It's not a point lost on me. One could look at the Wall Street Journal [print] and make very viable criticisms about its UI. The WSJ could be much more 'user-friendly'. However, the WSJ's design is intrinsic to the service it provides. (Actually, I think the WSJ has slipped a bit here.) But the point is, Hubski needn't be user-friendly to Middle School students in order to be successful. IMHO the possibilities of aggregation have are even greater when geared towards a more intellectual audience. I've said it elsewhere, but People Magazine is not an argument for why the New Yorker should be more like People Magazine. The analogy isn't perfect, but we do have a compass for this journey we are on.
You know, I don't think that Hubski inclusiveness is an issue. I don't think that it comes off as snobbish or esoteric. The potential for memes and quick laughs are there, it's just that people have other websites for that. I think though, that what could really make Hubski unique (and partly what makes it dear to me now) is concentrating on the comments. I look at Hubski as kind of a localised, interactive TED talk. And you know what? I love that. I love looking at articles, and then being genuinely interested in everyone on this website's take on it. I think that, tag-centric vs. user-centric concerns aside, the mods and users should really focus on making this place about the comments. It's probably easy to overlook the potential of this-- I think that, because so many Hubski users come from Reddit (myself included), there is an emphasis on high-quality content. We tend to focus on the links, maybe because Reddit is focused on the links, or because it's easy to compare Hubski to other aggregate sites. But I think that Hubski's power is in conversation-- our take on things. For every link we click, in the comments, I look forward to a wealth of information. The mods could really capitalize on this. Maybe come up with some etiquette-- links, links everywhere backing up your claims. Loose word count standards, as a courtesy. Widespread academic articles which give us perspective on the latest Slate or CNN article. I said this in my last post: examples of 1st tier comments in each profile, rather than links posted. A user-centric, intellectual, comment-oriented, inclusive environment. I'm with the OP, too. It's evident that they put a lot of work into this place, and care deeply about the community.