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.