Everybody pile on and fix that.
It's a hard time to come to hubski. Usually it's a pretty easy place to dip your toe in a few times, see that a lot of good conversation is going on, make an account, and start building some relations and having conversations. A small group of recent users has decided that because they have been blocked from commenting on less that 5% of posts they should make a spectacle of themselves and disrupt the general discourse and pleasant enjoyment of the site. It's hard to get to know people at a party when the house is on fire. If hubski seems like a place that has potential to any new user they should see what things look like in a week or two when thing have settled down. Every time hubski explodes in self examination (like the twice a year "the redditors are coming" panic) things settle down.
Then again, it seems like lighting the house on fire is a good way to force a few lurkers out of the shadows. I've been watching what gets posted and discussed on a handful of topics that interest me, but I'm still learning how to navigate the site, and figure out who's who. Reddit sort of trains you to talk to the subreddit, whereas here, the only person you're really talking to is the person you're replying to, and whoever else may be reading.
Oh, the lurkers lurk because they want to (or it seemed that way in a thread I can't find at the moment). Anyway, I wish there were something in the "create account" process that reminds users: Please, don't reddit on hubski. Also, no one knows how to navigate the site because it's always changing.
god damn it dude, I've been trying to tell everybody this and its still not clicking. I'm the second highest commenter on this site cause I get bored as fuck at work and there are things here that make me want to say words at them. I promise you, 99% of everything I comment has absolutely no value, and its the reason i was pro-muting in the mute arguments cause I would put it past nobody to mute me. When I joined Hubski I got super interested and into it, then I got waaay intimidated and ended up "quitting." Then an awesome Hubsquad member pm'd me asking what's up, what happened and to come back. Then I did and realized that I'm taking this way to seriouslyyyyy. We're a bunch of guys with words and fingers and sometimes we use one to deliver the other, so do you. If you got something to post post it, if you got nothing to post post about that too, who cares. Just enjoy it!
Yeah, I get that. And thanks for putting this out there. It may not be a big problem here since there are nifty features like muting and filtering available, but I do still think there is a lot value in lurking a bit first to get an idea of what's already there. Seems a bit like streaking through an unfamiliar neighborhood otherwise..
Or perhaps more importantly, the value of any comment is dependent on its context and that perfectly valueless things gain immensely depending on what they engender. The phrase is "cheaper than dirt" right? Yet without dirt there are no rose gardens. Treasure night soil as if it were gold. - Chinese proverb
Or occasionally, the lurkers lurk because a poweruser on the site has blocked them which means that it is hard for them to comment on things.
Either take your lumps as a sign you need to lurk more, or if you have such a valuable contribution, post it yourself. I'll read it and share it too if it's worthwhile. That's just how it works. Hard to start out, but if people who value your contributions follow you, it won't matter who mutes you.
If a poweruser has blocked you, using kleinbl00 as an example simply because I don't have time to do math on someone else, that means you can't comment on (on average) about two posts a day, which at best represent less than 5% of all posts. That does not mean it is hard to comment on Hubski in general at all in any way.
Hear hear. I wish I could mute all this nonsense wasting the top spots of my feed. I'm all for friendly discussion but this horse is turning to glue.
I still really want to know how many people have me on any of the three filters. Not who, just how many. It'd be funny.
Eh, I hope so. As I said before I wouldn't take offense to it, I've got nothing to fret over if someone just wants to tailor the site so they can enjoy it how they like. 'Tis one of the things that makes Hubski unique. Just take it easy braaah
the only person you're really talking to is the person you're replying to, and whoever else may be reading.
Which is often quite a few people. Note the "chatter" link at the top of the page. People often look there to see recent conversations and join in. Others might click the "badge" link to see what some have felt badge-worthy -- although note: it might be ironically badged.
Maybe it's just that I've been around for a little bit, but I've seen what seems like an increase in it and I'm not in favor of it. It's one thing for users to ironically badge things in the spirit of fun (at least I think that's how I got some badges), but using it to spotlight something the badger deems worthy of derision or ridicule seems on the cruel side to me. . . . but let's not have this turn into an "issue" . . . please.
When I see "ironic" badges from other people I mostly just want that shit out of my feed. It's one of those little egotistical poses that makes one feel clever in the moment but is really just annoying to everyone else. As if y'all care about the shitlord randos sniping at my posts. edit: this doesn't mean I'm going to stop, I'm just going to contemptuously judge everyone who does it
Ironic badges slightly bother me because they prevent the "badged" page from truly representing the best content. However, they still represent a "cost" to the user who has badged them so I would hope that it still indicates the comment is worth reading, just perhaps with a different context in mind. I do sometimes badge comments that I find hilarious, especially when out-of-context.
When we first introduced badges, the size if the community was much smaller. Therefore, it took longer to earn a badge as less people were sharing/appreciating your posts and comments. Now, I seem to get a new badge to give every single week. insomniasexx mentioned this in our Monday night team call and I think it's worth exploring slowing it down. It's supposed to be something hard earned and therefore special.
I actually was thinking about that as well on a somewhat related issue. As we gain active users it becomes significantly easier to obtain a full wheel, but after the wheel becomes full it is no longer possible (from the post) to accurately see how valued (or circled) it continues to be. I was wondering if you might be open to considering weighting the circle system as votes accumulate. Or rather if anyone thought this might be a good idea. For example, I think that the first vote a post or comment gets should always yield a circle added to the comment. But what if after that it took, say, 2 additional people to click the post before it earned another circle, or something? I don't think this is an imminent issue but I thought it was interesting. I had also considered how the speed of the site is changing.
It's hard to say what a good system is. Still, the majority of posts and comments get 0 or 1 share or click-of-approval, respectively. Then, out of the blue, something gets 20 shares, or who knows how many confidence clicks. Maybe throttling is the way to go: spoke 1 and 2 take one vote, three and four take two each, and so on. Not sure, but it's worth thinking about.
Another idea, perhaps when the 8 spokes complete the wheel in a comment, additional shares would come up as a tiny (+#) for how many upwheels it gets, like a super-superscript of the wheel. So a 12-upwheeled comment would have the fully-spoked circle with a tiny +4 beside it. Just a thought.
Yeah, it's being considered. I think it's more of an issue with comments than posts, currently. I like that I can see every user that has shared a post. But yeah, it's getting to point where we need to examine these things.
I feel like there's a philosophical aspect to ironic badging that I really love. minimum_wage started it and it's feels like this postmodernist degradation of the concept of value. I like it especially because it makes seems like it discourages badging of simple funny comments instead of well thought out quality posts. So either getting a badge means you did really, really well, or did something horrible, and it's a riot. I love it. But yeah let's not have something else for new people who just got here to complain about.
Haven't you heard? They're opening a Hubski Museum of Modern Badges, yeah it's super progressive and ironic, I hear the debut exhibition is a collection of ahametals posts on a canvas. Million dollar price tag, too.
I agree. Also don't think ironic badging should be a thing. I mean users are allowed to badge whatever they want, but it's kind of like the passive aggressive retweet of someone talking smack about you, and letting your followers do the insulting and fighting for you.
re. lil's "chatter" point- this has been my no. 1 tool to get familiar with the voices/online personalities (hopefully close-ish to real-life) of various Hubski users. I still use it all the time. First off, it's a great way to see what subjects people are coalescing around. Second off, if you've shared a post or commented on that post, chatter brings up all comments on that post, whether you follow the users or not. Which has been a great way to broaden the list of people I follow. Generally though, you pay enough attention to chatter, and you start to recognize users just by their voice.
I have only recently started using "chatter" and "global" because I read other users talking about them. I enjoy both. "Chatter" is a good opportunity to walk into a conversation in the middle, usually elicited by a hilarious out-of-context comment or a long, thoughtful one. Instead of exploring "global" more though I may begin exploring "posts with 0 shares" and "posts with 1 share." Global doesn't do exactly what I want it to do, I suspect it is because most of the posts in global show up in my feed already.
I'm pretty sure that simply commenting on a post does not bring comments from non-followed users into your chatter. Maybe it should. if you've shared a post or commented on that post, chatter brings up all comments on that post, whether you follow the users or not.
Hmmm. Good idea. I think that's probably an easy fix, if we ask forwardslash really nicely.
Either commenting or sharing... Or maybe both together? Never really thought about which one did it. Something like that...
There's no tutorial for getting to know people on the first day of school, either, but most people manage all right. And just like a regular friendship it takes a long time and requires effort, which in this instance translates to heavy site usage. It's also perfectly acceptable to use hubski without getting to know anyone. I had intended on that, but it didn't work.
Hi crafty! Definitely check out the primer page if you're new here. I'd also suggest reading some posts and comments aren't related to muting or any other site function, that tends to bring out the worst of us. You can learn a lot by reading the commentary. Hope you stick around!
I do appreciate the warm welcome everyone has extended to me. Like most things, you get back what you put in, and Hubski is no exception. I can imagine it's a bit of hard-mode if you introduce yourself in the wrong way, but a little openness goes a long way.
It's a bit like humans communicating, isn't it? :D
Welcome! Currently steve and I are working on a "welcome" video that should help. In the meantime, check out the Primer Page I know insomniasexx and _refugee_ have curated lists for #newbies that are #newtohubski Feel free to PM me with any questions not addressed here. Cheers!
You mean that gilded reminds you of the badge. :-)
Wow, that is really funny. I honestly had no idea Reddit's silly gold thing was actually (maybe not but they look so similar) modeled on your badges , which do something productive for the quality of the site. Allow me a moment to take my foot out of my mouth here!
Allow me a moment to take my foot out of my mouth here!
-No foot in mouth at all. It could be, and likely is just a coincidence. There have been several such coincidences. It's all good. Without Reddit, Hubski would never have been conceived of, I'm grateful for that site and their contributions to the aggregation space and media in general. They've changed the way media is consumed, no doubt about it. That's powerful stuff. But yeah... we had badges first :)
JakobVirgil you're my heroTO be I think he butled for Chuffy I mean Lord Chuffington when he was trying to get american billionaire to buy Chuffnell Hall
I accept your hero worship but I don't understand the context. Is this one of those hubski time warps?
Thanks for the list! Hubski felt like such a small site when I first found it and was lurking. I'd pretty much just browse a few stories, whatever was at the top of global, and search a handful of tags but now the more I look, the bigger the site becomes.
Yes, that's actually why I've begun using chatter and global, and am starting to consider exploring the Land of Zero Shares (eightbitsamurai can that be added to the map?)
"The Land of Zero Shares is a part of Ignore Isle." "But, you never mentioned it." "Yeah well, that's because people give less of a shit about it than Mute Town and Canada, which is why it wasn't even on the map. But that's because nobody can shut up about Mute Town and Canada is just sort of...there? I dunno, I've never been but I enjoy ragging on it." "I see." "Yeah. What the hell are we doing in this comment section anyways. What the hell are you doing in this comment section? I've got shit to do. Get out."
I've just noticed that the Primer talks about notifications but doesn't tell you where to see them - although I'm sure it's found elsewhere, it could bear repeating here :
If the hubwheel next to your name is orange, it means you have notifications - click it, to see them. If it's blue, then there are notifications you've seen, but not yet dismissed.
Oh haha, well. . . this may come as a bit of blasphemy, but I haven't played Persona 4! In my defense, however, this was one of my favorite games to lay in bed and watch my partner play, so it's definitely on my top list. With a unique visual style, great soundtrack, memorable writing and characters (Kanji and Teddie were my favorites) and fun dungeons, it really has the whole package. As far as which one RPG I would say is my favorite, I'd have to go with FFX. It might be an anathema to purists of the genre, but growing up in a household where my parents felt that kind of thing was unhealthy for the growing mind, it was the first real JPRG I was able to experience so it will always hold a special place for me. I also spent a long time playing FFXI and more recently, FFXIV. There are some incredible psychologically immersive experiences that can come out of MMORPGs. I have to be honest, I also liked the Mass Effect series. It had its flaws, but the worlds and stories were just so detailed and the visual imagery was very satisfying for a sci-fi fan like myself. Outside of those, I love sandbox games; they are my true passion as far as video game genres go. I played every Sim City iteration for literally countless hours, starting at a very young age with the original, through 4, which I still play modded with some irregularity. I love Civilization V, and Minecraft is another game I play with frequency. I'm a moderator on a small whitelisted vanilla server which is fun as a creative outlet for my casual interest in architecture.
I've been playing dozens of hours of Torchlight II recently, and I've been replaying Fable for the first time since it came out. Loads of fun. eightbitsamurai and I both have Torchlight II, you should pick it up and join us for a game if you like dungeon crawlers!
I'll check it out and let you know what I think! Also have to mention to eightbit that I saw his opinions of Shadow of the Colossus, and Kleinbl00, you are so very wrong! Haha, I loved SotC and Ico. I think it's hard to judge and compare video games because they're such a diverse medium. It's like dumping youTube, TV and movies all together into one group and comparing them.
Hahahahahaha, no can of worms here, no sir! And by that I mean, Kb knows he's fucking wrong and to shut up about it or else. Being (slightly) more serious, my ideas of gaming have become very aligned with kleinbl00's as of late. Maybe it's because I'm jaded, or because I want people to take the medium more seriously, but eh. I'm in love with Dark Souls right now, though. You were wearing Soltaire's Armor, with a matching sword and shield. I was stuck in the Undead Parish's church, trying to find my way to the Blacksmith, with a conjurer pestering me and I, low on health, when you showed up. Like it was nothing, you cut the conjurer down and sped us on our way to the top of the tower. As the corpses of skeleton knights tumbled down the stairs while I followed behind you, I thought I was in love. But I wasn't. Not until you turned around, bowed, and gave me a +5 Lightning Longsword with a base damage of 200. We reached the roof, and defeated the two gargoyle statues in less than 15 seconds. And just like that, you disappeared.
I don't know who you were, ANGELOX24, but know that you will be in my heart forever. -Dark Souls Missed Connections But yes, let us do the Torchlight II.I was wearing a reinforced +2 Fang Boar Helm, a Kite Shield, and a Great Axe.
'eyyy guyyyy. :) You'll see some great banter here, just you wait.
flagamuffin, you read Redwall? This is a good, great thing. I loved Brian Jacques, I actually shed a tear when I found out he had passed away. Got to go to a reading of his at our Borders before it closed down - super cool guy.
1. Find a topic you'd like to talk about and either pose a question or contribute to an ongoing discussion 2. Remember that the person you are replying to or who is replying to you is a human being. Try talking to them as one. 3. Recognize that hubski is NOT reddit or any other internet forum. Each place has its own flavor, largely because of the people that comprise it. Preferring one site's culture does not mean that another site should be like any other one's. 4. Recognize that if people are saying that you are being shitty, you are probably being shitty. And yeah, I have to remind myself of this one too.
It's almost as bad as real life, but slightly better than 4chan. Just kidding, this place is great.
insomniasexx veen we've got a new slogan for the stickers.It's almost as bad as real life, but slightly better than 4chan.
I mostly lurk, and I don't feel like I'm afraid of making a comment. But now that I think about it, there have been quite a few times where I've started to reply, then thought "that's stupid" and just deleted the comment. Of course I've been doing that on a lot of sites as of late, so it may not be intimidation from hubski so much as it is me finally realizing I'm stupid.
realizing your ideas are stupid is the first step to having better ideas. Sure, you'll still have stupid ideas, but your filter gets better and you can weed out the real shiners while focusing on the good ones. Don't be afraid to be wrong, just be prepared and excited for someone to correct you, so that you can learn something new.
Just saw this on "another network" but I thought it represented hubski pretty well.
Yep! Click a users name and hit send me. In the recipient box you can include anyone else and make group PM's if you so desire.