The Hub rating system

1. 59

   Harvey Stelmanposted 14 years ago

   This is something I swear I will never understand, I guess I'm not supposed to.

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   1. 60

      Falsor Wingposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Baaaad joojoo you best not be meddlin in tings men ain't meant to understand, you hear me?

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   2. 72

      Jeff Berndtposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I'm a bit curious about it myself.
      
      I get that duplicate content = bad.
      
      I get that "quality writing" = good.
      
      I get that there are rating buttons. (Corollary: if someone takes a dislike to you, they can downrate all your hubs, and probably create multiple accounts to re-downrate them, get their friends to downrate them, &c. They could also uprate them in the same way if they take a liking to you.)
      
      It seems to me that the more extra stuff you slap on to your hub, the "better" it becomes. More JPGs, more .wav files, more more more. I don't get this, myself, but hey. We grew up watching Sesame Street and have short attention spans. Maybe lots of dancing baloney drives traffic?
      
      But I have noticed that the top-rated hubbers all have a lot of hubs, and they're very well-written (in spite of the sometimes gratuitous inclusion of other media). My advice: write more, and write well. You'll reap the rewards.
      
      Also, tell your friends about your hubs. It's okay to self-market. Don't be shy. Tell the world about the awesome new article you wrote and published. If it's good, they'll tell their friends. And so on, and so on...

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      1. 59

         Harvey Stelmanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Jeff,
         
         Have you ever lookded at your profile, clicked to a Forum, clicked back to your profile and find your score went down 3 points?
         
         I've seen this many times, though it's usually one point.

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         1. 72

            Jeff Berndtposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah, I've seen my score inexplicably fluctuate. I dunno why it does, I just take it as read that it will.

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      2. 61

         Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Jeff, I'm wondering what you mean by "gratuitous inclusion of other media"? 
         
         Separate from that, I have to say that it looks to me material that is carefully written and not necessarily aimed at a short attention span often seems to be rated well.  I think if a lot of people are like me, they don't care so much what a Hub is about, and may vote up if they see that (even they're not interested in it) the Hubber aimed to put together a decent-quality piece of writing.
         
         I'm "big" for media, though - which is I why I wouldn't mind expanding on that part of your discussion. 

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      3. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Jeff, I can reassure you on that point.  It came up recently and Paul Deeds explained that one thumbs up/down on a Hub doesn't make much difference at all, so even if someone has it in for you, they can't do much damage.
         
         
         
         That makes sense to me.  HubPages isn't just about writing, it's about creating an attractive, informative magazine-style article.  Magazines always have illustrations and a nicely designed layout!
         
         Youtube videos are always good, because they keep visitors on your page longer, and you get a free backlink at Youtube. RSS feeds, News feeds and references (all hidden at the bottom of your Hub, below the comments) make you more popular with Google.
         
         As for the rest - I've never added a wav, poll, quiz or any of that stuff, and my score ain't doing too bad!

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2. 59

   Pandoras Boxposted 14 years ago

   Jeff, regarding up and down ratings- in response to some of the recent forum drama, a HP staffer commented that the down ratings have very little effect on hub scores.
   
   Not sure if that is good or not, but it would make it very difficult for someone to play games of the type you mention.

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   1. 72

      Jeff Berndtposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Oh, that's reassuring. I'm glad that someone can't wreck your score out of spite.

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      1. 59

         Harvey Stelmanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Jeff,
         
         Nice reply.

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3. 63

   marcel285posted 14 years ago

   I think the system is good and makes perfect sense.

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   1. 59

      Harvey Stelmanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      marcel,
      
      I remember Marcel from (FRIENDS"; you are not Marcel! OOPS, you use a small m.

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      1. 63

         marcel285posted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Hhaha yeah i've been hassled about that before!!

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4. 81

   earnestshubposted 14 years ago

   The amount of juice you get from google seems to have an effect on my hubscore. When the bigger markets are all tucked up in bed, my score often drops overnight, only to refurbish itself in the morning!

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5. 59

   Harvey Stelmanposted 14 years ago

   Yesterday I wrote another Hub, received a bunch of comments and played on the Forums for some time. For all this activity my score was lowered two points.

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   1. 73

      relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know where you got this deluded idea that commenting and making posts makes your score go down.  If that were the case, how come the most vocal and frequent posters don't have single digit scores?
      
      Given how much you seem to be upset with how this site works, Harvey, why do you stay here when there are so many other writing/publishing sites out there?

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      1. 59

         Harvey Stelmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         rel,
         
         I never said that! I said this is what has been happening to me, it hasn't happened before.
         
         I wrote two more Hubs and my score went up one point. The older of the two has received a good amount of hits.

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6. 59

   Harvey Stelmanposted 14 years ago

   Well it's been a few short hours since I last posted the above. I just answered a few comments and my score was lowered another point. I guess someone thinks a zero would look good next to my name.
   
   I've written Hub twice and still no answer.

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7. 75

   barryrutherfordposted 14 years ago

   Well one thing is for sure your not Robinson Crusoe. My hub score went down from 92 93 to 87 overnight !

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   1. 59

      Harvey Stelmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      barry,
      
      Wrote another Hub, received a bunch of comments and played the Forums. Score went down another point. That's from 91 to 80.

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8. 60

   spudsposted 13 years ago

   The hub ranking system is about as mysterious as the Google search ranking system. Just when you think you have it worked out you realise you do not.

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   1. 59

      Harvey Stelmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      spuds,
      
      I am totally perplexed. I'm waiting for my zero.

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9. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 13 years ago

   The silver lining is that your earnings depend on the search engine ranking system, whereas they don't depend on the hub rating system.

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   1. 59

      Harvey Stelmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Marissa,
      
      With a full of bull TOS months ago, I haven't dropped like this before.  The searches keep coming.

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         So why is it worrying you?

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         1. 59

            Harvey Stelmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Marisa,
            
            Not worried, very curious. Wouldn't you be?

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10. 56

    bhaskar_cposted 13 years ago

    Thats right.... good writing gives more rating

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    1. 59

       Harvey Stelmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       bha,
       
       My writing may not be perfect, but I have been published in a magazine.

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11. 60

    Dao Hoaposted 13 years ago

    I am also curious about the spiral downward!

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    1. 59

       Harvey Stelmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Dao,
       
       I went from 91 to 79 in a slow daily mannor.

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12. 61

    CASE1WORKERposted 13 years ago

    my numbers are going up 91 this morning on 7 hubs but the seo arnt picking up so i think it is academic...... but it gave me some satisfaction

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    1. 59

       Harvey Stelmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Case,
       
       
       Good for you!

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