Check out the global posts, which are the hub-wheels to the right of "community" in the top bar. There you might find some users that interest you. Also, you can search tags. For example, lets say you are interested in "space". Go to the search bar and type in #space and you'll get the most recent submissions. There you could find some like minded people to follow. Also, go to "badges" and check out the users that other hubskiers have "badged". This tends to be a pretty great group of content and users. You can also follow tags which will bring some people to your feed that might interest you. So, there are ways to use hubski to get introduced to people but they aren't the most obvious. We need to change that. Hope this helps. Thanks for the post fuffle.You're given a small list of people to follow when you first jump on (presumably mods, right?)
-Actually no, those are just random users based on being recently active on site. It's not terribly sophisticated. You are definitely right to mention that "finding" users to follow isn't as intuitive as it should be. This will be a major focus moving forward. Currently, b_b and I are going to be watching (in person) some people use the site for the first time and take notes on what is and isn't working. Any thoughts from you or anyone else is very helpful.
Hey so is there any plan in the future to create a "you might also like to follow..." list? Even without it it might be nice to see a list of people who have also shared stuff you have shared. Though I also fear that creating tools like this leads people to building a stronger bubble (not that this necessarily a bad thing I guess).
We've discussed the recommendations in the past and it's definitely something we've been keen on. I think it would be cool to answer some questions after you sign up about what interests you and then be given a list of users and tags to potentially follow. -I mean, if dating sites can connect two like minded people, why couldn't we? But this is just me shooting off the cuff, we've not discussed it that seriously. It's on the list. It's a big challenge, an exciting one.
Thanks for the clarification. I can't yet tell whether the less intuitive aspects of Hubski (such as the process used to find and follow users and tags) are a hindrance or a boon to the overall experience. On one hand, the sharper learning curve takes a little more investment, and may turn off some potential users. This is clearly an issue if you guys are looking to increase user base. To somebody who's completely into community engagement/discussion but less versed in new media, Hubski might look a little daunting/inscrutable. If I haven't demonstrated it already, I'm toeing that line- grew up, more or less, with the internet and online social media, but my grasp of online systems/infrastructure is basic. And so something like Hubski is a little harder to navigate for me, although still worth it. On the other hand, that learning curve might still mean good things for the community. For better or worse, barriers to entry can help reinforce quality. Experiences on other sites have by and large led me to the conclusion that larger sample sizes bring with them an appeal to lowest common denominator. To a certain extent, Hubski's UI anticipates this, and allows users to ignore unwanted contributors/shape their own communities regardless of larger traffic patterns. But still, I could foresee a time when the influx of new users makes the flow of lower effort/shoddier content posts unmanageable, and the pathway to high quality posts less navigable. Unless Hubski's interface holds on to those very elements that only become useable after some exploration/jiggering. Maybe to some extent the whole point of the current UI is to limit low-effort participation. It's a tricky balance for those who run Hubski, who probably want to encourage high-quality interaction but, for obvious reasons, still might want to direct/maintain as much traffic as possible onto the site.
Good points. We are definitely mindful of not making hubski too simple. The learning curve has served us well but we know it could function better and are always working towards a fine balance. We recently had a large number of users come over for the first time around the end of December. For a few days we were getting thousands of more visitors than normal. While this was occurring the overall posts jumped and in some of the threads, the quality of conversations was very low. Funny though, as time passed the people making the low quality comments either left the site, presumably bored, or they began changing the quality of their interaction. There are users that I "ignored" from those days in December that I now follow. -It has been interesting to witness.