I do not mean this in terms of 'how can we draw more people to the website', but how can we encourage those who are already here, but who largely just lurk, to submit posts and chime in on conversations more often?
I myself am very new here, so i apologise if this is something that has been discussed or is not talked about.
I am aware that this is not exactly a major issue, as Hubski is currently working out fairly well, but i feel it would make for a larger range of opinions to be displayed did more people feel willing to add to the experience.
Edit: Thank you all for the responses, the general consensus seems to be 'let lurkers be', which is more than fair.
Seems to be several voices on here who want to attract people from reddit. I have to say I'm not a fan of this idea. Part of the appeal of this place to me was the fact that I came upon it while actively hunting for alternatives to reddit. No one referred me here, and there was no campaign to attract people to the site. I like the fact that this is a forum for people who've found it themselves rather than come along as some sort of hunt for "the next new reddit". So far, we haven't seen much in the way of a competition by Hubski users to build their profile by posting ad hoc comments en masse in the hopes that at least some of them will attract approval (karma farming, in other words). I realise we have tools in place to ignore this sort of thing when it happens. Still, the more we try to turn this place into a recreation of reddit's 2007 golden era, the more likely we are to mirror that site's very gradual decline. There's enough of a trail online for others to find Hubski on their own initiative, if they're unhappy with the places they currently go to. Can't we just grow our community organically? Are we in that much of a hurry to become famous?
Hubski specifically appealed to me because it is NOT the Reddit community. William Shatner described it best: "I am appalled by some of the immature, horrifically racist, sexist, homophobic, ethnic ... etc ... posts that are just ignored here. Why are these accounts still active? While Reddit has done well in getting interest from the mainstream I just wonder if by allowing these children to run rampant and post whatever they feel will cause the most collateral damage if Reddit is biting off it's own nose in taking that step to become a mainstream community." Of Course, this does not describe the entire community, but it unnerving when a community of hundreds of thousands turns a blind eye to such users.
One of the mechanisms we implemented here are the "ignore" and the "mute" function. This was born, somewhat outbid necessity. Back in December we hard a large influx of new users and many treated Hubski as they would reddit. If you find that a user posts content you don't want to see you can "ignore" them. If you don't want them to be able to see or comment on your posts you can "mute" them. You have some tools to curate your feed/experience here. Mr. Shatner would be quite happy on Hubski, I think. That said, we benefit from a far smaller userbase. If we were to grow to hundreds of thousands, we will experience some challenges. I, for one, look forward to that.
For me it's just apathy really. Hubski is the first page that loads when I open my browser in the morning, I don't really have time to contribute as much due to work/study requirements and other things like DoTA2. The discussions feel more like a closely-knit forum than a pit like Reddit feels like, which I'm thankful for. A lot of users may not actually understand how Hubski works, as well.
As fond as I am of the small community here, I think hubski would benefit more from a larger userbase than it would from attempting to change the behavior of its current userbase. People here do sorta teach by example, just by having discussions with each other. I'm not saying we should go advertising to that other place, but for some people (totally not me, guys) the motivation in coming here was to re-discover something close to what that other place used to be.
I missed this post the first time around so I can share some inside information on how lurkers who kinda-sorta wanna join in but don't know how or what. The lurkers who just want to lurk and have no interest in doing thing, that is absolutely fine. I get into lurk mode sometimes as well. 1. What do you enjoy? What do you read online, where do you find it, why do you like it, etc? What do you talk about in real life? This is something that everyone has but not everyone consciously thinks about. Post those things to hubski. I use an RSS feed that I've been adding to for about 5 years to find stuff to post. Some people have favorite sites they check in with. Go back through your bookmarks or saved posts from other sites. If it's interesting enough to bookmark, it's interesting enough for hubski. My rule of thumb is, if I get past the half way mark of an article then I post it to hubski. Because if it entertained and enticed and fueled my curiosity enough by then, chances are it will fuel others. 2. Stop thinking that the people who do post are all so brilliant or "regulars at the bar." Sometime's I type something and I feel like a moron. But people either correct me or humor me or were thinking the same thing. That's how discussions get made. If we only posted the things we were brilliant about, there wouldn't be much discussion. As for the bar, hubski is like a bar. But we're pretty damn friendly and open-minded and pretty much want everyone to be here. Unless you're that loud drunk guy breaking glasses, we would love to hear what you think. Remember, we were lurkers at some point too. Chances are, if you are nervous about saying something, that self-awareness will make your comments that much stronger and more interesting for everyone to read. Whatever you think while reading another persons post or comments, type that shit out and post it for us to see. It probably isn't as stupid as you may think and chances are at least one other person on hubski was thinking the exact same thing. 3. Start small. Even though some comments are a wall of text, we do need a bit of a healthy balance between the uber long and short and sweet. I'll write the wall, you can summarize and say it more succinctly. Deal? meeting time, to be continued
Hey this comment was super useful for me! I looked up and learned how to use RSS feeds, and have started to set one up for myself. Thanks for the advice!
We have some announcements coming that should be able to help with this. By the way, welcome to Hubski. I'm glad you already like the place enough that you are interested in making it even better. Any suggestions are always welcome.I am aware that this is not exactly a major issue, as Hubski is currently working out fairly well, but i feel it would make for a larger range of opinions to be displayed did more people feel willing to add to the experience.
It would be great to get more people to comment and post, but some people just aren't the type to do it. Hubski, like other sites, serves many different functions for different people. I don't think the challenge is to necessarily change the behaviors of the people that are already visiting the site, I think the challenge is bringing new, interesting people to the site. But how do you attract the right people? How do you let people know? We don't advertise, we rely on word of mouth. If you know people that could add to the conversations here, by all means invite them.
That too. There are definitely different versions of the site for everyone in that regard. Still, there are less than 8k accounts on Hubski. That's pretty small. That said, we get a ton of lurkers without accounts. I'd personally love to have more writers and creative types come over. It's been fun
I totally agree on that last part. Since I joined - hell, in the last few months, I think, the arts and culture side of hubski has grown a heap. Things like the #storyclub and the word games, people sharing their writing and stuff have been really great. The #goodlongread tag is absolutely fantastic, too.
I've felt that I should limit my contribution so it doesn't just become noise. Perhaps others share that attitude? There is a lot of brilliant content here which can be intimidating, and also tricky because more relaxed or casual content can become just noise. I remember seeing someone sharing a picture of a dragonfly, (I found it; humanodon: I found a dragonfly, it was simple, but not passive. If the "casual" content of Hubski was all like that, we would be set! Yet, not everyone can or will share that sort of thing often. It might be the community aspect can bring out the rest of us, like the weekly music thread. If some choose not to 'let lurkers be', engage them, don't push them.
Limited time like MrScience. I participate in activities via notebooks and pens. There isn't an accessible starter's guide to understanding how this site works, so the site does feel a bit daunting. It's like being at a bar full of regulars, who are just charming enough to keep visiting.
You can check out this post for "getting started" : http://hubski.com/pub?id=59754 And this discussion that turned into the tutorial: http://hubski.com/pub?id=86371
One difference between communicating via hubski and face to face, is awareness. If users do not share articles or follow people, there's no way to know that they exist. By contrast, in a flesh and blood situation, if a person is quiet, they might be gently invited to contribute or encouraged to espouse an opinion. We do have the shoutout feature where if we surround a username with @'s the target user will then be alerted, but again, you can't do that to users you are unaware of.
Hmm. I don't know. It seems like that might make people feel singled out, or placed in a certain "class" of user. It strikes me that the situation is a little like being in a group. There are introverts and extroverts and many degrees of both and in-between.
As has been said by others (and by SeventhProphet's edit), the best thing to do is let lurkers be, but, for those of us who post/comment/contribute, continually make Hubski somewhere attractive to newcomers and those already here. As a background-in-a-nutshell, I've come over from Reddit (and Fark, SomethingAwful etc before that) and basically came too-late-to-the-party. I was drawn in to the idea of Reddit: separated groups based on individual interests, being able to have a tailored, constantly changing news feed, and the ability to share findings across the web and engage in debate and constructive arguments on those topics. Unfortunately, the rise of it's popularity has meant that there's less 'community' and collegial activity, which I had been searching for. Don't get me wrong, I still browse Reddit, but it's now more for consuming, not contributing. As someone else I saw mentioned quiet brilliantly, and I am paraphrasing/rewording here: Reddit is for the loud broadcasts, Hubski is the quiet room to escape to. It's been 36hrs, and I've commented more times at Hubski than I have anywhere else. With any luck I won't annoy too many people haha, and would love to start up an #australia following!
I hang out on Hubski a lot, but I do little except for lurk. I don't post much, because I don't spend much time online outside of this and a few other sites, and I don't have much to contribute. Sometimes I join in discussions and comment, but mostly I just read. The biggest reason is that I feel intimidated :p That sounds silly, but the content here is so phenomenal that I feel like anything I have to offer will add nothing worth adding to the community and discourse. I'd hate to muck things up!
Just jump in, head first! Muck away!! I'm following you now...
Thanks! I'll try! It also has to do with time restraints. With school and work and the girlfriend, it's easy to forget. Thanks for the warm invite.
Sure thing. I love your username. Also, school and your girlfriend should come first... then mucking up Hubski. Work can wait.
Hey thanks! I'm a big fan of The Big Lebowski. Also, That sounds like a solid order of priorities.
I just convinced my real life friend to make an account. So now that I know someone else in person who uses this site, I'm even more attached. My contribution :4
I've found the same thing, except it's been more that I'm starting to get to know people on here, making me more attached.
That's awesome. Our community could definitely benefit from more of this. We don't advertise and we don't link bait other aggregators. We rely on you guys to spread the word, thats what has gotten us to where we are as a community. Thanks blackbootz, and everyone else that helps to spread the word. Also, be sure to welcome your friend for me.
Welcome dirtysockz (he thought my name was cute so he borrowed the idea, it's not a sock puppet account haha)
I disagree I think it is the biggest issue we face. If anyone can solve this problem, it would make the site 1000x better instantly.I am aware that this is not exactly a major issue, as Hubski is currently working out fairly well, but i feel it would make for a larger range of opinions to be displayed did more people feel willing to add to the experience.
If people aren't by nature the types to comment or post, then there is no use trying to change that. If only a small percentage of people comment/post, then we don't need to change those that aren't comfortable doing so, we just need more people. I think Hubski with about 100k people would be awesome. It could still feel small and would allow for a ton more discovery. But as for user behavior, you can't fit a square in a circle, not worth trying.