Hi there! I am a student researcher at the University of Michigan who is currently studying online communities. This week are discussion forums and I chose you guys! I've only been on the site a couple of days now, but I feel like this may be a community I stick with long after my class is finished.
In regards to my research, I was wondering if any of you could tell me what some of the contributions users can make and how they are incentivized to interact with/contribute to the community?
Also, if anyone happens to know what the total population on the website is and the total active population that would be lovely!
Thank you so much! I'm excited!
Madi
Total population: 6. It's me and five of my closest friends... and the rest of these "users" are just puppet accounts to serve our click-baiting, ad-wording, web-crawling overlords. We sit in a coffee shop in Tampa and throw yesterday's bagels at one another when we're not frantically typing away. Incentives? We get rich, rich RICH from all of the ad revenue that pours in. We're working on a farmville integration tonight (if mk's mom will let him stay out after 7. He got grounded last week for not emptying the dishwasher.) It's tough to get around sometimes, but this coffee shop is just down the block from our neighborhood, so it's cool. kleinbl00 is the only one with a driver's license, but thenewgreen has a tandem bike when we need to get places. And don't believe that cgod guy... he just watches Florence (the lady behind the counter) and makes up shit about opening his own coffee shop in Seattle or something... and whatever you do, run for the hills if lil starts chatting you up. She'll try to convince you that poetry matters in the modern world... and also grammar and sentence structure is supposed to be important because she gives me crap about my run-on sentences and makes sure to correct our splelling all the time when we don't even ask her too but it's cool because even though she loves Tampa she pretends to also be Canadian. so yah... welcome to hubski. Too bad you're from Michigan. We make fun of Michigan a lot around here. Some of these people even pretend to live there or be from there or something.
So many errors in stevie's rant. - She'll try to convince you that poetry matters in the modern world um, no, only that it matters to me and _refugee_ - because even though she loves Tampa she pretends to also be Canadian. Key West, dammit, Key West - which is NOT in Florida. It's a republic, cut off from the mainland. Giggles: Lil 1 Steve 1
Key West and Tampa are definitely two very different places. I've only been to Tampa, but if Key West is half as cool as I've been told it is, it's NO Tampa.
Haha thank you for the response, Steve. This definitely gives me a better sense of just how close-knit Hubski is :) Too bad you're in Florida with all those mosquitoes and "Florida Men" headlines. Sounds crazy down there!
is it weird that I feel closer to many of the people on Hubski (some of whom I've never met in meatspace) than some of my "friends" on Facebook? Close-nit? you betcha. Now don't get me wrong, we have words once in a while... but usually in a civil manner and almost always with the greater good in mind. I vote you interview the hubski founders for your project (when they're in town). Since the founders are from there... there are several of us also from there... but truthfully, we are in the minority. There are users from all over the world. It's crazy. And hey... I've been around the block... there are a LOT of places worse than Howell, Michigan (and Brighton too TNG...). The Mitten is a wonderful place (to visit).We make fun of Michigan a lot around here.
I think it's a matter of honesty. I bet you're more your authentic self with us here on Hubski than you are on Facebook.is it weird that I feel closer to many of the people on Hubski (some of whom I've never met in meatspace) than some of my "friends" on Facebook?
I'm spending the night in the airport. I have to go through US immigration in YYZ. Flight leaves at 6:05 a.m. so I have to be at the airport at 4:00 a.m. I teach until 9:00 p.m. in the airport city where I don't live. I'll drink with buddies till the wee hours and take the new downtown-airport express train and somehow stumble through security. Might get stopped at immigration though - I'd better hide my hijab. If there's decent wi-fi at the airport (can't remember) I'll check IRC. ThatFanficGuy is probably awake in Russia.
Pulling an all-nighter? Right on. If I don't have my sleep schedule back in order by then, I may pop in IRC. Oddly enough, TPA's head honcho is a childhood family friend. He spoke to my pops saying he was heading to the White House this week (or last?) since Trump was calling in major airport exec's to figure out some plan about immigration security given the courts decision. I think you're in the clear until it's sorted out. Wear it loud and proud.Might get stopped at immigration though - I'd better hide my hijab.
LOL. I figured if I stayed in long enough that I'd catch you. For some reason I didn't connect my other monitor to keep IRC open, then closed my browser altogether in order to study. Its the little things, I guess. Will be sure to pop in tomorrow night for sure.
Mind you, it's been recently established that the real bad guys are coming from Canada, not Mexico.
That really is hot off the press. I was searching through to read the FBI report itself. Just realized it'd make sense not to release the full thing. Interesting to read that the FBI is "Trumpland" and they find Trump is looking the wrong way. Anywho, maybe hiding it's a good idea.
Hi Madi- Welcome to Hubski! Truth be told - this place is awesome. You can ignore the above comment… I’m at work and in a weird mood… Wow… people write poetry. People read poetry. People post music. People post films. People post about politics (a lot more lately). People post desperate pleas for help. People post projects they’re working on. I’m glad kantos plunged the “Original Content isn’t a Sin” post. I think that’s is a good segue to your next question… I feel like the same incentives exist here as exist in real social situations. To share, to learn, to love, to be loved, to laugh, etc. There’s no money here. I suppose people could come here to get attention or admiration… but that’s like real life too. And some of us just come here to crack jokes and chew gum... AND I'M ALL OUT OF GUM! I hope you’ll kick the tires a bit after your research is complete. And invite your friends. It’s a great place for thoughtful conversation.I was wondering if any of you could tell me what some of the contributions users can make
how they are incentivized to interact with/contribute to the community?
Oh yeah, Madi, you should probably know (for the sake of your report) that Hubski was/is founded in Ann Arbor.We make fun of Michigan a lot around here. Some of these people even pretend to live there or be from there or something.
Thanks! I saw that on your Wikipedia page! Pretty sweet that a couple of A2 natives created this site!
Ann Arbor, much like Hubski, is the best. Hope you're enjoying your studies there. Are you from MI originally?
I can absolutely agree with you on that -- Ann Arbor is the best. I'm loving it here. Yeah, I'm from Howell, MI, about 40 minutes north of here. Glad to be outta there.
LOL. I grew up in Brighton MI. You guys were our rivals when I was in high school. I can understand you being glad to be out of there, I was all too glad to get the heck out of Brighton too. Best of luck with your studies. Feel free to PM me or reach out to me if you need anything further for this paper. I think you can tell a lot about the intentions of anything by looking at it's foundation:
Can't lie that I still feel that burning rivalry every time I hear about Brighton ;) All in good fun, of course. And, let's be honest, Brighton was way better than Howell (maybe not at football... lol). Come on, Brighton has MJR and Target! Spent most of my days across the way haha. Thanks!
Welcome Madi! If you haven't read it already, check the About page and the Hubski Primer, they are a good place to start. The backbone of the site is similar to Hacker News but with many features added to improve the sense of community. Perhaps it's also interesting to compare and contrast. In theory, any user can make any kind of contribution they want. In practice, the mechanics of the site are such that interesting links, texts or images by users that have more than a few followers get most of the interactions and attention. The site revolves around sharing the things you read on the Web with the people that follow you on Hubski. Those people then share your post with the people who follow them, who might also share it with whomever follows them, etcetera. Both posts and comments work like this; shared posts appear in your feed, shared comments in your chatter. This post of mine from a long time ago might be interesting, it's one in a string of meta-discussions about hubski. That post and the one linked to have a lot of ideas and thoughts about how online communities should be organised. No shortage of research material, that's for sure. :) While I can't put a number to it, I'm pretty sure that the actively-engaged group of people here is no more than a few dozen. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of people who just read hubski without interacting, having articles and comments all neatly on one page lends itself to lurking quite well (as opposed to message boards, for example).
Thank you so much!! The mechanics of the site can be a little overwhelming at first, but this really clears up any remaining questions regarding how to use the site.
Hi Madi, and welcome to Hubski. For me, Hubski is the last place you can have a full-throated conversation on the internet without it devolving into calling people Nazis, or trolls railroading conversations just for the sport of it. Part of the reason is the self-moderating nature of the community. It took me a long time to understand exactly how it all worked, but basically each member of the community is empowered to see exactly who and what they are interested in, and filter out the rest. It is subtly different than Reddit in design, but creates a much better environment for actual conversation, and resists "gaming the system" much better than Reddit does. Ask questions. Everyone here is fun and helpful (except steve of course), and we are quite proud of our little corner of the internet.
Madi, Thanks for choosing Hubski as your topic for the paper. We have a small community, with somewhere around 20-30k singed up users. Honestly, we care so little about those numbers (that's what happens when you don't monetize your users) that we don't really check them that often. We go through spurts of active users in the thousands to our normal amount in the hundreds. Many of our users are very familiar with one another, having had discussions with each other for years now. Some of us have met in person #hubskimeetup and we get to know each other through the site in passive ways and more overt ones: #meethubski. In short, Hubski is less an online forum to many of us as it is a "place." It's a place where you can see some familiar "faces," and have conversations with interesting people from all over the globe. We work on art projects together, we debate topics like science and politics and we laugh and even cry together. We genuinely care about one another. It's pretty rad. Welcome! You can learn more about our intentions here: https://hubski.com/purpose Be well! -tng
Hello Madi and welcome to Hubski! Is it safe to assume 'contributions' is a general term or are you looking for something more specific? For example, contributions in so far as posts, donations, and original content, or just posts (or donations, or original content). I could be out of the loop on the numbers you are asking for, but I think a PM to mk or rob05c could do the trick? For miscellaneous stats and goodies, you can click the "tmi" link at the very bottom of the page.
Hi there! Yes, I mean contributions as a general term meaning any type of contributions a user can make on the site :)
So, mid-way through typing my reply I remembered this: That should get most of your question, but I am also assuming you'd want more than one data point. So, I'll leave my reply below still. Thanks for the clarification. I don't know if you've ventured through the primer, but that's usually a great start to understand the fundamentals. The primer mentions how users follow users as well as tags. That's the basis I'd answer your question with. Whether as an outlet or otherwise, Hubski is used as a medium to share news, information, art, technology, life-updates, troubles and more - similar to other social aggregators. The structure and size of Hubski is what makes for a more intimate experience. That is, through following users as well as tags, usernames aren't just that. On the assumption you follow tags because of your interests, the same logic holds for following users; you have shared interests with users you follow and users following you. Building some sort of online relationship(s) on one-to-one levels a relatively small community makes for a comfortable place to share material... alongside the community being encouraging of original content and thoughtful input. I get the feeling it's a bit more civilized and/or composed than your everyday big internet forum. Incentives? Keeping up with the people you follow, finding and discussing news or ideas of interest. Also, regular posts like #pubski (happening tomorrow, so stick around for it), or francopoli's Today in History, or bfv's weekly music thread, or zebra2's reading thread. They are communal 'events' put on by the community for meaningful discourse. I guess my point is the goal is the same: a place to commune on the Internet for a thoughtful web. cheesy grinI was wondering if any of you could tell me what some of the contributions users can make and how they are incentivized to interact with/contribute to the community?
Thank you so much for putting time and effort into your response, I appreciate it a lot! A lot of what you told me about the community at large I had already started to get the feel for, especially the aspect of being close-knit and small. I look forward to exploring the site and community more!
Of course. :) Responses with time and effort put into then are a feature of the culture here. Personally, that's what keeps me coming back. As another user put it (at least, how I crudely remember it), people take the time and effort to read posts, comments, and sources before responding here. Now that some people are starting their lunch breaks around your time zone it seems you're getting a lot more traffic. It's a lot, and a warm welcome. Enjoy your stay, and again, come around for Pubski tomorrow!