.....but I commented on a reddit post that mentioned Hubski.
Team Hubski has a pretty strict rule to not engage on reddit when someone mentions Hubski. We prefer to leave that in all of your capable hands, but mk was on vacation and well.... I was bored.
It turned out that someone with the handle OutbreakMonkey asked some good questions and they seem sincere in their curiosity. Therefore, I'm going to post their last comment below and answer it to the best of my ability, calling on forwardslash and insomniasexx to jump in regarding more specific privacy concerns etc. I welcome b_b to jump in too.
Here is the last comment:
- Hi, me again.
I've had a look, generally like what I see. A few more questions if I may.
I understand you follow individuals and what not. Fine for big topics and controversial issues (I get what you're saying about reducing the circle jerk). I do however Frequent some if the niche subs with specific interest. How would you emulate that? Do users have to know all of the hashtags likely to be used for an interest?
Edit: I read your privacy policy which is pretty "boiler plate". But if leaves some questions.
Second , you've got my email with my login. How are you going to guarantee me you won't abuse it OR worse, lose it like so very many "secure" big sites.
How about logging, is read history stored or just post history? Edit: Deleting IP address details doesn't particularly anonymise data or access if it's tied to a username.
How about account deletion. What is deleted when I leave ? Can I take EVERYTHING with me and vanish?
Finally, how is your financial backing? Obviously end goal is to sell your product and IP, but what is the current arrangement and big players with a decent chunk? When you do sell refer to previous question about deleting my data.
I like the partial anonymity that reddit provides, not that I say anything controversial or particularly care. Just one less thing for users to think about, and one less vector for spam or identity leakage.
Still interesting site.
Edit: I'm not trying to bash you. Just want to know your position on these things. Like I said. Nice site.
Edits mobile phone auto corrects.
My response
Hey OutbreakMonkey, You write:
- I understand you follow individuals and what not. Fine for big topics and controversial issues (I get what you're saying about reducing the circle jerk). I do however Frequent some if the niche subs with specific interest. How would you emulate that?
My guess is that the people in our community don't use Hubski exclusively but use reddit, HN and any number of other aggregators, all for different reasons. I always say that I don't eat at just one restaurant, why would I visit just one aggregator/site?
As for privacy, we aren't interested in capturing your data for the purposes of capitalizing on it. In fact, we take steps to guarantee we have a bare minimum. forwardslash -can you speak to this? As for you giving us your email, that's your choice. You can literally put [email protected] and create an account here. Should you share your actual email address, you will receive emails for comment notifications etc, but you can easily opt out in your settings. We never send unsolicited emails though. Not our style, not our intent... which leads to:
- Finally, how is your financial backing? Obviously end goal is to sell your product and IP, but what is the current arrangement and big players with a decent chunk?
Don't get me wrong, if we could figure out a way that Hubski could pull in revenue while not compromising the integrity of the site/community, we would be foolish not to do so. The community here often asks if they can help support the site financially, which is a pretty great compliment.
- I like the partial anonymity that reddit provides, not that I say anything controversial or particularly care. Just one less thing for users to think about, and one less vector for spam or identity leakage.
Thank you for the questions OutbreakMonkey, I hope to continue our discussion here.
Cheers!
Yeah, you shouldn't do that.
Thank you for attempting to clear that up. It's pretty hilarious and at the same time pretty maddening. Regardless of the topic, I cannot stand when people speak with authority about things they clearly have no knowledge of. It's soooo hard not to say, "NO...." and then correct them. mk really does a great job of restraining me otherwise I'd spend way too much time defending or clarifying what it is we are up to here.
the ones you want will find their way on their own.
It has seemed to work thus far. It's funny, when I tell people about Hubski there first question after "what is it?" and their second question is "how many people use it?" Given the amount of time we've been around it's a pretty small number, but the growth has been real and it's been out of the seeds of some pretty kick ass original members (yourself included). This type of growth has allowed us to maintain the type of smart, interesting and talented group we have today. If we were to have had 100k people come over right at the get-go, we wouldn't have been anything other than a "replacement." I'm glad we have had time to carve out our niche. I like where we are at.
In addition, even though not every part of hubski may be clear at first sight, the content speaks for itself. My first reaction to the site was "I don't really understand this site but it's giving me a wealth of good articles and discussions." Part of growing attached to hubski was in exploring, finding out how it works, driven by the motivation that it'll lead me to better posts. Similarly, the users you want are the users who judge hubski on its merits and not those who find excuses not to invest time in here (e.g. false assumptions).
SomethingAwful has been smaller than Reddit since 2007. It's a lot older, though. They charge you ten bucks in order to get you to value your account - and as a result, their community has stayed tight-knit and coherent. Every tweakage Reddit has experienced in the past 5 years has been SA busting Reddit's chops. Quality matters so much more than quantity.
And then pay for an unban and possibly be again as well. This can go back and forth for a while, right up till someone gets permabanned.
Hey guys. Thanks for the response. I'll try tomorrow to get through this post in detail. Unfortunately I'm having technical issues here. I'm logged in by mobile but can't connect from desktop PC for some reason. Strange. I am interested to hear more about your security architecture (a hobby of mine) as well as more details about your long term plans. I've enjoyed a bit of a read so far. The only thing I really need here is a smoking meat/BBQ forum/tag and I'll be happy :) I'll try to login tomorrow to read through in more detail on desktop.
It's nice that the post on Reddit was not too big. I bet we might get a few new people without the temporary disruption of the big influxes :) I'm all for new people here but we're a small community and during the big influxes it just feels like the site is not coming across like representative of what day-to-day Hubski is like.
It was definitely not a "huge" post and had it not been in the sub it was in I wouldn't have commented. I've had a few new followers in the last 24 hours. You never know who will show up. Do you recall how you found the site?
That sounds right. Glad you found us, I've really enjoyed your photography and trip reports a lot.
Thanks :) I wanted to write a tripreport about my travels in the Balkans but there really is too much stuff I don't know where to start. I have a tumblr with more detailed posts that I've been trying to post to since I've been back. It might take a while until I run out of things to say which is good because I'm really enjoying having a blog :) I received my first "fan mail" message today by a girl who said she like my blog which feels super nice!
That's a great point. My local watering hole may be hubski, but damned sure I visit other places. Reddit is my McDonald's of information. Quick and easy.Right now you can follow tags to attempt to get a specific experience around a singular topic, however the reality is that unless it's a tag like #science, #music, #technology or any of the other most active tags its not likely to be terribly robust. What we find is that by following a mix of people and tags you get a varied, and interesting array of content. -Try it out.
My guess is that the people in our community don't use Hubski exclusively but use reddit, HN and any number of other aggregators, all for different reasons. I always say that I don't eat at just one restaurant, why would I visit just one aggregator/site?
Regarding this situation, I found an interesting Google trends chart. I had not realized how much of a spike this event has caused people to visit Reddit en masse, and thus force older users to look for alternatives due to dilution (perhaps only perceived).