markkat

IMO, it could make a difference. 7pt Tahoma might be a bit too small, but I do think there is an 'intelligent aesthetic' that font size plays into.

My site. Still in development, but active. We are pretty eclectic. Join us dammit. :)

EDIT: A bit more info: I built Hubski for the very same reasons: I wanted it to exist. The model is a bit different than HN, as you can follow people and tags, and with the next few updates it is going to be even a bit more so.

But yes, I do think an intelligent general social aggregator is possible and needed. I hope you'll join us. We've just a couple hundred users so far, but the content and discussions we do have are surprisingly quality.

I see where you are coming from. However, given the potential overhead of running a social network, plus the revenue that might come with it, do you think that Google's priorities might evolve, -that they might morph into a social network, taking their other products with it?

What I'd really like to see, is a search engine to allow me to do both. I'd like to have a profile (that didn't use my name), and when I wanted to, I could click a result as 'useful'. This would go into my personal algorithm. I could then toggle between filtered search, or unfiltered search, whenever I like.

It might even be useful to build search filter categories. But I'd keep that a bit buried for the power users.

As you point out, the terminology is an unnecessary hurdle, -especially considering the space we are in. I am going to look at ways to simplify that as well.

This has given me some very good food for thought. I think that I was putting more thought into UI when UX is just as relevant, if not more so. Thanks a lot. It's much appreciated.

p.s. I see you are on Forrst. I might follow up with you there in some time if you don;t mind.

Functionally, the site primarily differs in that you follow people and topics, which builds a custom feed. You can also hub (retweet) posts you like, which refers them to your followers. -Not unlike HN meets twitter. Also we are playing up the submission format a bit so that a user's submissions are more like a blog. When activity permits I envision the frontpage to be replaced with a user's feed. A bit more service than destination.

Looking for design feedback that will inform our next UI changes. Thanks! A cool thing to do.

Our online personas treat us like those stupid parties where you have to wear a "Hello, my name is:" sticker. IMHO, every good service is a fragment of your life, and doesn't try to be the entirety of it. That's how the offline world works, anyway.

Amazing photos otherwise.

That said, looking at what is popularly called 'news' I'm glad I can apply a filter.

My community site (hubski.com) is starting to get some energy after a few months. Personally, I believe it's because my view of the site has changed a bit. A bit of digression...: I started the site to teach myself programming. I grabbed the HN code, figured it out, and began to change it. I was an early Redditor, have been on HN some time, and I had a number of ideas I wanted to try. Slowly but surely, I began to build something I personally wanted to exist. I now know exactly where I am going. As for a seed community, I was very lucky to have some friends interested in giving feedback and to mess with it. Some were Redditors too. My wife is a loyal active member as well.

I only have a few months of experience, but IMO best way to build community is to engage and importantly, enjoy the site. Take the time to post the kind of things that you really want to see (not just filler content), and definitely take the time to get to know users. I am glad I did, because I've met some very cool people in the effort. You can't fake community. Don't waste your time trying. People can see through it. It's like a restaurant. If the food is good, people will come back.

I don't know what our trajectory will be, but I don't expect a steep climb. Actually, if you want a steep climb, you are in the wrong space, as a steep climb is antithetical to a quality community. At least the type I am interested in. If you are going to build a community, enjoy the process. -If you don't, you probably won't succeed.

As for the content, thanks. Slowly but surely... It's funny. Sometimes I think our small group is in a competition, trying to one-up each other in esoterica.

IMHO it's more effective to make water flow where you want, rather than to keep it from flowing where you don't. :) A little of both is necessary, but I think the first approach has more stability.

For me, it happened when I was young, and in light of 'adult guidance', the guilt I felt for my alternate vision of the world was intense.

And in that sense, Kooltol has trolled TC. who in turn has trolled us.

People only need a general idea of the score for it to be informative of value.

I don't mind the effect too much, as I personally find the Bitcoin phenomenon to be endlessly interesting, but I feel compelled to point out what might be a small elephant in this room.

I'd say in most cases, good design asks us to adapt less, rather than more. Keyboards have finger-sized keys, arranged in a heuristic manner informed by linguistics. The keyboard minimizes effort between the brain and text.

I agree that Planetary is not effective, and here's why: Planetary arrangements don't map onto music collections naturally, and they do little to inform the organization. Planetary asks us to learn more, to do less. A better music collection interface IMO, would be one where dimensions were informed by music and song information, not planetary physics.