Again, not a competition!
I don't see it that way. A taco truck or a gas station might each allow me to fill my belly but the experience is entirely different and sometimes the experience is the point. I dig this place because I can talk to interesting people about things they care about and often those things are often also things I care about. I use reddit to find stuff only I care about personally. Sure, I'm consuming content both ways, but to scratch different itches.
A lot of people look at Hubski like the "third place" for the internet. (ref: 1 2 3 4) For community members, especially those who are redditors as well, facebook/email and reddit represent the first two. Think about it. When you first sit down at your computer, what are the first two sites you go to? What sites do you spend your time on primarily? One could call facebook & reddit competitors in the sense that they are competing for users' time, eyes, and clicks. In that sense, reddit and Hubski are also competitors. But a lot of people consider "competitors" to be a bit more mean-spirited and implies that users have to choose one or the other. For example, you cannot be a Boston fan and a Montreal fan because they are competitors. In that sense, reddit and Hubski are not competitors as we all spend more than enough time online and universally enjoy procrastination. Hubski doesn't strive to replace reddit. We don't have an attitude that "reddit sucks, hubski rocks" like was the case with Digg vs Reddit. Often times, you will find that the top stories and breaking news stories that are on the front page of every aggregator, blog, and news publication aren't on Hubski. It's not that we are against posting these stories, it's just that most of us have already seen it when we visit Hubski. Sometimes the stories do get posted when a user has a specific point to make about the story or wishes to start a discussion about it. A lot of times the top stories that are simply posts with no caption / text included don't get shared while ones with an essay of text do get shared it begins a discussion about the users points more often than the standard topics of the story itself.
facebook is a site that directly focuses on real life interactions. Reddit is a "internet collection" which is very different from what facebook does. Hubski is also an internet collection style site, so it is far more competition to reddit than facebook is. I understand you don't strive to replace reddit, but it doesn't mean the site isn't competition. When I say competitors I just mean two sites serving similar niches. Reddit and hubski both try to create meaningful and diverse discussion. Both can exist at the same time, but they will compete regardless. I also plan to be using both sites also, don't get me wrong. I love reddit, and this site is proving to be really interesting.
There isn't much to say. Hubski and reddit serve similar purposes. Even with the differences, hubski getting attention does bring competition to reddit, and hubski will bring competition to reddit. Even if it is more discussion based, it takes that discussion and users who want it from reddit.
I've noticed almost universally the user-base here isn't very concerned with growth. The community here is excellent, and I think a lot of us understand that that is because the site is smaller, and that lots of new users would change that. It's not a competition, because one side doesn't want to fight.