I've been moderating online communities since I ran my first BBS in 1986. Other than my bass guitar forums, Hubski is pretty dang good, as far as treating-other-users-as-humans goes.

But Hubski is also rigorous. There are scientists and experts here that you simply don't see on other general forums.

So fluffy thinking and poor argument structures are called out pretty mercilessly.

If you posted the same thing on Reddit, you'd get 10k upvotes and oodles of "Right on, man!" comments.

But here, there is probably an expert that knows more than you, or someone who is better read than you, or someone who is going to point out your fallacious argument structure. And they are going to correct your mistake(s).

Some people take that input well.

Others don't.

Being a Grumpy Old Man (tm) like I am, I feel like people who grew up online (aka "kids today") are not used to having their shit called out/corrected by someone who is more skilled, knowledgeable, or eloquent with the written word. Not everyone has a facility with the written word, and when you put together deep knowledge with communication skills, loose/fallacious arguments and positions fall to pieces very quickly.

Which should be humbling and educational, but can be taken as an "attack" by the person who put together a shoddily built platform to stand on.

I don't think Hubski is broken or "needs fixing".

An Idea

What if there was an interactive element the poster could choose to add to their posts and comments that was a thermometer at the bottom of the comment/post, say 3 inches wide, that was red on the left, green on the right, a vertical black bar in the middle, and a little ball indicating the current level of "agreement" with the post.

Readers could simply click the red side or the green side to indicate their approval/dislike of a post, and, over time, the "quality" of the post would be shown by its temperature (aka, the position of the little ball indicator in the red or green zone.)

It's not upvote/downvote, because there is no "award" for a greener post than a redder one. It is just a way for the community to express to the poster that their content is valuable or appreciated, or not.

And it is fundamentally different than clicking the hubwheel and sharing a post. You may "green-up" a post, but not share it. Or you may "redden" a post, but still want to share it by clicking the hubwheel.

It's a way for the community to provide simple feedback on specific participation, and might help improve the quality of posts in general, as people are appreciated for writing "greener", more community-productive posts.

It's a thought...