Red Skull but still published a day after editing -- is it safe?

1. 76

   mythphileposted 9 years ago

   I've got the "Overly Promotional" red skull of doom on my top trafficked hub.
   
   Naturally it was the first one I edited. The affiliate links and "overly promotional" warnings at the top of the hub went away in the workshop. I republished it last night, and it's still published today.
   
   My question is this. If a hub is still published the day after one has edited it and flipped off the grace period, will it stay published, even if it has the dreaded red skull? Or is it going to become unpublished at some point?
   
   The problem is that on Squidoo we were much more encouraged to link out and provide further info for readers. So I have TON of outbound links. The only domain I'm linking to repeatedly on that page is Google Maps. Could that be what's tripping the "overly promotional" flag, or is it because I linked to the official pages of various theme parks and landmarks I mentioned in the article?
   
   ... this is Greegeek being too lazy to switch accounts to ask questions, by the way. Yep, my lenses on two of three accounts have ported over. I will trim out my outbound links if I must, but after doing all that research to track down info related to my topics, it is a chore. (Also, as far as I can tell, Google likes it that I link to relevant material my readers might find interesting. My pages with the most clickouts also tend to draw the best Google traffic.)

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   1. 90

      Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      This is simply guessing on my part, but I doubt that the Google maps is causing the issue.  It probably means you have more than two links to one (or more) of the theme parks or attractions. If you have any affiliate links (Zazzle comes to mind), you also have to limit those to two.

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   2. STAFF

      pauldeedsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If the warning says something like "This Hub is at risk of being identified as Overly Promotional because it has 3 or more links to a single domain.", then there is almost a 100% chance that it will be moderated eventually.   Structural violations like link limits and product ratio limits are handled automatically.   It's just a matter of time before the bot gets to it.   You can click on the warning and see the actual links that you need to change.
      
      If you are talking about this Hub, there are 3 links to Zazzle.  You need to eliminate at least 1 of them.  But they also don't make much sense since we don't support the linked images that were in the original lens.  You might also want to look into using the code capsule for the HTML snippets.
      
      http://mythphile.hubpages.com/hub/how-t … de-by-side

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      1. 76

         mythphileposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         No, sorry, I haven't gotten to that hub yet, and I may be deleting it. It's hard to write code tutorials on a site that doesn't use code.
         
         I'm talking about my Google Maps hub.  There is no warning of any kind in the workshop when I edit it — there was before I edited it, but it's gone now. The red skull is still showing on my main dashboard, however.
         
         Is there some way to find a list of which links on the hub are tripping the filter?

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         1. 68

            Paula Atwellposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Ellen, it seems that there is a lag time from hub to dashboard. Several people have reported it elsewhere. You might want to wait and check after 24 hours.

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         2. 32

            Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Just go to your Account page and refresh the violation check:
            
            

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            1. 76

               mythphileposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Aaaaaah, thank you, I'd forgotten that was there.
               
               (And I caved in and updated the HTML/CSS page, as I had forgotten how many hits that thing gets. I'm a traffic slut, guilty as charged.)
               
               ETA: Woot! Two red skulls erased. About 100 to go (or I expect there will be; I've got about 50 with this account). This is embarrassing.

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               1. 61

                  PaulOnBooksposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  "traffic trollop" surely

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         3. 55

            calendarsblogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            If the hub itself isn't giving specifics on links that are a problem, you're in the clear. The dashboard has a lag. That you can indeed get rid of by clicking the 'check for violations' link. and when it says it's done, refresh the dashboard itself.

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         4. 86

            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            There is a code capsule especially for you to put code in.

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            1. 0

               bobtyndallposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               What sort of code can you put inside the code module?

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               1. 86

                  Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  It's for use if you are writing a Hub about coding, so you can paste code snippets in there and they will show correctly.

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   3. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      No need to trim out your outbound links.   You can have a trillion outbound links if you want, provided you observe the limit of two to the same domain. 
      
      I'd have thought Google Maps would be on the whitelist but maybe not?   Also, are you aware that the red skull doesn't go away instantly, you have to click the "check for violations" button again after you've edited, to run the process again?

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      1. 76

         mythphileposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I'd forgotten about the "check for violations" button, thanks, Marisa, WF.
         
         That did the trick.
         
         2 down, 46 red skulls to go.

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   4. 79

      Charlino99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I am running into the same thing with Hollywood Dolls.  For the past few days, I've done everything to eliminate the dreaded red skull.  I have double arrows for traffic going up, but the red skull is there, too.  I've literally stripped every affiliate code out of the lens - including my going through over 300 comments to deny or delete what spam was placed there over the years.  If the red skull does not go away, what happens next?

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      1. 32

         Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Then, your Hub is lined up for the firing squad.
         
         Go here:
         http://hubpages.com/help-wizard/
         
         Check this:
         My Hub was unpublished / There is an alert on my Hub
         
         Then, proceed to fill out the form and someone from HP will answer if you go through the wizard until the end where you can send an email.

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      2. 68

         Paula Atwellposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Remember to refresh and that there is a lag time. If you can't figure it out, you can contact the HPteam for more information.

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      3. 79

         Charlino99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for responding.  Finally the dreaded skull is gone.  Will go forward from here.

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   5. 73

      Swisstoonsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I had a similar problem with one page.  I could see I had a clean bill of health from the workshop after editing...but the red skull remained in the Account section after publication.  I checked and rechecked and checked again each capsule and found no more than two links back to any domain.  I also check the HTML to make sure there were no leftovers in there.  But the red skull remained even after I clicked the Check For Violations Now button. 
      
      I finally had a hunch.  I noticed that a single text link in my opening paragraph contained FOUR words...which put it on two different lines (3 words on one line and 1 word on the next).  I thought that maybe each segment of this single link was being counted as a separate link...which would bring my links to a single domain to three (even though in actuality, there were only two links).  So, I pared one word from this four-word text link...which enabled the entire link  to be carried on one line.  Then I hit the Publish button.  Voila!  No more red skull!
      
      This would seem to me to be a bit of a HubPages glitch.

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      1. 73

         Swisstoonsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Just discovered something else.  If you delete a link in attempting to bring the number of links to a particular domain down under three, but leave even a tiny bit of code behind...like one single  < symbol...that tiny bit will be considered by the HP bot to be an entire link...and consequently, a red skull issue.

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         1. STAFF

            pauldeedsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            We'll look into into those issues, but you should be aware that the red skulls do not update immediately after an edit.  If you want to refresh them click the "Check For Violations Now" button all the way at the bottom of your my account page.  After that you may have to wait a few minutes for them all to be refreshed.  I suspect those apparent bugs may just be a result of the skulls not having been updated yet.

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            1. 73

               Swisstoonsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for responding.  No, I did use Check Now button and that didn't do it.  But when I removed one word from the 4-word link,the red skull disappeared immediately from the one hub.  And when I removed the scrap (<) from the other, the red skull disappeared from that one immediately, as well.

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2. 76

   mythphileposted 9 years ago

   AHAHAHA
   
   Hubpages filters, I LOVE YOU.
   
   Ancient Egyptian pyramid ...
   
   ...flagged as a possible MLM scam.
   
   *twirls mustache and adjusts eyepatch*
   
   
   
   (It says, "This is an automated warning; if you've received this warning in error, please disregard it. Keep writing great Hubs!")

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3. 75

   Shorebirdieposted 9 years ago

   If you fixed the problem, then it has to be a lag in the reporting.  I was just working on my red-skulled hubs and it took a long time before the skull went away.

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4. 82

   Shades-of-truthposted 9 years ago

   My Lenses just became Hubs yesterday morning, but I couldn't take time to even look at them, until this morning.
   
   Dread! There were 2 red skulls! I clicked on the red skull on the bottom of the page on my account to find out why, and then did what I thought was proper, to remedy the problem.
   
   After I saved the changes, and checked for violations again, both of the red skulls disappeared. I was SO relieved.
   
   I know there are many other things that those of us who came from Squidoo are going to have to deal with, but the rapid vanishing of those dreaded red skulls was delightful.
   
   Now...if I could just figure out some other things...hmm....

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5. 0

   bobtyndallposted 9 years ago

   I have the same issue with the red devil. I think the problem is that it is taking a while for admin to update the hubs. If it shows as fine after editing I can't see it being an issue.

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6. 77

   Greekgeekposted 9 years ago

   Marissa, in my code tutorials, I would demonstrate what I'm giving the code for. For example, if I'm talking about how to make a gallery of side-by-side images with captions, I'd show it, then put the HTML/CSS template under it. Obviously, that won't work on Hubpages, which doesn't let us use <IMG> or CSS.
   
   I can do a screencap for the example, but it's not quite as satisfactory, since it doesn't behave quite like real webpages do, and Hubpages' photo uploader tends to blur text a bit thanks to jpg compression.
   
   Also, Hubpages' way of displaying code is a little hard to read. It's one of those scrolling boxes that you have to drag sideways, and you can't see all the code at once. Whereas I used the old-fashioned method of green/serif/bold for code and black/sans-serif/unbold for visible content. It makes it a little easier to parse what's what.
   
   My code tutorials were pretty badly mangled during the transfer and will need to be reconstructed from scratch. can rebuild them, and I've done so for a few of the more popular ones. But all these problems mean it may be too much work for too little ROI to recreate them. They were written before Wordpress and other WYSIWYG webpage-tools were quite so common, so there's a little less demand for HTML/CSS tutorials now anyway.

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