This. I'm very new here, but I have studied online conversational spaces. And one of the biggest challenges for Hubski seems to be giving users the sensation that they aren't at a party by themselves. I'm posting this now, but I am quite confident nobody but you will read this -- and if you don't respond, I will be writing into the vacuum that is the internet, so there will be no feedback loop for me. So I think you guys are on the right track as far as indicating the "activity" of a post. But I'm finding it very difficult to create a pleasant community experience here because, as a new user, I constantly feel like I'm in an empty room; my home page is the "feed" which is only populated if I follow people I dont know; the first page on "global" is the newest posts, where nobody has arrived to the party; clicking on "chatter" is just awkward for me because I don't actually know anyone there; and I can't follow tags to populate by feed, which means I can't find people to follow without going to "discover." Anyway, I really want to like hubski and will continue to give it a chance!Also, we are adjusting the algorithm so that it is more reflective of activity than time of post.
If a subject is interesting, why wouldn't it be worth commenting on regardless of when it was posted?
Your feedback is great Alvin and it is much appreciated. The analogy of going to a "party" is a good one. The thing is, just like when at a party, you get more out of it when you walk up to a circle of conversation, introduce yourself and join in. Otherwise, you become a wall-flower and get little out of the experience. Moving forward Hubski needs to have more people at the party and needs to make it easy to find the "circles of conversation".And one of the biggest challenges for Hubski seems to be giving users the sensation that they aren't at a party by themselves.
I agree Alvin, this is an important problem to tackle. Nobody wants to take the time to craft a thoughtful comment/post only to have it gather dust. There are two things that can help with this 1. The "chatter" feed that we recently introduced is something that we have had behind the scenes and have used a lot. It's nice to have and certainly helps stimulate conversations. 2. More users. -We're working on this.clicking on "chatter" is just awkward for me because I don't actually know anyone there;
I think lurkers can have a great experience here, that's not what you were addressing. You seemed to be interested in stimulating conversation. Lurkers by nature aren't interested in that. I know a number of people that use Hubski strictly as content discovery site. They're not much interested in conversing just reading. That's great and I think the "global" links help this out tremendously. You can see posts at every iteration of their evolution and "lurk" accordingly. I love lurkers. Especially lurkers that use the "share" button.
Thanks for the feedback, alvin. Some good points. In many ways, new users deal with a chicken or egg problem. It's something that we need to improve upon. I am convinced that adding commenting activity to the feed algorithm will help with the empty room feeling. That should be rolled out very soon. Definitely feel free to send feedback and suggestions as you spend a bit more time feeling things out.
Our primary goal is to support/promote good conversations on a diverse variety of topics. We want the user to be able to customize their own Hubski experience while keeping the signal to noise high. The direction we take is mostly informed by our own use of the site, and from feedback from others in the community.