I post once every week or so, but I've only commented a few times. Hubski is really accepting, I mostly don't comment because I feel like I need to say something more insightful than what I have in mind
Yeah. This is me pretty much every time I decide to click reply. Every once and a while something great comes out of my brain and makes up for it though. :P
I know I do, but I also make liberal use of the "edit" feature. What I like best about this place is that it's human. As such, it has pimples and sometimes farts. I mean, if you look at the badges people have given me, you'll see that some are for dumb things that I've said and mistakes that I've made. Anyway, there are a whole lot of examples of comments that were kind of flip or innocuous or banal that have sparked conversations and often, pretty good ones. To me, a willingness to engage in something is a willingness to learn and to try to understand, so I think that people who comment in that spirit really have nothing to worry about.
This is a very troubling sentiment that I see about Hubski a lot. I feel like it's something that lots of people feel here - I feel it every now and then as well.
I wonder how we can fix something like this - I'm worried that we're missing out on lots of good discussion because people are worried that they aren't being "deep/insightful/introspective" enough.
Why is it that troubling? You are forgetting to consider that maybe Demosthenes' assumption about his would-be comments are correct. For instance, every once in a while I consider commenting something like "This", but then I remind myself: that's not enough.
I haven't forgotten, but I think that a lot of the times there is a misconception about what could be considered a thoughtful comment and what couldn't be. I also think that some users might think that because they don't have a paragraph of thought on a subject, they aren't going to be able to contribute, which I think isn't going to be the case.
I think people should contribute, but I am also going to accept their assessment of things. As I think should apply in more places than just Hubski. If you do not think you are good enough to contribute something or attempt something, then fine - don't. The only thing that is holding you back is you. Once you try, you can get an actual metric for whether your attempt was "good enough." But, assuming other people are capable of this line of rationale as well, I say maybe Demosthenes knows what the metric is for conversation in Hubski and so truly is able to measure his would-be comments against the "Hubski standard" (like the gold standard, eh?) and sees that perhaps what he would contribute is somehow "not enough." Although I would hestitate to say that the bar is really very high. I mean, what's the worst case scenario? You bring down the average on Hubski for a bit - that's ok, we'll recover. You make yourself look like an idiot? Bomb the account and start again, no one will ever know. If Demosthenes is incorrect and it's only perhaps his fear holding him back, well - I have little patience for those that allow fear to run their lives. All this being said, Demo, I encourage you to contribute, when you find you have something to say that you think is worth saying. I agree with 8bit - it doesn't have to be a paragraph. You could always try one of our clubs, first, like the book club or the wine club. They are perhaps slightly more casual environments.
Now Demosthenes's comment about not being insightful has spawned some insightful thoughts about what is insightfulness.