I didn't reply to the original post, but I felt little sympathy. I have friend that works on a major network show, he makes way more money then I do to drive a truck and operate a lift gate. He works really hard (as in lots of hours, but not half the labor I do). When he is done with a season he goes on vacations and buys a bunch of stuff. Sure it hurts when the gravy train runs out. Maybe these people should have socked some money away instead of getting half million dollar mortgages. If my wife and I lost our jobs we could pay for about six months of our current life style and about a year if we cut corners. That isn't even accounting for unemployment insurance or food stamps. We save and plan for an uncertain future. There are many wall street bankers who could cry you river but I don't feel terribly sympathetic for them either. Are you saying that you are so important to Hubski that we need to handle you with kid gloves? That is what your post reads like.
Yet again, the article wasn't about looking for sympathy, which is not why I posted it. Frankly, I read it once and posted it because I thought people might like a little insight into the non-glamorous Hollywood. But apparently that humanizes Big Media too much, so never fucking mind. I have all the "open internet" I can choke down, thanks very much. But in a social network where we follow people it helps to attempt a little empathy from time to time. 'cuz you know what? If it doesn't matter that it comes from me, why the fuck do I need to sign my name to it? That is the point - the fact that yeah - on this website, it matters who posts what, that's what makes it Hubski. And if that's what MK is going for, and the rest of you aren't on board with it, this is a perfect forum to make that clear.
Once more with honesty, I don't care who makes a post. I am friends with several members of the community, and I think they would all attest that I am generally not a man to mince words. I don't care if it's someones 1st or 1000th post, I think to treat content in any manner is not intellectually or socially dishonest. The idea that the number of followers a person has should determine the delicacy with which I should approach their feelings is an anathematic to my ethical outlook. Tending bar, I treat a broken down old whore with the same grace as a guy with a gold watch in a suit, in accordance with their own behavior. I think that to do otherwise is low behavior, underneath the person I would like to be. In a forum of intellectual exploration, skepticism, challenge, doubt, and debate should be the norm. You can sweat a bit less in your quest to disallow the less then graceful to follow your posts, I have unfollowed you. I belive that by following you I only help enable some sort of arrogance you have about your hubski status. I have appreciated a great many of your posts and some of your comments, but I feel like you are trying to playing some kind of dominance game here, which I would rather not be part of. I don't think that it matters when content came from you. I am here to be exposed to interesting ideas, not play a hubski meta followers game. It doesn't really matter what MK was going for here, I use hubski for my own reasons, I hope that is perfectly clear. Sorry I am not an old hand at playing the social aggregation game, perhaps I am not following the script. I am really not trying to "flame" you, but found the whole matter a distasteful unnecessary intrusion of personal issues that can only detract from my enjoyment of hubski. I am trying to express my honest opinion about my take on this intrusion and share what I think it says about building a community that is trying to shares ideas. Perhaps it's time that a moderator steps in. I don't mean that in the Reddit sense (only a sense which I have inferred from other posts here), but in the sense that it might be time for someone to try to build some lessons learned from this whole thing, and possibly try to form a sense of consensus on the behavioral norms of this community. That might be harder with your post deletion. I would also like to add that the ability to delete a post that has been commented on seems wrong to me. If people aren't prepared to engage then they shouldn't post. Have the integrity to stand for or at least accept what you have said. I understand the desire to not be controlled by social media, and the appeal of deleting ones missteps, but really controlling a bit of text is somewhat unimportant and seems to me a shield for cowardliness or pettiness.
Posting content to the internet is very much akin to opening Pandora's Box. Once shared, it will prove very difficult to contain. Just ask Alexandra Wallace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNuyDZevKrU
I did not read the article nor did I participate in the original post, but from what I am able to gathered, differing opinions were expressed that were somewhat touchy for those involved in the discussion. Not everyone is going to see eye to eye and agree on everything and that is what makes for a good discussion. What fun would that be if we all just buzzed along to the same tune and be nothing more than a part of the hive mind. What I find most appealing about Hubski is the diversity of opinions and experiences of the community, despite the fact that it is not nearly as big as the other social news sites. In many ways, it feels more diverse than both Digg and Reddit combined. Hubksi to me has been a great platform for me to discover news and ideas (a lot of which came from you) and to interact with a great community of intelligent individuals. I surely do hope that the "flame war central" comment was nothing more than words from a heat of the moment impulse. It will be a horrible thing if yet another platform with such great potential see its fire snuffed out.