So we think we know the problem; what's the proposed solution? I came up with a stupid idea that maybe could be toyed with, if for no other reason than to see how it works in reality: You can only see and interact with accounts from people who registered at the same time you did, within a year, perhaps. If you registered three years ago, you can't see anything from people who registered two years or one year ago, though they can see you if they want. This gets rid of reposts and "newbies", because you hang out with a crowd that has seen what you've probably seen and you never have to deal with the rerun syndrome. Do you really need to interact with all 100,000,000 active users of a site? Even the 1,000 active users of a small site? See all the stuff they post? If you really want to see the stuff newbies make, then you can have the option to see all posts from all users and so on. Or maybe if it gets "upvoted" or starred enough you get to see it despite your settings (though you can disable that if you want) so you don't miss out on a newbie who happens to know what he's talking about because he's an expert in the field. Just a thought, perhaps a completely groundless and unexamined thought on a subject I barely understand, but it is what it is. This post I thought of has to go somewhere, so it may as well be here.
But interacting with new people is one of the best things about a decent online community. The problem is that when those new people aren't the ones you interact with, and when they outnumber you ten to one, the community stops attracting interesting new people. The comment _refugee_ linked to is actually part 1 of a trilogy. They're all here.
So we want to interact with new people, but obviously not all new people. There are a lot of new people that make it hard for one to talk to new people one wants to talk about. I guess that even my suggestion that the most upvoted or starred, trusting the community to promote a user who makes a new comment, elevating him/her from the rest of the users, isn't good enough with my idea of separation of account ages. Well, it was an admittedly naive suggestion spurred on by: So then my brain clicked with the age separation idea. In any case. Here: Personally I'm inclined to believe that, unless "new" is meant in "familiarity" and not "new user", those interesting people are still going to big places, but are just drowned out. Coming up with a way to undrown them is perhaps something too complicated for me, but I gave it a shot for whatever it's worth. I'm interested in hearing why you think they wouldn't be attracted to coming to a place with users like that. I can hazard a guess and say it has to do with what you've already said on reddit trilogy, and then the question changes to something more structural and probably out of my league.#askhubski is a miasma of tedium, whereas last year, it wasn't.
and when they outnumber you ten to one, the community stops attracting interesting new people.
Totally worth tryin', yo. Wasn't my intention to jump down your throat. I've just seen the idea played out in /r/ideasfortheadmins since 2008. Here's why I liked the old granularity: "Chatter" allowed me to see what the few people I follow were paying attention to. clicking around through the various "hubwheels" allowed me to see old discussions that had gotten popular, to see who was saying interesting things, and to have conversations I wouldn't otherwise. In other words, i could "sneak up" on a discussion without billowing all 800-whatever followers all over it. You don't get the same visibility anymore.
I always default to using google then Hubski search. It may be a carry over from previous sites with shitty search. Hubski search is fairly good but - site:hubski.com love penis - works too.
To a large extent, I have this going on, except I do add people slowly. It has worked well for me. I've also stopped adding people based on the links they submit, but almost exclusively on the comments they make that I happen across. That's been working even better for me.You can only see and interact with accounts from people who registered at the same time you did, within a year, perhaps.