Squids: Style Guide & Hopping

1. 93

   lisavollrathposted 9 years ago

   Squidoo comrades, behold the HubPages Style Guide, which contains information on things like capitalization, crediting of images, and all sorts of things that should be standardized across everyone's articles:
   
   http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/HubP … iting-Tips
   
   I've probably viewed 200 new articles this week, using the Hop some hubs link at the top of the account screen. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, and now, I'm starting to understand the difference between them. Even though it's probably not designed for this purpose, it's a very useful tool for looking at lots of newly-posted articles quickly.

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      misterhollywoodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hopefully the transition for folks won't be too hard. I know I would feel overwhelmed if the situation were reversed.

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      SusanDeppnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Great resource! Thanks for pointing it out, Lisavollrath.

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         savateuseposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I agree. Thanks for letting us know about this.

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         1. 93

            lisavollrathposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            You're very welcome!

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      LuisEGonzalezposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You just joined HP from Squidoo and you are already immersed  in how HP functions, have proven to be helpful to others, have written 8 hubs......Way to go! It's nice to have former Squids like you here!
      
      
      
                                                         
      

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      1. 93

         lisavollrathposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Luis. There are plenty of my Squidoo comrades who have hit the ground running in the same way.
         
         In a previous life, I was an editor at Michaels.com. One of the first things I did was help compile our style guide. Every time I start writing for a new site, I check to see if they have one. There's just no point guessing, when someone has already taken the trouble to put what is expected in writing.

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      Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Remember that the Style Guide is NOT to be used when rating Hubs in the Hopper.  The Style Guide contains suggestions and nothing in it is required on HP.  When rating Hubs in the Hopper, you can only use the Hub QAP rating charts (which is what the MTurks are required to use, too).
      
      This is the ratings chart for creative writing like poems and short stories:
      http://hubpages.com/help/hub_hop_table#creative
      
      This is the ratings chart for articles:
      http://hubpages.com/help/hub_hop_table#informational
      
      Here are examples of Hubs and what ratings they received:
      http://hubpages.com/faq/#mturk-hit-examples

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         ecogrannyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, for that, Writer Fox. I keep forgetting to change my titles to the AP style as I edit my Squidoo articles. Eventually I'll get them all, but I broke that habit long ago and now I'm having to re-ingrain it. It's going to take awhile.

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            Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I don't follow the Style Guide for my titles.

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            1. 93

               lisavollrathposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               The all capped titles? They look like you're screaming at people.

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                  Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Yeah.  I scream and almost 1,000,000 have come to my Hubs.
                  (Your results may vary.)

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                     lisavollrathposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     One million page views does not equal one million people. Regardless, imagine how many more people might click through if they weren't put off by the screaming titles?

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                  ecogrannyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Not all caps, Lisa, just first letter of every word, or nearly so.

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                     lisavollrathposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, the correct style for HubPages is to cap the first letter of most words. Someone was bragging about not using the correct style, so I checked, and found ALL CAP TITLES, which kind of look to me like poor Granny can't figure out how to turn her caps lock off. Most Internet style guides refer to this as screaming, because that's what it looks like the writer is doing.

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                        ecogrannyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        Yes, screaming in all caps drives me crazy too. Another granny here, eh? I'll have to find her, screaming caps and all.

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                           Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                           She's wrong and is misleading you.  Half of the title is in all CAPS.  Studies in SEO have found this style increases click-through-rates on search engine results pages.  It's not about what is right or wrong for print work or journalists or Internet style guides; it's about standing out on the SERPs. The studies were from UX testing.
                           
                           And no, I don't think she should experiment with this methodology because she is happy with her number of visits/page views.

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2. 84

   ecogrannyposted 9 years ago

   Lisa, thank you for this link. It is most helpful. I do wish their title and subtitle style was more up-to-date, but I wouldn't try to tell the NY Times how to do its titles, and i won't try to tell HubPages either. I am grateful they have style guidelines and seek consistency across the site. Big Plus for HubPages!

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   1. 93

      lisavollrathposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      One of the reasons I posted this is titles. After hopping so many hubs, and seeing so many titles incorrectly formatted, I thought I'd save us all a bunch of trouble.

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   kerbevposted 9 years ago

   Great tips.  I love continuity.

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