Red Flag Warning - So Grateful for Receiving It

I accept the Flag with respect and even gratitude. Respect because being clear that my hubs are professionally adjudicated, I have more respect for HubPages. Gratitude, because I want to write the best Hubs that I can and this caution has given me the opportunity to be clear about what is good writing and what is unacceptable when writing for online publication. Gratitude also because, in my particular case, I chose to completely rewrite the hub. I hope that it will be released for publication in a few days.

I could not understand the warning at first. The email contained information that seemed to be fairly generic and not specific to my article. So I took the next 6 hours to find out just what my specific ‘problem’ was and what the whole issue of flagging was about.

This is where I went first. I read hubs written by a number of Hubbers who held long tenure with HubPages (3 to 5 years). These were extremely useful Hubs and extremely well written. I will use their ‘layout’ ideas and the ‘tools’ they used in my Hubs as I become more educated on how to use these tools.

Because I am not yet worrying about or working on how to make money with my hubs, except how this affects topic, keywords, and writing ability, I read only the hubs that I thought would help me fix my problem. Two hubs that meant a lot to me because of advice were by relache and by pwalker281 .(I do not yet know how to properly include their names in my hubs) but thank you all. What you had to say helped me greatly. By the way, I read all the comments with all the hubs I have read today.

Then I moved into HubTool Tutorials and read a number of hubs there. BlogJournal and danfresnourban helped with a number of matters important to me when writing a hub. Thank you so much.

When I moved into this section of Tutorials etc., I found a hub by RebeccaE and one by Lissie that helped with specific and extremely important advice. Thank you for your help. Then, somehow, I was led to the Forum topic on the updated rules for flagging hubs.

New Flagging Reasons by Maddie Rudd

This has proven to be one of the most informative ‘forum topics’ I have read. It gave me excellent advice, reasons not to be frustrated with difficulty understanding what I had to change, and reasons not to be frustrated with time delays. One particular person stood out for me in the stream (sorry, thread) and that was Michael Willis. He seemed to keep a level head when providing advice and feedback to some people's concerns. There were so many topics raised that were provocative, interesting and informative. There were others who stood out for me as well. I have made a note of them and will be following up with them (reading their hubs)over the next few days.

My point to all this is: Doing all this research has taken time and diligence beyond what I expected so early in my writing with HubPages. Although I joined 6 months ago, I have been writing with HubPages for only 10 days. My experience has been excellent, exciting and rewarding. I will write a Hub about it if I have something relevant, fresh, and worthwhile to say. And, all the research I have done today has helped me tremendously to become a good writer and a good online writer.

My purpose in writing this hub is to take away the ‘sting’ of receiving a flag and to help me get back up on the horse. If anyone thinks it might be worthwhile, I will rewrite this hub (when I am a little more experienced) into something that might be useful to other Hubbers.

Extreme Hub Makeover

I an not yet ready for Extreme Hub Makeover, but soon. I have spent more time reading and learning than I have researching and writing – a humbling experience. But I am truly grateful.