Our highest priority isn't money...or even growth. It's to give people a place online where they can escape the vitriol of comment sections, the low-fi content overwhelming reddit, and engage in thoughtful and civil discussions. The team has tentative plans for revenue streams but they aren't a priority right now. We all have "real" jobs and this is our project and passion. Making money isn't a passion, FYI.
From Neil Gaiman's commencement speech. The motivation to start something good should never be the money.I don't know that it's an issue for anybody but me, but it's true that nothing I did where the only reason for doing it was the money was ever worth it, except as bitter experience. Usually I didn't wind up getting the money, either. The things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I've never regretted the time I spent on any of them.
I think there is a donate button hidden somewhere after one of the links on the bottom of the page. I think. I know there used to be anyway. Think of it as a game, -needle in the haystack or an easter egg hunt. The donate button may also be an urban legend.
I totally figured it out! You have to get to a 404 page, when then redirects you to a game of Zork. You must play through the game, without losing once. Upon victory, a donate button will appear allowing you to donate $0.01 once. To donate more you need to repeat the process.
I used to find the StraightDope forums a great place for that, but then they went paid, and even though I subscribed, it kind of killed them, for me anyway. Your vision for Hubski sounds exactly like Reddit seemed when I first found it, in the days - yes, they existed! - when even /r/atheism included thoughtful and civil discussion. Let's hope it succeeds.
quality in subs like /r/atheism is a dream long dead :( It's been hardly a week i'm on hubski and after spending some time here, I cringe goingback to /r/all. I dont mind hearing news a little late here on hubski (though this surely change as the community grows) if it means filtering out all the bullshit on reddit. I fuckin love this community. And that's what shapes the site. I frequent #Music and it's incredible. I post unpopular, never-heard-of recordings and performances and I get insightful comments like 4 days later! If you dont get upvoted in the first 5 minutes on reddit you're buried. I really, really hope this place stays pure.