2016 Hubbie Awards

1. 88

   bravewarriorposted 7 years ago

   Does anyone else think this year's awards categories are unfair?
   
   HP's niche sites are relatively new. As such, only a few hubs per author have been moved. Additionally, we're only allowed to request an article be moved to a niche site every 60 days. There are literally thousands of quality hubs still sitting in the HP domain that do not qualify for the vote, since we've been asked to vote for the best hub in each niche site.
   
   Shoot, most of the site names give no clue as to what awaits the reader inside! (But that's another issue.)
   
   I think HP should have waited until our hubs have been scanned and deemed worthy of a move before restricting our votes to these new sites. Until then, this year's Hubbie Awards should have been carried on as before.
   
   What do you think?

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   1. 79

      kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      bravewarrior,
      Now I am wishing that I had made a copy/paste of the niche sites along with hubbers' names so I could vote intelligently.

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      1. 88

         bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Kenneth, the niche sites don't show the hubber's names individually, You'll notice that you have to sign in when you read a hubber's hub that's posted in a niche site. That gives you a clue.
         
         I'm spending this weekend going into each niche site (as listed in the email we received or on the blog) to find something to vote for. We currently have 25 niche sites. It would have been prudent of HP to tell us what types of articles fall under each.
         
         Nevertheless, limiting to voting to articles that are within the niche sites is extremely discriminatory.  HP has admitted they don't have the manpower to look at each hub in a timely manner. So, why are they asking us to vote on sites that leave many of us in the lurch?
         
         For example, I've posted 150 hubs since 2011, four of which have been moved to niche sites. That leaves 146 articles that don't qualify for a vote. And I'm only one author. Think about how many other authors' articles don't qualify for a vote under this year's parameters.
         
         That spells u-n-f-a-i-r to me.

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         1. 79

            kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            bravewarrior, I am prone to agree with you.

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         2. 88

            MizBejabbersposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I find signing in to a niche site to read a hub that looks interesting is time-consuming and if I'm on my iPhone, it doesn't always "take". Sometimes it's just not worth the trouble.

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            1. 88

               bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               MizB I don't always get the sign in when I'm prompted to do so. I find that if I click out, then go back in via the link sent to my email, I'm signed in.

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   2. 71

      manatita44posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, Shauna. I don't understand it at all. I put one or two Hubs on the niche sites, but they gave me a few options and apart from Letter Pile, I did not know any of the others. Again, I believe that Letter Pile is for poetry, but not even sure.

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      1. 93

         jansharesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I found LetterPile confusing, too. I couldn't figure out which niche was for poetry. Are there two? Or maybe more than one subcategory on different niche site? Anyway, it's water under the bridge now.

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         1. 88

            bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Jan, read my response to Manatita's comment. I think HP should inform us as to what each site contains and what qualifies. Too many site names are ambiguous, to say the least and vague at most.

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         2. 77

            LuisEGonzalezposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Another thing that should have been done before the hubbie awards is to move more hubs to the niche sites. As BAD a name as FeltMagnet is plus the fact that no one in their right mind would think of looking for photography there, at least it is recognized by Flipboard and nothing on HP is.

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            1. 88

               bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I agree that more hubs should have been moved before limiting to voting to the niche sites, Luis. I also wish HP would give us an explanation as to what types of content can be found within each one.

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      2. 88

         bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Manatita, I see all kinds of hubs in Letterpile, from poetry to short stories and more. I've not yet gone into the site to see what the sub-categories are. I just know much of Billybuc's latest work is under Letterpile. It seems to me it's a dump-pile category that HP has created until they can find finer niches for the creative writing that many of our fellow hubbers prefer. My guess is anything that's not informative gets dumped in Letterpile (thus the name). What exactly are the perimeters for that site, anyway?
         
         I would love for HP to explain what each niche site entails. For instance, today I went into Bellatory. What the hell is that????? It actually has to do with fashion and beauty. The site name in no way tells me what I might find inside. Tell me, who is going to Google "Bellatory" when looking for fashion and beauty advice? I hope HP has a butt-load of keywords embedded in the back door of each niche site, otherwise, they'll never be found. I don't understand their logic.

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         1. 71

            manatita44posted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Ha ha, my Sweet. Today you seem to be on a great roll. Its messy all right. I do not worry much, as I have all my Hubs saved on Microsoft and when the time comes it may be more useful for me to write a good book. Just too busy, I suppose. Soon... soon.
            
            Have an ice-cream or a piece of chocolate. Laugh!
            
            While in NY last week, I saw a short video of an American priest who begins his summons with jokes. He is totally awesome! Never mind these people. Your inner worth is infinitely greater. In Love and Light.

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            1. 88

               bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               That's sweet of you to say, Manatita. My feelings on this matter aren't just for myself, but for all of us. This year's voting is very restrictive. Writers don't like restriction.

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         2. 88

            Jan Saintsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            The site name doesn't matter so much. Give your hubs the right keywords and readers will find them! Some sites like rottentomatoes rank well with their "unfamiliar" names.
            
            But they need to move more hubs so that the sites appear more strong/reputable/trustworthy/dominant to the eyes of search engines.
            
            A site like healdove will need tens of thousands of hubs to compete with established sites like healthline, nhs, webmed and mayoclinic. The same thing applies to wanderwisdom which is facing big competition from tripadvisor, nationalgeographic and planetware, among other dominant travel sites.

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            1. 88

               bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Well said, Jan. While your comment makes sense, it doesn't change the fact that we should not be limited to voting only within those sites. At this stage of the game, there are more articles on the HP domain than in the newly organized niche sites.

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   3. 84

      Faith Reaperposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Sha,
      
      Yes, that would have been wise being the "niche" sites are all pretty much new to everyone and only a fraction of hubs have been moved to any.  It is what it is.
      
      I wish they had at least kept Best Fiction Writer or Best Flash Fiction Writer too, Best Poet, etc., but all of those have been moved to LetterPile as you have stated.  However, I recall last year, so many complaining about the categories then, so I guess HP may have thought no one would miss those old categories.  I think they weren't even going to have the Hubbie Awards this year until forums started popping up about the awards.  It's still nice the choices are being made by fellow hubbers.
      
      At least Best All Around Hub can be chosen from HubPages. 
      
      I decided to not go through all the niches site but to click on those I follow profile page and scroll down and when I see a niche site, I will make note, well, I will know right away how good it was as I had actually read it.  So, I think that works best for me to vote for those hubs I've actually read in the past by those I follow.  I follow such a great bunch of writers and so I want to try to spread the love around as best I am able.  I know I am blessed with amazing followers and readers, much to my delight.

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      1. 88

         bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I guess I should have done that as well, Faith. However, I had no idea the rules of the vote would change so drastically this year, so it never dawned on me to make note of where my favorite hubs now live. Truthfully, many of them are still on HP.
         
         I would have liked to see HP keep "best" categories as well. It's really hard to come up with a single article when voting. It's much easier to target and support a writer, as we've done in the past.

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2. 93

   MsDoraposted 7 years ago

   Shauna, I agree with you.  For the reasons you point out, the votes will not be fair.  Perhaps the HP staff is tired and looking for a shortcut.  Hopefully, there will be more appropriate voting categories in the future.

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   1. 88

      bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Dora, I think they should have saved this year's categories for a couple of years down the road. They've admitted they don't have the manpower to go thru all our hubs, which is why they're now asking us to submit our hubs to categories. They should have just kept it simple for now. Voting was hard enough before they introduced categories that don't depict the content and are hugely discriminatory at this early stage in the niche sites' life.

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3. 87

   Sunshine625posted 7 years ago

   Unfair, but still HP's decision, one I don't agree with. I voted for the top 3 categories and submitted my responses. I have no idea what the other niche sites are.

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   1. 88

      bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Good for you, Linda. I've had a few of my hubs moved to niche sites. Some by choice of HP and one by my request. That said, most of our hubs remain on the HP domain. We should have the option of including articles that are still there in our votes. Frankly, I think they should get rid of Best All-Around Hub. Given our varied interests, how can any one hub fit that criteria?

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4. 93

   jansharesposted 7 years ago

   Your assessment of this year's Hubbie Awards is on point, bravewarrior. I do agree with you. I commented on another forum how difficult it was to go through the niche sites and choose. As I went through, I thought about how there are so many worthy hubs from which we can't pick. Honestly, I saw a couple that weren't as "quality" as those that didn't make the niche cut, IMO. I'm sure HP Staff had their reasons for doing it this way (traffic?) but the sense of community is taken out by essentially preventing the larger amount of hubs from being in contention where most hubbers know each other as well as each other's work. Ho hum. I still voted anyway.

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   1. 88

      bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with you, Jan. I'm going thru the niche sites and many of the articles I read had typos and bad grammar. It's my understanding that high traffic hubs get moved first, but are subject to professional editing. It's apparent to me that HP's editors could use a class or two in the role for which they've been hired.
      
      This is supposed to be a community of writers. Limiting this year's Hubbie Awards to sites that are not complete is a slap in the face to us who have been here for years and have a following. Many of the articles I've seen featured on the front page of the 13 niche sites I've gone into have very few comments. Some have none.

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   2. 79

      kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      @ Jan and bravewarrior: You two and your families and friends have a Safe and Happy Labor Day.

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      1. 88

         bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         You too, Kenneth.

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5. 93

   jansharesposted 7 years ago

   Hugs to you, my friend. Chocolate sounds good. I've already let go. Carry on niche sites and hubbie award chat; we know there will be something else tomorrow, right?

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   1. 88

      bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      It is what it is, Jan. But I've had this thought in my head ever since I read the categories. Just speaking my piece.

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6. 91

   Jodahposted 7 years ago

   I agree with you, Shauna and most of the replies here. I voted for the first three and I think the best of three of the niche sites. Many I have no real interest in and don't know most of the hubbers who have articles there, I have had three hubs moved out of 254, to three different niche sites. I have seen some people with about a dozen articles on one niche site. The poetry section of Letterpile seems devoted mainly to reviews or commentaries on the poetry of old Famous Poets, not actually a lot of poetry written by hubbers. There are only a few of those.
   I agree that I don't think HP was intending to have Hubbies this year but forum pressure encouraged them to. It should have stayed in the same format it has been and maybe change from next year when the niche's were more entrenched. I only voted for hubs of  hubbers I already follow.

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   1. 88

      bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      John, I agree. HP should have continued with the same format until the niche sites have more content in them. I probably won't vote until Monday, as I'm still doing my homework. I really don't want to restrict myself to hubbers I follow. I'm sure there are many more great writers out there that I just haven't read because I don't hop. I love my followers and those whom I follow and support them on a daily basis. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to widen my horizons and see what other brilliant minds have to share.

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      1. 84

         Faith Reaperposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, Sha, that's what I've been doing, discovering new writers here of late, as for awhile, well, years, I've not looked for new ones to read. I've found some really interesting writers to follow.
         
         Maybe after the awards, I will search through the various niche sites to find new hubbers I would enjoy reading. Right now, I do not have the time to thoughtfully comb through all hubs on all niche sites. I know there are probably hundreds of amazing and interesting hubbers out there to discover.

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         1. 88

            bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I'm basically just looking at titles on each home page. If something interests me, I'll read it, but I'm not going past the first page. There are a few sites that don't interest me in the least. I'll skip those when I vote.

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            1. 94

               Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I tried doing it, but there are so many sub-categories in each niche. I ended up only filling in a few. There were a handful of hubs I recall reading in the last few months that were good. I looked for those and when I could find them on a niche, voted for them. But to do what HP wanted, we needed months to sift through all that material.

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               1. 88

                  bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  I agree, Jean. There are sixteen categories I completely bypassed and didn't vote. I'm sure the same will be true for most of us. It'll be interesting to see the results this year.

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7. 69

   Shyron E Shenkoposted 7 years ago

   Absolutely unfair instead of having us pick the best over all HUB they want us to pick one from each niche site I do not go to niche sites that hold no interest for me.

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   1. 84

      Faith Reaperposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Shyron, I think in the top three categories one is for best overall hub.  Then the rest are under the niche sites, so at least one hub can be chosen from HubPages, I believe.

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   2. 88

      bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Shyron, they should have left the voting as it's been in the past until all hubs that are going to be moved have been moved. The niche sites are far too young to be the sole source of our votes. I think it's a good idea to include them, but I would have preferred to vote for best poet, funniest hubber, best fiction writer, etc.

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8. 73

   Barbara Kayposted 7 years ago

   This may be unfair, but it will be a breath of fresh air to see some new names. The same writers received the awards year after year. I'm not a newbie, but I'd like to see some of the newer writers win some awards.

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   1. 84

      Faith Reaperposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, that would be nice to see some newbies win in a lot of categories.

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   2. 95

      sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, it would be nice to see some newbies represented.

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   3. 88

      bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Same here, Barbara. It seems most of the votes in the past were very clique-ish. However, we shouldn't be restricted to the new sites. There are still so many hubs on the HP domain; the new voting parameters disqualify the majority of what's been posted.

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