The people you surround yourself with, the clothing you wear, the art on the walls of your home, the degree to which you are mindful of your thoughts, all of these things reflect the way in which you choose to experience the world.
Where you spend your time online is no different. About six months ago I was spending a good bit of time in a Facebook private group discussing politics. It was a highly conservative group and I noticed more and more that it was becoming racist, sexist and hateful. At first, I attempted to sway peoples opinions and help them recognize how disgusting they were behaving. Eventually though, I had to leave because it was such a negative force in my life. Where we spend our time and who we spend it with can have a tremendous impact.
So, I choose to spend my time here. But just like any place, the look and feel of it can impact us as well. For the last month I have been using the Hubski style "dark," and I've noticed that it has literally effected my experience of Hubski. I have been more cynical on the site and perhaps a bit negative at times too. Today I switched to the Hubski style "spring," which is appropriately named. Everything is green and yellow and already the place feels smurfier.
What Hubski style are you using? Have you ever noticed that changing it up can have an impact on your experience?
Is there anything look/style/function wise that you wish existed on Hubski?
For some reason, your post brought this poem to mind: thenewgreen
In a Dark Time
BY THEODORE ROETHKE
In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood—
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den. What’s madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.
That place among the rocks—is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have. A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is—
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light. Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.
The Hubski team was quite literally just discussing an option to more easily toggle your theme or even possibly having separate themes for different devices (although, we're not entirely sure how viable it would be to implement this at the moment). Would a feature like that be something that you would use? Any recommendations on the most useful place/implementation of this feature? ie: a toggle the footer vs in your settings, etc.
Dude, I fully agree. I'd love to have more options etc. of course it's mk, forwardslash and insomniasexx that have the skillz to make these things happen. I'm ready though. I think having more options would be bad ass. I also think having Hubski more customizable from a URL perspective would be cool. I'd love to be able to write original content under a URL specific to me. For example, tngmusic/Hubski.com or something... Completely a half baked thought so don't judge it as anything else. But yeah, if original/personal content is not a sin perhaps we should do more to foster it within our own gates?
Honestly, as a fairly new user I didn't even know you could change the theme until I saw it on another user's profile (lil's maybe?) under their stats. The default theme is functional, but some of the other options are much better - and there are probably even better styles out there...
Thanks for the feedback, I'm always interested in learning what the new-user experience is like. It's really hard to see the site with fresh eyes when you've been kicking around for as long as I have. By all means, let me know what could be easier, more intuitive etc. Also, if you have any questions etc, you can always PM me.
Oddly enough I much prefer the presence of dark night-mode themes, even in the day when possible. White words on black background makes them stand out more to me, so I'm more inclined to read them. Regarding choosing the online communities I frequent, I very rarely abandon any groups unless they become inactive for a long time. I mostly do a lot of observing of the opinions of the members without actually attempting any kind of persuasion. If I do chime in it's probably because I'm correcting a common inaccuracy that is significantly held by those arguing about the issue.