I think one of the goals of Hubski is to move away from the idea of content-based browsing and onto user-based browsing. The first is more likely to lead to the glorification of the masses and the second more likely to lead to... well, whatever you want, not whatever everyone wants. For instance, on Reddit if you want to know about politics then you subscribe to r/politics and whatever makes it to the top there is what you're likely to see, regardless of whether or not it's good, original content or just whatever people have forgotten about for long enough that the repost is worth karma. On Hubski, all I have to do to make sure I'm seeing interesting political dialogue is follow a user who seems active, intelligent, and focused on politics! Sure, I'll get some of his other posts as well, but they're more likely to be submissions which I'm interested in rather than what hundreds/thousands/millions of users are interested in. I'm sure that over time some of the more popular users will end up basically being "subs" unto themselves, but the user-follow system is much more likely to please each person individually by avoiding democracy in favor of a sort of information-bubble.
Just today I started following someone (who also now follows me) after we had a long, thorough discussion in which we had a couple disagreements. It was refreshing to be able to have an actual discussion where everyone was happy even if nobody technically "won".
This has been my favorite part of my experience here. I have actually changed my position on some pretty big subjects because of conversations I've had in the past here. I think regardless of what website you're on or even if you're having a conversation in person, the most important thing is to be open to new ideas and open to the possibility of having your ideas change. Too often people associate changing their opinions or ideas with weakness, but nothing could be further from the truth. To be able to say to someone "you know what, you make a good point and you have changed my thinking on this topic", is an amazing thing to say. In that situation you are most certainly the person that has "won". Btw, welcome to Hubski.
I have actually changed my position on some pretty big subjects because of conversations I've had in the past here.
Hi TNG, I noticed an article in the Sunday New York Times in which the writer did not use the Oxford comma. Perhaps the SNYT will only use the comma if necessary for clarity and otherwise not. I continue to study this. (tee hee - I don't want to be rigid about my fondness for certain punctuation, certain preferences and certain dictators.
On the second point, I actually think this method of new content discovery is superior than seeking out new subjects to look up. More serendipitous, exposes you to more new topics, and does so at a higher level of quality as long as you're following generally quality posters.to make sure I'm seeing interesting political dialogue is follow a user who seems active, intelligent, and focused on politics! Sure, I'll get some of his other posts as well, but they're more likely to be submissions which I'm interested in rather than what hundreds/thousands/millions of users are interested in.