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comment by mk
mk  ·  4701 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If you could change something about Hubski, what would it be?
Ok, here's mine: I'm thinking about ways to minimize or remove the 'all posts' feed. Obviously, it is useful for discovery, but I think it creates a schizophrenic type of usage. -That is, it waters down the functionality of sharing, and following on the site.

I've been contemplating modifications and options that would reduce it's prominence, but I haven't settled on anything yet. I'm actually considering removing it for a few days, just to get a feel for the site without it.

That said, the usefulness of the all posts page might diminish on its own as activity increases.

There's just something about it that doesn't sit right with me.





sounds_sound  ·  4700 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I can understand your interest in minimizing the 'all posts' feed and it makes sense with what i understand of your philosophy towards the general future of the site. but considering that the 'all posts' page rarely fills up one page of posts per day it seems a little premature. I do use Hubski daily so maybe I'm more aware of the current content than someone who comes on bi-monthly or so. For now, I actually have my Hubski bookmark set to the 'all posts' page automatically. For me, and from what I can tell from some of the more frequent commenters, we seem to be interested in a wide range of subjects (like thenewgreens recent 'assume value in everything' post). if this is a thoughtful web, then the subject is almost subordinate to the content. for example, i would never really seek out articles about genetically modified crops, nor do i plan on subscribing to that topic, but i've read some worth while posts about it simply because they're extremely informative. so for people who like to 'surf' the web when they're bored, the 'all posts' category is just what the doctor ordered.

Now, building off of that, I think it would be interesting if your personal profile page had kind of break down and analysis of the content you most visited. so while i think that i might not like #agriculture that much, as it turns out hubski is telling me that i've read 40 articles in the past three months with that tag then i might have to reconsider my position. similar to the way online banking systems will breakdown how much you spend on a particular thing ie. rent, food, entertainment. so you can say "Holy Shit! I spent $10,000 last year on beer!" Could be interesting.

mk  ·  4691 days ago  ·  link  ·  
FYI, I just added a 'recommended tags' list to your profile page. It's based on those tags that you share the most, but don't follow.

I'm going to do some more work in this direction, but I want to take it stepwise. In the end, I'll probably separate out 'profile preferences' and personal recommendations and analysis into their own pages.

Anyway, thanks for the idea. More to come!

sounds_sound  ·  4691 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Coolio. Thanks mk :)
mk  ·  4700 days ago  ·  link  ·  
but considering that the 'all posts' page rarely fills up one page of posts per day it seems a little premature.

I tend to agree with that.

Now, building off of that, I think it would be interesting if your personal profile page had kind of break down and analysis of the content you most visited.

I like this idea. As I mentioned above, I am considering converting the popular page into a more generalized discovery page. This would be a good idea for that page. -Thanks!

sounds_sound  ·  4700 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Another thing that I noticed too is that there might be some interesting conversation happening in the comments section of a post, but oddly, nobody has reposted it. For example, the recent interview of Paul Simon: http://hubski.com/pub?id=13498 by thenewgreen has for now 8 comments, which is above average for a Hubski post and that conversation has led to talking about the Beatles and the Lord of the Rings and what not, but it hasn't been reposted. Comments have a way of switching topics, just like in person talking which i find potentially more interesting than the actual article/video, so if i didn't have somebody i'm following repost (if i understand that that is the only way i would get this post) then with out the 'all posts' I would miss that one.
caio  ·  4700 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I was grappling with that problem (how to raise awareness of awesome comment sections). Hadn't thought about reposting it. Simple.
mk  ·  4700 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Yes, this is funny. A popular conversation that no one shares. That was one thing that I was wondering about, if there were no 'all posts' page, would people be more apt to share posts. I'm not sure.

One thing, I do like how most people are discerning about content they share. That's a valuable thing, IMO. I don't want to spoil that aspect.

kleinbl00  ·  4700 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I believe this is wrong-headed.

I appreciate the desire to leverage the person-based discovery of content, but the fact of the matter is, "All posts" exists because your current approach doesn't adequately parse Hubski. The way to diminish the "schizophrenic" usage of the site is to improve the functionality of "follow", not eliminate the functionality of "all."

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am not a programmer. You could tell me how you're coding all this and I wouldn't understand well enough to offer suggestions. So take this with a grain of salt:

You have to have a pretty good idea, down there in your data, of what we click on and what we don't. You also have to have a pretty good idea as to what we comment on and what we don't. The way to do "follow-based" discovery wouldn't be an "all" button but, perhaps, a "mutate" button. Spitball up a variation on the statistical approximation of what I'm following, tweak a couple things, and spit that new profile back to me to let me see what else is out there. This allows me to dig more into the "social" aspect of it and less into the "all" aspect of it (because sometimes it's important to know what everyone else sees, too, I don't ever want that to go away).

I use Absynth a lot. It allows you to do this. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtCVBJ_tlHQ

mk  ·  4700 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I hear you. I think you have a good point. I am definitely going to work more on discovery before looking to diminish all posts.

This whole conversation is good, and it's giving me some food-for-thought. The pattern here seems to be that everyone would appreciate better ways to find good content. That's where I am going to turn my focus. I don't want to add just a bunch of functionality, however. I'm going to put some serious thought into making a discovery page that is both useful and pleasing to use.

lessismore  ·  4700 days ago  ·  link  ·  
My 2 mao on "All Posts." I actually find myself using the all posts quite often because as you pointed out, it is quite useful for discovery.
thenewgreen  ·  4701 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Thanks for the heads up on the no all posts, it will give me time to get rid of some people I am following and get the right people in there. I think I'll miss some posts, especially if they are new to Hubski. If you are to eliminate the all posts, don't you think you should first have a discovery method in place? I'll think on different ways to help discovery, it's an interesting problem to solve.