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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  3915 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Humanizing Hubski

Just so you know, in the weekly Hubski calls I'm the one suggesting functionality that is opt out. It's almost always mk suggesting otherwise. He's got a great feel for what should and should not be opt in/out. For example, when a new user signs up they are no longer automatically getting email alerts for each comment their post receives. I initially (until this past Monday) thought this was a horrendous idea, but mk wanted it to be an "opt in" functionality. Turns out he's on to something. It seems users return back to Hubski more often to check on the status of a post/comment if they do not receive notification. Otherwise, they passively await a reply from the site. -I never realized this.

I hear veen in regards to wanting some way to visually attach a face with the name because I am the exact same way. If I wasn't partners in Hubski with forwardslash and by this point buddies with flagamuffin I would likely confuse the two all the time -visually. Same was true with ButterflyEffect and BrainBurner at first. Eventually I was able to distinguish as I became familiar with them but nowhere near as fast as I would have if there was some visual cue.

But, I don't see a good option for visual cue's, as much as I'd like to. I do think we could make it more obvious that the profile bio can host images etc.

As a long time user of the site, it's extremely difficult to know what it's like to "first use Hubski." Today, I received the following message from a new user that shall remain anonymous:

    Hi I was just attempting to create a profile - but it doesn't really look like there is much point, it doesn't appear that there is an easy way to access it once created - and yet there is a box for input of personal information. That seems strange. I only caught this note by accident, I'm not used to the meaning behind the icons and their various states. Looks like the place has plenty of room to grow . . .

What does that tell you? What would you take away from that?

Also, I agree with the opt in aspect. I never did before but I'm moving more and more to that side of the fence.

Also Also, I had a really kick ass charcuterie plate tonight with fantastic gin martini in preparation for the next #hubskidrinkclub. -Please excuse any typos. But seriously man... a rabbit confit that was amazing.





kleinbl00  ·  3915 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Full disclosure - I'm only opining here 'cuz I got shouted out. By and large, the functionality is great right now. I was starting to think it was about time to talk about tag thesauri but then I poked around and realized that really, the system is pretty much working exactly as designed right now.

tell you what. I'm going to log out, make a new account and see what I see. It was useful to do that on Reddit - HOLY SHIT you can't accomplish anything with a new account. Standby.

Also_kleinbl00  ·  3915 days ago  ·  link  ·  

'k. So what I learned is that:

A) The tutorial works really well. As in, it's really slick. Mad props on that.

B) The site design clearly shows an interest in clean, minimalist programming that rewards paying attention.

C) The markup should be WYSIWYG - "bolded" should read "bolded", "italicized" should read "italicized" etc.

D) Fuck yeah. Blank page. I've been asking for that on Reddit instead of /r/here's a bunch of shit you should read because that's what everybody else does.

E) I really should stop ignoring minimum_wage. His "about me" image is fucking hilarious.

F) The second-least heinous layout is "ugly." Fer real, guys - why do you hate contrast so much?

All in all, I have no meaningless criticism. The fact that my "settings" page allows me to talk about myself but doesn't demand I do so seems pretty much perfect.

mk  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm very happy to hear D. There's been an ongoing debate on the Hubski team about it. Score 1 point for b_b and mk.

I am definitely of the opinion that not all thresholds should be lowered, for entry or even enjoyment of the site.

Re: F, Dark got a bit darker today.

Meriadoc  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ha! I'm not insane! It is darker!

mk  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

One doesn't exclude the other.

Meriadoc  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My head says you're right, but the voices say you're wrong.

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I actually noticed it once you pointed it out. We haven't even made it to "wet asphalt" though. We're still somewhere between "Arizona freeway" and "aged road tar."

mk  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My god Arizona freeways are so nice and smooth. You should see our roads right now. Driving is a video game and the life bar is your alignment.

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I live in LA, holmes. We got cracks in the sidewalk bigger than 80mm longboard wheels. And that doesn't include the earthquake damage or tree root shit. I oughtta go snap a picture of what the sidewalks look like on the route they took the Endeavor on; half the reason they chopped down the trees is so that they could put in sidewalks with a less-than-2-foot height variation...

mk  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

This is what I'm dealing with:

It's a special kind of sadness when you hit one at 40+ mph and hear a solid CHUNK.

elizabeth  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Reminds me of home. The roads in Quebec are the worst i've seen in North America so far.

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ahhh, the freeze-thaw cycle.

Standby; maybe I'll grab you a shot the next time I get on the longboard.

b_b  ·  3913 days ago  ·  link  ·  

MI is a wonderfully ironic state: A place that only survives on car manufacturing, but that won't under any circumstances submit to a gas tax high enough to maintain places to drives our precious autos. We have one of the worst ratios of maintenance dollars:miles of road of any state; throw in the freeze/thaw thing on top of that and spring is a shitty time to be a tire, axle or tie rod 'round here.

kleinbl00  ·  3913 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I've heard it said that California spends more on BMWs than Germany does. Nonetheless, our roads aren't dissimilar.

b_b  ·  3913 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I've heard it said that California spends more on BMWs than Germany does.

I wouldn't doubt it. It's not just the number, but the level. In MI, a 6 Series will turn heads. In L.A. it's just another obstacle in the road.

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I can tell, actually.

Curious - when you're building these, what choices do you have as far as ornamentation? It looks like you have:

- BG color

- Font

- Font color

- You color

- Following color

- Followed color

How hard would it be for me to have a color picker and a dropdown for font? 'cuz then I'd have "custom" and I might just like that better.

mk  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's mostly the main font and the background, but also the color of some links, textfields, borders, and buttons. Currently each style has its own style sheet. However, it would be worthwhile to have a master stylesheet of the CSS that doesn't change, and individual stylesheets for the custom aspects. If we did that, it would be one big step in the direction of something you are talking about.

insomniasexx is working on a CSS project, which will be done soon. After that, I think we should implement that kind of CSS organization. If we had a handful of customizable aspects, it wouldn't be too difficult to allow for individual customization which would be pretty lightweight.

insomniasexx  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah after I finish this brilliance I think I'm going to redo it and clean it up quite a bit. Maybe even add some comments (SAY WHAAA?!)

This will be especially helpful for setting master fonts, deciding which elements are for look and feel and which are necessary for layout, etc. I'm currently about to start building a new, fully responsive website for my company and so I am finally taking the time to implement perfect, documented, and concise CSS that someone will be able to understand in the future. I hope I can bring all the things I learn during this project to help Hubski's css.

The coolest trick I just learned about is rems. Basically you set html to a font size of 62.5%. Then you define each element as 14px (for ie) and then 1.4rem after it for modern browsers. When you want to up the fonts a bit for mobile, all you have to do is change the single HTML % and the entire font base will increase or decrease! Nifty huh?!

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Depends. Will that make it easier or harder for me to render the whole site in papyrus?

insomniasexx  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well, technically the browser is the one doing the rendering so it'll be about the same. :P

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Liar. I just changed all my fonts to papyrus and nothing happened.

Gonna be fuckin' hilarious when I forget about this and suddenly everything looks like a goddamn Aveda salon.

insomniasexx  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Alright. I did it. Proof.

How to:

1. Install stylebot extension

2. Click the extension icon and then click "styles" on the left hand side.

3. Click "add new style"

4. Type "hubski.com" in the top box (no quotes)

5. Type in the next box.

       body {
       font-family: "Papyrus";
       }
6. Click save.

7. Refresh Hubski.

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hook it up, yo.

_refugee_  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Meaningless criticism -

    it doesn't appear that there is an easy way to access it once created

What did this person even mean? Like there isn't an easy way to access your profile once it is created? Even on Facebook you access your profile by clicking on your username....

thenewgreen  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

C) -Great suggestion D) -That's nice to hear, I was very skeptical about the "blank page" approach. It only works if it's clear to people where to go to find content to fill that page and how to do that. I'm not convinced that this is clear. F) More to come...

I'm now following you Also_kleinbl00 and I expect great things.

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The thing about the blank page is when you first visit Hubski, you get "global." It's pretty obvious there's all sorts of content.

The thing about your userpage when you first log in, you get "nothing." It's pretty obvious that Hubski is not going to push anything at you.

If you had half a clue, you watched the tutorial. If you didn't, it's at the bottom of the page. It doesn't take a lot to switch back to "global" and follow some shit.

That's exactly as it oughtta be.

thenewgreen  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Cool, thanks for the feedback. It's good to know we're in a half way decent spot. Only took 3 years. Now for an API :)

veen  ·  3915 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Full disclosure - I'm only opining here 'cuz I got shouted out.

I specifically shouted out to you because I knew that you're great at spotting the flaws in people's arguments and because you are quite knowledgable about the inner workings of social websites. And also because I remember you mentioning that you're not following #askhubski. I completely agree with what TNG says.

It's not that I don't want to invest here, I do, it's why I spend hours every day here reading and commenting and enjoy doing so. It's that I want to remember all the people I've talked to better. Especially those whom I've had great conversations with a while ago and not so much now, and I don't think hubski facilitates those tapered off relations.

kleinbl00  ·  3914 days ago  ·  link  ·  

And I don't mind. I mean you no criticism. It's clearly a great discussion to have. The fine balance between "reminds you of humans" and "becomes an obligation" is a tricky one to strike.