Dear friends, acquaintances, and strangers,
I haven't been here for a week or two now; I just can't. It is so difficult and so frustrating to me. I feel this way because I love this place, and I love you people, even the ones who may hate me. I love hubski because it has the nuances of a true community where ideas can be offered and received, and for the most part neither end is done blindly, ignorantly, or in a narrow-minded way. But it's feeling very exhausting to stick around. There has been a lot of conversation and a lot of complaining. I think it's easy to complain, as I am doing now. But I'd like to address some directed towards me recently here, without taking things personally, I'm just making myself clear.
kleinbl00, _refugee_, I feel that posts like my vague questions aren't intended to break ground or create original thought, I am simply offering a prompt, whether its been offered before or not, for people to share, and perhaps offer something for other people to learn from. I want to listen and respond. So, if my question is exactly the same (as it has been) or similar (as it has been) to one from the past, I apologize but it's not like I'm stealing from a previous poster-- it's a discussion, not OC. However, I absolutely agree- and in ignorance did not recognize- that one should absolutely make effort to credit previous posts of a similar nature. But there are things that we can benefit from being asked every single day! I'll be damned if every morning you ask me who i am I won't give you a different answer, ever so slightly. Although I'd probably be really pissed that you're asking me questions like that before i've gotten my coffee. My point is, and I think this will especially fall in line with kleinbl00's frustrations: If you want to make the 'share' more valuable, make the sharers more reliable in taste, and ensure quality in posts-- you need to let it happen. You need to allow a natural growth, flow, and progression (even if it's regression! don't be afraid to step back, we have nowhere to rush!) because there is no fighting father time. the userbase will fluctuate, grow, spill over the top and maybe be too big to control at some point. Good. It might be everything you hate. Good. This is not my Hubski, nor yours, nor ours. It is its own, and it quite surely will develop on its own. Just post what you think is good, and talk about it with others. That's it.
Okay. Necessary disclaimer at this point. I am making no effort to be logical, rational, reasonable, just, fair, or factual, as I believe discussions, shared content and OC should be when appropriate. I'm speaking from impulse, feeling, and emotion. So i could be wrong, and I'm more than willing to be told that. I may be one of the new kids here, but I don't feel i am of the "here's my opinion shut up" hivemind, and to be honest I really don't see it much here at all.
I want to go back to the idea of why I'm sporadically absent. Sure, it's mostly because busy, but that's not what I'm talking about. When I go on Hubski and I see these rich walls of text and mile-long threads on my feed, I'm overjoyed, and hungry for it. But I just feel so tired reading it all. It's often unbearable to type out all the thoughts and reactions to things people contribute. It's often impossible to deal with the rainbow of personality types and mentalities that flow in and out of the community. Hubski is small, but only relative to the websites that are big. Honestly, there are a lot of people here. There is no reason to expect them to be all right, similar, interesting, or attractive. That said, there is no reason to expect them to not be any of these. I don't really know what I'm talking about. As my energy simmers down to a sleepy halt, I think we need to just appreciate everything, even the bad things. And come around once in a while, do what you want, take a break, and come back again. Just loooove, maan..
edit: I'm not offended by people pointing out things about myself and the rest of the community, i guess it sounded that way but im not taknig any of it personally!
This may run counter to some of the other comments in this thread, but at the end of the day, it's just the internet. hubski is just a website, and in my opinion you're absolutely overthinking it. Again, it may be that no one agrees with me here; I'm just telling it like I see it. I love the regular commenters here, but when I joined hubski it was for the articles. I like to read articles on stuff I don't know about. hubski makes this easy and more fun than doing it alone. That's why I'm here. You're here for a different reason, perhaps kleinbl00 is for a third, lil for a fourth. Who cares? hubski's just a place you go, I go, we all go. You might use it partially as a sounding board, insomniasexx might use it to share thoughtful long articles, I might use it to talk music with ButterflyEffect or bfv. Someone else might just post their blog for feedback. None of those things is better or worse than any other. As far as functionality, you tag every one of your posts something specific, right? So no one who can utilize hubski's basic features has a single reason to complain. This last bit isn't remotely intended to be an insult -- but remember the axiom that no one is paying as much attention to you as you are. I think it applies here, in a completely positive sense. You don't have to defend yourself for shit.
yes i agree completely, especially with what you said about Hubski having the tools to make it what you want it to be. I think a lot of the problem that some people are having is that, like pablo said, people in effect treat the site as " MY Hubski," and their concern, i guess, is that eventually all the things and people they don't like will invade their little slice of Hubski that they've apparently claimed ownership of. i think having people who can connect to the site like that is a good thing, but what i don't understand is why this proprietary mindset automatically means a hostility towards new users. Maybe i see things differently as one of the new users, but if a site is designed to expose you to new ideas and information, why would you want to restrict yourself to the same handful of people and thoughts you're already familiar with?
Haven't you heard? Internet is serious business. I ran into flagamuffin on reddit yesterday, and was asked why I hadn't been on hubski recently. The truth of matter is that A) I'm busy and B) hubski doesn't give me what I want. When I cam here I wanted interesting articles that I wouldn't find on my google reader (RIP) but it seems that hubski is just a smaller version of /r/askreddit at times, which induces more signal to noise. I am not sure where I am going with this at this point. All I really want is somewhere on the internet where I can discuss the news of the world in a more intelligent (read less pun filled) way.I love the regular commenters here, but when I joined hubski it was for the articles. I like to read articles on stuff I don't know about.
Block #askhubski and come join me at one of the cool conversations I'm currently a part of -- and that's just this afternoon.
…ain't about you, man. I damn near followed #vaguequestionsbypablo a few times. As far as I'm concerned, that's perfect - you follow it or you don't. A 'vague question by Pablo' doesn't pretend to be anything but. There's nothing pretentious about it. What bugs me is this shit. Trust me - you start linking to 3-year-old blog posts that reflect your lack of knowledge, I'ma ignore it.
haha okay, i got it. I didn't mean to say it's about me, I was just addressing your comments on the repost thread.
I don't understand why your comments are muted for me when I click on that link. I follow you, why would I want your comments to be muted? Is it because the person who posted it muted you? But I still don't understand why that should affect me when I am viewing the post.
Those comments were collapsed, so you could see them. However, we are no longer doing that as of today. I don't know what the best approach is regarding previous comments of a muted user. For example, if someone says some crazy offensive shit on your post, and you mute them, should you be able to affect the comments that induced the mute? I am not sure, But, there must be a better way than hiding them.
i appreciate it, thank you. but i didn't mean to be defending myself, just internal dialogue i guess.
No animosity intended towards you and I hope I made that clear in my post. My post wasn't even meant to be full of animosity really. Just navel-gazing reflections about what's going on as I perceive it in the current state of hubski. I was wondering where you had gone off to.
you were clear, no worries :) definitely a beneficial bit of thought you posted and was a great read. navel-gaze on madame.
It's been my intent from the beginning that people be able to carve out their own niche, and it is clear that many people value your input. #vaguequestionsbypablo has a number of followers, and it is very cool that you've created that specific tag. That is a best use scenario as far as I am concerned. This is correct. Any frustrations that people are feeling about the changing nature of Hubski are ultimately my problem (and the rest of the Hubski team), not yours, and it is right that frustrated users direct them to me. If Hubski 'breaks' because people are using it as they see fit, then I take the blame.This is not my Hubski, nor yours, nor ours. It is its own, and it quite surely will develop on its own. Just post what you think is good, and talk about it with others. That's it.
Wait, but, why take responsibility for the natural development of Hubski? You are a founder, a catalyst just like your founding partners, and at least from my perspective you are a crucial part of the dynamic of things now, but not because you are on the Hubski team. On my feed, you're a user and a contributor just like me. Just a very prolific, intelligent, and powerful one. I don't think you should be taking blame for a failure because you opened the opportunity for success. The only responsibility you have now is your own influence as a user to the dynamic of the community.
No, I am also responsible for the tools that enable people to continue to enjoy Hubski even as it's natural development changes its global profile. The rest of the Hubski team can share the blame too. :) We aren't only responsible for the tools available, but we are responsible for how they are presented, and also what tools are not available. However, I do agree that it is critical that I am also a user experiencing the same problems and trying to address them from an individual perspective. I do that too.The only responsibility you have now is your own influence as a user to the dynamic of the community.
I was just thinking that there's been a lot of discussion and complaints about this stuff when the architecture of Hubski is made so that you can just cut it out if it's annoying to you, so people should do that. The fact that this is becoming a hot topic seems to suggest that Hubski is growing to a point where people will actually start to use this feature and create their own pockets in the community. Interesting stage in its evolution, right?
I'm worried by this system, and will make a post about it later. I don't know if a userbase built on knowledge and communication should have hidden pockets of knowledge and communication that people can't access if they're unaware of it.
Well, it's an opt-out system, so if people use it they know they're cutting out certain things from their feed. And if people don't use it then they're limited to seeing everything that shows up on the site. What if I don't care about football and there's an influx of football discussion popping up all over? I can either like Hubski less or just cut out the tags and/or people that annoy me. I can save myself from the changing character of the Hubski user-base. Every large site needs some kind of segmentation. It's inevitable that this kind of thing will happen.
But what if something truly amazing happens and you miss it? Ok, i can certainly understand niche things like football, even art and music arguably. But isn't unfollowing #hubski or #askhubski, because something pissed you off, like turning your back on the whole community?
I unfollowed #askhubski, but I still check it out. Since unfollowing I've checked it out at least once a day. And, on top of that, just because I've unfollowed doesn't mean it shows up in my feed: now it only shows up in my feed if posted or shared by someone who I follow (which, admittedly, limits it pretty severely). I guess muting/ignoring would be a different step. Clearly I haven't explored these options enough to even know the difference between the two though. I am loath to use both.
If someone pisses you off, you just ignore them specifically. You're not going to be able to avoid missing things that happen outside your selection of followed items. Some people really really don't want to miss out on stuff that happens in sites like this. I'm not one of them--it's madness to me. No one expects you to see every little thing on here. Who has time for that? And there's a variety of ways to catch things you might miss now: the Hubski newsletter, the bestof thing that is starting to take off, the fact that you can browse by number of spokes on the wheel, etc. So if someone wants to catch it all, then they simply don't use the blocking features. If people don't then it's not hurting anyone.
I see what you mean by tired. Midless browsing is easy. Hubski takes up a lot more brain energy. Thinking, reading long articles, trying to write out thoughtful responses as opposed to mindless comments... yes it's exhausting but very worthwhile :) ps: we joined hubski at around the same time, but just wanted to say you have cool questions.
Agreed. and thats awesome to hear, thanks :) I've gotta say i see your comments relatively rarely but im always excited to read what you have to say. If only I was enthusiastic enough to take up your prompt to talk about my ex :D