Here are a couple of basic features (I'll leave it to less biased users to sell them): You have three symbols under your name on the upper left: a hubwheel, a badge, and a follower icon, with counts to the right of them. The hubwheel goes around and completes as you use the site, and others appreciate and share your contributions. Every time you complete a hubwheel, you earn a badge that you can award to another user's post or comment. Click 'badges' in the menu on the left to see what has recently been badged by others. The center of the hubwheel turns orange if you have non-dismissed notifications. (once you earn 1 hubwheel, you can also start adding community tags to posts) The badge icon keeps track of how many badges others have given you. The follower icon is pretty self-explanatory. Click the 'markup' link on the top right of a textbox to see how to do text functions like shout outs to other users, like this one to b_b. In general markup requires book-ending text with symbols. Under 'controls', you can switch your hubski style. In addition to dark, you can choose 'snow', 'clean', or 'ugly'. You can also post images in comments.
How long does it usually take to fill your first hubwheel? I've been using the site on a casual level for a bit, I have 95 followers and quite a few submissions, but I've only earned two dots on my hubwheel. Should I try to comment more? I prefer to submit content more than participate in the discussion, I like reading & hearing what other people have to say.
It is more heavily weighted towards discussion than posts. However, just last week we shifted the algorithm a bit more towards posting, because we felt it was too lopsided, so that might speed things up for you. There are some other factors too, but currently nothing that slows the rate. I am sure that the rate will have to be adjusted as activity and usership grows. That said, although the # of followers plays a role, the effect isn't linear.
Currently the only input is time and user appreciation. That could change. If you subscribe primarily to tags, posts could eventually give you a bad experience like you suggest (ignoring some users could help, but eventually it will be a losing battle). A tag is a shared space on Hubski. However, if your content mainly comes by following quality people, you can easily filter your content by the selection of who you follow. I strongly suggest that you follow more people than tags. (It looks like you do). Defnitely unfollow anyone sharing content you don't want. As for comments, that is a shared space. We have some plans for how we will keep comments from being averaged out by the 'wisdon of the masses'. Some functionality regarding that will roll out soon.If popularity of posts/comments/people determine visibility of content, I strongly believe that this site will, one day, rapidly lose quality in content as low effort content that many people find agreeable and familiar, similar to what has happened on reddit.
Syncretics reply is the reason I came here. Anybody?
I must be doing something right because I've been using the site for two days, have 8 followers, and have five dots on my wheel.
Alright, you got me. I joined up. Now off to explore.....
The author can choose one tag. The community (those Hubskiers that have earned one hubwheel) chooses the other. Yes it's crazy, and the merits of tagging is a big source of debate here. :) Hope the other regulars can pick up where I've dropped off; I'm off to sleep!
What exactly are the criteria for "filling" a hubwheel? Is that information a closely gaurded secret, so that spammers cannot use it? I noticed that if I "like" your comment, it increases the number of dots around the wheel asscociated with that comment. Do you simply have to fill that wheel for any comment/post to earn a "badge"? And what do "badges" do? If I earn one, and then award one to someone, what does that do to the post I award the "badge" to? Also, when you give away a "badge," does that take the "badge" away from you and give it to them? Sorry for all the random questions.
I don't believe that getting all the dots around a comment or around a post gets you a badge (although it might figure somehow into mk's secret formula. The dots just let you know that you are appreciated (comments) or shared (posts). A post/comment will only get a badge if someone deeply appreciates it. And what do "badges" do?
You feel smart and appreciated for a few seconds and then get on with your day secretly hoping you can enrich people's lives again someday in the future. It's very unusual, but theadvancedapes was doubly badged recently. He was made king.
Ok, so the dots are just semi-arbitrary indicators of a posts "usefulness/appeal." That's pretty cool!
And also, more importantly, the dots tell you how many times a submission of yours has been shared. If I post something and only my (few) followers see it, but then thenewgreen "upvotes" or shares it, all of his followers will see it on their feed. So if you post something good, it's built into the system that more people will see it -- like reddit. But unlike reddit it's not based on the quantity of people who share your post, it's based on these sharers' quality, as it were. (How many people think they share things worth reading.)
So the value of your shares is based upon the amount which the sharer has, in turn, been shared? That sounds a lot like PageRank, Google's ranking algorithm, which ranks pges based upon the number of relevant inbound links from pages which in turn have a high PageRank. (tip: to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion)
That's an awesome bit of information to know about, and paints a better picture of how hubski works. Thank you for sharing that!
Well said lil. The dots are indicators of a post/comments appeal or usefulness. You can equate it to an "up vote" if that helps. As you receive more of these on your posts/comments your hubwheel beneath your name in the upper left hand corner begins to populate. Once its made a full rotation, you receive a "badge to give". This means that you can "give" a badge to one of your fellow hubskiers in appreciation of a post or comment. You can't see it now, but once you have a badge to give there will be a +! next to each post and comment that you click in order to give the badge. If you are interested in sourcing some cool content from past posts, I recommend clicking on "badges" under the "discover" tab on the left. Let me know if you have any more questions and welcome to Hubski!
Hey I was double badged ages before theadvancedapes! http://hubski.com/pub?id=22781 In fact, my first badge was actually two badges which made every subsequent single badge a disappointment.
LOL! thenewgreen I'm breaking down...I think its time to make those shirts!
Not sure how I missed this. That shirt is hilarious but I still want one that says "I know insomniasexx".
Posts and comments, but not only that. There's a bit of secret sauce in there. :) Yes, the buck stops with me.Does the hubwheel complete on comments and submitted posts? Or only submitted?
Also from what I have seen browsing around you are the owner. Is that correct?
This seems to be a pretty interesting set-up you've got here. It seems you've taken Reddit and improved on the common complaints. I'm going to browse off and on for awhile and see if it sticks. Is this the kind of thing you want the word to spread about? If I like it I may let some of my friends know about hubski.
I was also directed here from Reddit. Just wanted to say this seems like a very nice site, clean layout without clutter. Also, nice tree picture.
mk, what do you think of this idea? The orange hubwheel turns not-orange when you visit notifications (and not just when you dismiss them). If it turns orange again, it means there are new ones. I always dismiss all, because that's the only way to get it to change state on a new notification; but why must it be this way?
Since this is likely to lead to people leaving lots of things in their notification page, you may want to consider a rule like "notifications that have been read disappear after n days". That way, if you dismiss nothing, your notifications page shows you your last week (or month or whatever) of activity.
Is it possible to not receive notifications from comments on threads I've saved that I'm not associated with?
I, too, am brand new here. I've been lurking for about an hour or so now and just made an account. I'm currently on my iPhone though, so navigating is a bit difficult. Any word on when a mobile app is coming out? Thanks for all the tips, by the way! edit: comma
I too am on mobile. All the app would need is a side bar which pulls out and a way to project the pop up buttons.