Hubski is fundamentally broken. I'm not interested in investing my time and energy in yet another broken social networking site. MK insists up, down, left and right that it isn't about the content, it's about who you get the content from. He has stridently resisted any changes to the site that would permit content discovery by anything other than who posts it. Yet when I point out that two thirds of the subscribers of this site are following me directly and that I can therefore be offended that people trash my avocation on a post I myself put up, the answers I got were - Get over yourself, you're not that important - I'm not following you, I'm following you second hand and in fact I can't stand you - Who the fuck do you think you are you so and so how dare you bring up your numbers as if they matter - I rarely pay attention to who posts what and your responses here make me glad I don't have to So. MK thinks that Hubski is about "people following people" yet hubskiers are antagonistically resistant to this idea. MK and Steve are pugnacious about the fact that everyone curates their own stream and everyone is responsible to their own page yet when I point out that the people who follow my stream have some sort of responsibility to me, I'm shouted down. I'm good at finding content. I'm happy to do it, and happy to share it. But I refuse to involve myself in a community where the community is set up as a game of follow-the-leader - and the community members see no problem with throwing rocks at the guy at the front of the line.
1) I posted something about someone noting that screenwriters were losing their homes. The only comment for two days was thenewgreen asking me, specifically, "are you seeing stuff like this out in Hollywood?" I didn't answer. 2) Two days later, a comment is posted that basically says "boo fucking hoo shit is tough all over and why on earth should we feel sorry for assholes in Hollywood when other people are suffering just as much." 3) I post a comment saying, basically, "hold the phone, nobody is saying Hollywood is suffering more, simply pointing out that the shift from traditional to digital economies is not without its human costs." Now - here's where the "human" part should have stepped in. This was a link by me, commented on by two people who follow me. I've talked about my experiences at length. I've made no secrets about the industry I work in and have opined any number of times from all sides of this (and other issues). Yet there's no aspect of Hubski that picks that up or incorporates it into anyone's experience. So: 4) Next comment was "I didn't say anything offensive and I'm not going to take any of it back, but if it makes you feel better I'll tell you I'm sorry that you're offended." Followed by more than a few "suck it up" comments. So I go off and have a day because really, fuck y'all. 5) The next day, I write up exactly why I find this all rather upsetting - after all, the idea is that we are paying attention to who posts what and why, and we are responding to what people say and frankly, with the number of people who follow me, if I can't get any consideration for who I am in what I post, then nobody else is likely to get anything else out of it either. What follows is two days of posts calling me a whiney-ass titty baby. Let's be clear - this site can be as unforgiving and vitriolic as it cares to be. People can be as nasty and unsympathetic as they please. But when the entire mechanism is built around "following" and when "following" simply gives people who don't like your ideas more chances to cut you down for having them, the thing is dead out of the gate. I'm a nastier mud-slinger than anybody here. That's not a brag, just a simple truth. I've been holding back because I wanted this place to be civil. Apparently I'm alone in that. The major players on this site all know each other from college or something. I definitely get the feeling of being a tolerated stranger. Thing is, if the site is to grow in the slightest, some sort of system has to be in place that doesn't foster antagonism like this. As it is now, I've got more followers than just about anyone but I'm not allowed to mention that or I'm a bragging egomaniac. I've got six badges for personal stories I've told but I'm not allowed to bring those up or I'm self-centered. I've put a very human face on my participation but I'm being rude if I don't presume that everyone choosing to follow me has no idea who I am, what I do, why I do it or where. Not only that, but when I'm being attacked and choose not to participate in the discussion further, it's held up as evidence that I did something wrong and I'm at fault. Yeah. I walked away from the discussion. Everything I said was being used against me. It still is. And yeah. I demanded an apology. My industry - and everyone in it - was held up as being beneath sympathy. No one was "intentionally" trying to insult me, but no one saw any problem with unintentionally insulting me, and because it was "unintentional" it was determined that I was ineligible for an apology. From my perspective, the experience at Hubski is basically "people will specifically sign up to hear your thoughts, and as a group, make no effort to understand your perspective even when you rub their noses in it. Further, they will feel no obligation to consider your emotion as a genuine thing but will instead debate why you aren't entitled to it." I don't deal with that level of inhumanity on Facebook. Facebook gives you the ability to delete or ignore posts. Facebook demonstrates how you know people, and shows people who you are. Hubski is basically Reddit without the subreddits - so while it can profess to being more elevated and humane, it has not demonstrated itself to be so. I share things with people whose opinions I respect and whose ideas I'm interested in. If I'm sharing with friends, I expect to be treated as a friend. If I'm sharing with strangers I'm taking the good with the bad and hoping for some wheat amongst the chaff. Hubski pretends to be a network of friends but is designed to maximize stranger-hood. That combination is unsustainable.
Yes, you can be, and have been. I know. I can thank you for introducing me to vicious personal attacks for the first time on this site. I noticed that you didn't come around after I responded to you in kind. I wish it had stayed that way. I didn't deal with it on here until you came along. It has been infinitely better in your absence. In fact, it has been perfectly so. Please go away again, and don't come back this time. Spare us your edited, martyred narratives, and non-self-aware observations. Tossing up a few links on a website doesn't grant you license to treat other people the way you did. At least not without some of them calling you out on it.Let's be clear - this site can be as unforgiving and vitriolic as it cares to be.
I'm a nastier mud-slinger than anybody here. That's not a brag, just a simple truth.
I don't deal with that level of inhumanity on Facebook.
so while it can profess to being more elevated and humane, it has not demonstrated itself to be so.
We have no crown for you, probably not the place you want to be.
- It has been infinitely better in your absence. In fact, it has been perfectly so. Please go away again, and don't come back this time.
Please don't be a dick about this, if Hubski is to grow at all, it will inevitable gain two members that dislike each other, for one reason or another. Telling each other to GTFO is rude and destructive to the site as a whole. I personally enjoyed kleinbl00's writings and have noticed a drop in my enjoyment of the site now that I can't see that content here.
So you want the benefits of Digg, & the benefits of reddit, plus the benefits of facebook without the drawbacks? Me too. I'd also like a shoebox full of hundred dollar bills, a ferrari and house in the Hampton's... The world is shades of grey. The only choice you have to decide which shade you like and stick with it. Any other answer is ideological and naive.