Non-commercial hub with commercial warning!

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   DzyMsLizzyposted 12 years ago

   YES, THIS CONTAINS A LINK FOR YOUR REFERENCE--PLEASE DO NOT DELETE LINK--OR YOU WON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKIING ABOUT.
   
     I was tweaking some of my hubs, and discovered this one:
   
   http://dzymslizzy.hubpages.com/hub/I-Be … y-Your-Ads ,
   
   has received a "warning--appears to be commercial" notation.
   
     It is NOT.  It is a societal-commentary POEM!   The first "warning" I got was "too short to contain outbound links."  (And that was new--it had never been there before)--  and the links were the result of the "suggest links" tool!
   
     Soo.....  I added a public domain photo, and removed all the links, and then I got the "appears to be commercial" warning...that was after adding the photo.  The only "link" now is the credit line stating that the photo is in the public domain, and cites the site at which it was found, for verification.
   
     Seriously?  We need to credit a photo, or explain why no credit is needed, but that selfsame link tags the hub as commercial?? Please!  That's unfair!  Please change this.  A link to a photo credit, particularly when it clearly shows as being in the public domain, is not a commercial link, and should not be counted as such. 
   
   A true commercial link would point to a sales site of some sort, whether for material goods, or to a service site, such as a professional photographer or computer repair, for example.
   
     How do you suggest I remedy this issue?  Can HP fix this rather egregious error, and remove the un-warranted warning?
   
     It is a poem; it is complete.  The only way I can "lengthen" it would be to add a capsule of nonsense fluff, and that does not count as the 'high quality' HP seems to be after. 
   
   Thank you.

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      Greekgeekposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I had the same problem. That's actually why I deleted all my old hubs, which had over 10,000 visitors, and left Hubpages for some time. I was discouraged that my photo credits were getting my hubs unpublished as "too commercial."  When I came back, I had to plead to get the "Spammer" filter taken off of my account.
      
      I use fewer images now -- and only Wikimedia Commons and stock photos -- so that I only need to credit one photo per page. That works, usually.
      
      On my old hubs, even one photo credit per page was "too commercial," because I was linking to the same site on several hubs. I hope that doesn't start happening with Wikimedia Commons images, which are public domain or creative commons. But so far, links to Wikimedia Commons don't seem to trip that filter, so I've been relying on those.
      
      So perhaps it's okay if we link to a site that Hubpages recognizes as non-commercial, but the filter trips if we link to sites it doesn't recognize?
      
      I don't know. It's taken me a while to figure out how to use Hubpages because of this problem, and I'm still very skittish of using images, lest I get tarred as a spammer due to the photo credits!

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         QuestionMasterposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         From: http://hubpages.com/faq/#overly_promotional
         
         "Please note that promotional links are links that you have any interest in promoting (your blog, your Website, affiliate offers, etc.). Links to well-known Web resources which you don't have any personal interest in (like Wikipedia, news sites, encyclopedias, open directories, etc.) are exempt from this limitation."
         
         So if you stick with wikimedia, I think you'll be fine.

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      2. 86

         DzyMsLizzyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         @ Greekgeek--99% of the time, I use photos I've taken myself for the specific article, so that eliminates the issue of photo credits, as I don't have those on a website.  Every so often, however, I do need a photo and I seek exclusively public domain images.  I was hoping that HP could incorporate those 2 vital words into its filters on photo sources, with an 'ignore' command.  That would solve everyone's troubles with that issue.
         See, as I already know..just because only one person brings something up, doesn't mean they are the only one with whatever issue..it only means they are the first, and there are  many others with the same problem, so when one person raises a question it warrants being extrapolated by a significant factor. 
         
         @ QuestionMaster--right...I don't promote my blogs...if anything, my (sadly neglected) blogs will point here!  As for the rest--see my reply to Greekgeek, immediately above. 
         
         Thank you both for your time and replies.

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   I imagine the brand names plus words like advertise and buy tripped something.  I would suggest just emailing hubstaff to get it removed,

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   1. 86

      DzyMsLizzyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      OK--thank you, psycheskinner.. I'll do that.  Just thought I'd begin in the "need help?" forum area. 

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3. 77

   sofsposted 12 years ago

   I just read your poem.. the filters must be going on red alert with all the words you've used.. it is not going to read the message and understand it, but trip you up for all the commercial words .. Ads and brand names and price and buy... as Psycheskinner said.

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   1. 86

      DzyMsLizzyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Right...I never thought about that at all, because that poem was written MANY years ago, before I even had an internet connection, or at least, not what the internet has become.  It was certainly written long before Hub Pages itself was even conceived of. (oops..a dangling whatever.  LOL)
      I have, indeed, sent an e-mail to HP support to get this erroneous flag removed.  Once a human reads it, as you can see, if anything, it is anti-commercial! 

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