I see Hubski as rather analogous to long-form journalism (something which obviously is pretty popular here). It's not often covered by major media outlets (at least, not the types most people tend to read, I think) and it's rarely spread in social media - the way the Reddit community tends to work, as I think we've all seen, is that people will often upvote a submitted title and not read an article, especially if it's particularly long. But, like Hubski, there are still places that longform journalism is really popular, and, interestingly, newer platforms are opening up - in New Zealand, we have the Pantograph Punch, a place for longer articles written by freelancers for the most part, and the writing quality is really good. Medium is getting more and more popular, and while it's not really longform journalism, it's in a similar vein, I think - not quite a blog post, but a similar sort of thing (mostly nonfiction work with personal anecdotes/experiences).
I agree. I think there's a place for more thoughtful content and engagement on the web. People won't always use Hubski for it, by my goal is that I can always use Hubski for it. There is such a prevalence of shallow content on the web, one might think that it is all the web is good for. Part of it is fulfilling a need, but part of it is self-inflicted as publishers seek revenue with a high-thorough-put approach. When I discuss a magazine with a friend, I almost never include the magazine's circulation numbers. I am always talking about the content. Of course, the publishers have those conversations, but on the web, the readers do too. IMO the web rushed as a herd towards one model at the expense of a number of others.