include the phrase "that's not what I said" and "where did you get that? I didn't say that." repeatedly. This "some kind of friendship" reminds me of a very dear friend of mine who was often sick. He'd say to me, "would you still love me if I was just a brain in a jar?" well - it would be "some kind of friendship" for sure.... note: my parents had met briefly at a family wedding in 1946, but actually fell in love through two years of writing letters while my father was in a VA hospital in the US and my mother was in Toronto. I look forward to hearing about the first Hubski wedding. (tee hee) the first baby will be named mk and the second thenewgreen
It's not necessarily spam. I think introspection is a legitimate part of growth and self improvement.
I think a point worth making is that even if cultureramp had written an article about the migratory habits of Canadien Geese and posted it here it wouldn't be spam. There's a user named ScienceNordic that only posts articles to, you guessed it... http://sciencenordic.com/. If I don't like that publication, I can choose to click on his/her name and "ignore" them and their posts will never make my feed. Turns out there's often some good content there so I don't ignore him/her. One major difference between ScienceNordic and cultureramp is that cultureramp further participates by commenting and posting other material. My point is at Hubski we don't have an aversion to people posting there own work. It's actually encouraged, especially if you engage in conversation about your work. Why on earth wouldn't this be permissible? It baffles me that other sites frown on this. So to that end, I look forward to reading more from cultureramp.com especially if it's posted by cultureramp.
I have a confession, I was a column hater. Thanks for listening and thanks for your hard work. Hubski is the cats pajamas.For example, a while back we changed the layout of the site to be a three column format. We thought it looked kind of cool, perhaps reminiscent of a newspaper. Everyone hated it. It took only minutes for the complaints to roll in.